It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today. My darling husband, my mom, and I went for an after dinner hike up Flattop mountain. It was a great workout and fun since I haven't hiked that trail in a couple of years. It was rough on my knee though and I had to wear my brace the whole way. I included this pic that my mom took cause you can see some of the mountains behind us and I thought it was a fairly decent pic of us.

Here is a new face pic less puffy since last week as my sinuses are starting to deflate from my sinus infection now. Thank goodness for antibiotics! Check out my teeth! I'm so happy with how they are coming along! Please, Please, Please, let those braces be ready to come off next time!

I've been getting a lot of nerve sensations in my chin this week. It gets really itchy, and at first I couldn't feel myself scratching...sorta like an itch you can't really get to. Anyway in the last few days that has changed. I now have more sensation in my chin and even though it still feels a bit thick underneath I can feel sensation on the surface now. So...I'm pretty sure that means I will eventually get full feeling back which I think is pretty exciting.
My lower lip continues to improve, not fast enough though! It is a funny deal with my lower lip. It gets soo cold at times during the day. It can be 70 degrees out and my lip will be freezing. What's even funnier is that it actually turns blue, like it does when you get really cold! I have found that chapstick works like a blanket for it. As long as I have chapstick on things are fine, but as soon as it wears off, my lip gets very dry and cold. I put it back on, and things are all good again. It is so strange....in a funny sort of way. I swear I have become like a chapstick junkie. I MUST have chapstick with me at ALL times. If I don't, its like....omg, we gotta go somewhere so I can buy some chapstick. It's in my purse, in every pocket, in my gym bag (cause I even have to put it on during my workout.) Hopefully this will get better with time as it really is a bit stressful trying to make sure I'm armed with an unending supply of the greasy stuff!

Something that also happens to my lip is that it goes like completely numb when I work out. After I'm finished, it takes like 10 minutes to sorta be able to talk normal again, as my lip is like numb, frozen, and hard to manuever. I'm sure it has to do with the blood flow being focused on my muscles instead of my lip area, but it really is weird to finish working out and have to suck on my lower lip to wake it up.

My tongues is still numb on the left front quadrant. I ate a McDonalds soft serve ice cream tonight, and it was the weirdest thing licking a cone when your tongue is partly numb. I was encouraged though, because even though I couldn't really taste the ice cream in the numb spot, I could feel (muted feeling) that it was cold. Perhaps that means that feeling and maybe taste will eventually come back in that area too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Now mind you this probably all sounds really bad, but its really not. I mean it really is amazing how our bodies adapt. Most of the time I don't really even notice to much that all of this is going on. I mean I'm just used to it. I do what I need to do and just carry on without really skipping a beat. I figure for the sake of reporting though, I need to be honest and tell y'all about it. Who knows, maybe someone else is experiencing some of these things too and it might help them.

So..I've typed a mini novel now, but that is my update for this week. Next week I will be 3 months post op! YEah! Supposedly my bones will be fully refused by then. I can't wait to see my new xrays!