4 Months Post Op - Not Like Your Really Interested Anymore! LOL

Hard to believe it has been 4 months since my face was reconstructed! It honestly has gone by so quickly, already it seems like a distant memory!

My teeth are feeling great, and looking quite lined up if I do say so myself. I see a slight rotation on my right second incisor, but I think it is something that the ortho will be able to correct pretty quickly. Provided things look good we are supposed to be looking at a debracing date on the 18th of October. This week, however, I have decided that I'm not going to worry about it, and that I will wear them as long as it takes til things are perfect. Even if I'm in these suckers till next year (which I'm sure won't happen.) My bite is definetly feeling like it is spot on now though so that is a plus, and I'm encouraged that we are getting near the end now.

This week has been about the same as the rest in terms of healing, however, I have had continued improvement in my chin and lower lip this week. Last week if you touched my lower lip it would send like shock waves into the the gums of my lower right quadrant. WELL...that has basically gone away, however, it has now relocated on the left hand side and now makes my lower left quadrant gums really really sensitive! I now have a lot more surface feeling back in my chin and on the surface of my lower lip. The chin has been itching a lot this week. It has been driving me crazy as while the feeling is coming back it is mostly still on the surface so scratching the itches is really not possible. It itches below the surface. I usually rub the area a bit and sometimes try and scratch it, but mostly I just tough it out til the itching goes away. My lower left lip is not as burny anymore. Like before when I touched it, it would feel like it was sortof on fire, or tingly. Even when I licked it this would happen. Now it feels pretty normal on the right side when I lick it, or touch it. The lower left area is still pretty numb. I still feel that I will get full feeling back though as my lower lip is still feeling puffy and fat, and still mostly numb. I know that doesn't make much sense, but really the puffiness and numbness feeling is like in the lower section of my lip, not the area that is exposed to air. I still feel very much like I got collagen injections or something. Honestly I don't mind too much though, it is one thing that I have really come to love from this surgery. The contour of my lips is so much nicer now. I actually have a nice little pout going on.

Feeling in my teeth is getting better too. I can now bite into sandwiches and actually feel what I'm biting with my front and lower teeth now. I was also able to use my sonic care toothbrush this week without feeling any discomfort or like things were rattling around. That tells me that things are definitely becoming much more solid, and that the areas that I saw in my last xray on my chin are also continuing to rebuild and repair.

Eating is still aggravating, but gradually improving I think. I figured out this week that the problems I have been having are due to me having to relearn how to use my new (completely changed) mouth. Before starting all of this my mouth was small and my teeth closer together. I could take a big bite of something and it would fit under both sides of my teeth and not get lost. Now with so much space in there If I take big bites it gets lost or packed into my palate area, and since my tongue is still somewhat numb, I'm unable to adequately control it, or get it out. I have found that chewing is actually much better if I take smaller bites, and I then have no problems controlling it. The trouble is that I have been eating a certain way for 40 years, and retraining oneself to take much smaller bites is not an easy task. I can pretty much eat most anything now including hard chewy stuff (as long as I keep it small.)

I have an appointment on October 4th to have the screws in my bone graft removed and the implant post placed. Again my lower gums in that area will be getting cut and then stitched up again. The whole process will probably take about 30 minutes in the office and I will be under I.V sedation like I was with my SARPE previously. Once this is done, I have to wait 5 months to have the actual implant put on the post, so by March 2008 I should be completely done with my oral drama. That will be a total of 2 years from beginning to end, which honestly is not that long considering all that we will have accomplished!

Wishing you well my blogger friends! Gab with you more next week!