I was feeling good today, had got on top of my pain medication routine.
I was going to shower and wash my hair but thinking ahead to this being the first day I'd be going out anywhere and knowing I'd be out for a while (my orthodontist ALWAYS runs late), I figured I'd be best not to knacker myself out before I even got through the door, so I skipped the shower (I didn't smell lol) and went for the hair wash instead.
Hair washing was easier today, I could go back to how I normally wash my hair and not feel like my jaw was going to fall off :)
Got dressed, had a yoghurt and waited for my inlaws to come and take me to my appointment.
My mother inlaw is known for her ability to talk so this was going to be a talking challenge for me, just how much would I be able to manage?
I was driven door to door, and me and my mother inlaw waited just inside the door whilst my father inlaw went to park. Once he found us, we headed to the orange seats to wait. It was funny because they sat either side of me, just to make sure that one of them would catch me if I keeled over.
We had a wait of about 45 minutes until it was my turn.
I was called in, and sat myself on the chair. I didn't see my orthodontist because she was away that day so I saw another orthodontist, who I like much better.
They (ortho and max fax) asked me how I was and I was very happy to say that I was doing really well. That so far recovery had been good. I didn't tell them that actually I had commented to my husband that it all seemed a bit too easy and I was waiting for something to go wrong.
They noticed and commented on the fact that I didn't have a lot of swelling or bruising.
I had the chance to ask who had actually done the surgery and to ask how long the surgery took. Because of me knowing when I went to theatre and knowing when I came back to High Dependency and the timing of my husband's phone calls to the ward, we had reckoned that my surgery had taken close to 3hrs.
They told me that my surgery took 1 hour 45 minutes and that there were no complications, and the nerves did not get cut.
It was here that I found out why my poor husband was being told I was still in theatre at 2pm; I had had to stay in recovery for a long time because there was no nurses to staff the High Dependency Unit to look after me! So if I went down to theatre at 9.25am, say surgery started about 10am and finished at 11.45am, I was effectively in recovery for 4 and a half hours! That might not sound too long after major surgery but to think that for my husband I was in theatre from 9am - 4pm, that's like his entire day waiting to know if I was ok.
They looked inside my mouth, something I hadn't dared to do in case there was a war zone in there, and said that everything looked good. My profile looked good too. Just everything was good.
They asked how I was getting on with the liquid diet and I was truthful and said it wasn't easy although not as hard going as I had expected it to be.
Then came the shock bit, the orthodontist told me that I could very well have my braces off in 4 months!!!!!
FOUR MONTHS!!!!!
I asked him if he was telling me the truth? Was he joking? He asked if I wanted them on for longer and I was like God no! I've had them on for 6 years and 3 months already, you're telling me I can have them off in 4 months?!??!
They measured my overjet, although didn't tell me the measurement and said they were very pleased.
The ortho decided to give me some orange elastics, running back to front, top to bottom, each side. I've had blue elastics and green elastics before so orange was a new colour, but apparently they are light elastics as compared with green or blue. No problems, I've had elastics before and they don't worry me.
At the end of the appointment the max fax surgeon said I could move from a liquid diet to foods with more substance to them as long as it was still no-chew. He suggested things like mashed potato and scrambled eggs. He said that he had never had a patient who had had problems because of eating the wrong thing. But I also remembered what the other max fax surgeon said and that was at week 5 a lot of people want to start chewing but really that was the worst time to do so.
I was really pleased to be told I could move on to a thicker diet, it also opened up the variety of foods I could consume.
My inlaws drove me home and because it was lunch time and I had been told I could have scrambled egg, I had 1 egg scrambled with plenty of milk, cheese and pepper for my lunch.
I managed to eat the equivalent of half an egg before it all became too cold and rubbery but it felt good to eat with a fork and to have some egg, some protein!
By this time, I was so tired I could have fallen asleep standing up. I was also sore because of being poked and prodded at.
So pain meds taken and I zonked it on the sofa until the kids came home from school.
Supper was mashed potato, mince and green beans. With the green beans chopped up into tiny pieces, they went down just fine.
Photos of today:
Today was the day that my son, sitting across from me at the table at breakfast said 'Mum, you are starting to look like your old self again'. No no no my dear, I'm starting to look like my NEW self! :)
Today was also the day that my mum had her operation to remove the cancerous tumour in her breast. I knew she was going to have her surgery in the afternoon so I waited until 4pm to text her partner. I couldn't phone her partner because he can't talk due to having had laryngeal cancer and his voicebox removed a few years ago. So I texted him to ask how my mum was. He texted back to say he hadn't heard anything yet and that I should phone the hospital.
Of course, I wasn't really in any fit shape to phone, I was sore after my checkup and didn't know if anyone on the other end of the phone would understand me. But it transpired that he wasn't at the hospital wioth my mum, he had had to go home because he couldn't get accommodation at the hospital. So the poor man was sitting at home, not knowing what was happening with my mum, if she was ok.
So I was brave, asked my son if he thought a stranger would understand me on the phone and phoned the hospital.
I was told that she was still in theatre and had gone down later in the day. I'd to phone back at 6pm.
I can't remember what I had for supper but I phoned the hospital back at 6pm and was told that she was back in the ward, was very sleepy but comfortable and the operation had gone well.
I texted my mum's partner to let him know and then had a few tears in relief to know that my mum was ok.
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