Surgery follow-up

I saw the doctor for the first time post-surgery and got a few questions answers.  He nudged some of the wires flatter against my teeth so they weren't poking the inside of my mouth so much (thank you!) and I got another set of wax to continue covering up any remaining pokies.  John helped me clean off all the gazillion pieces of wax a few days ago so I could clean my teeth for real (that is true love, folks).  Toothbrush, Water Pik, mouthwash - at least the outside of my teeth is clean now.

So the answer to the "wires over the tongue" question is that I managed to fracture my jaw in several places and in a rather nonstandard way (if there even is such a thing as a "normal" way to break your jaw).  Two of the fractures are on the top right jaw at 90 degrees to each other, and there was a risk that the teeth might not heal in the proper place to line up correctly.  Hence the extra stabilization.

The good news is that my tongue has trained itself to work around the wires, and now it doesn't hurt at all to swallow or talk.  No more pain meds!

I expect the wires will be in the way when I can finally use a spoon again, but I also expect I'll figure out a way to deal.  Anything to move on to the next step away from a pure liquid diet...  I'm excited about my ability to drink directly from a cup or bowl now, but I think the no-straw excitement will wear off in a couple days.

Yep, it has gotten rather monotonous.  The biggest highlight I can drum up is a ranking of "The best blended soups around Albany":
  1. Trader Joe's Cream of Portabello Mushroom
  2. Panera Garden Vegetable with Pesto
(it's a work in progress, don't want to run through all the options right off the bat)

More interesting (to me, at least) is that I've been able to get out and walk for up to an hour a day in Pine Bush.  Uphill speed is improving.  I just have to be careful not to relax my jaws too much or it jiggles my teeth a bit on the downhill - a slight amount of pressure works great and is worth it to get out in the woods for a while.  We have seen little snow flurries this week, waiting for the first layer to stick.

The requisite close-up shot with the mouth hardware - possibly the ugliest picture I have ever posted on this blog... worthy of the "Annabelle Lecter" moniker we came up with recently:

14 days until the front wires are cut off and I can open my mouth again!  Then it will be a soft food diet for several weeks, I'm looking forward to that.

Eat something crunchy for me  :)