Day 27: 4th Post-Op Appointment - BANDS OFF!

Day 27 of Double Jaw Surgery

I changed my 4th Post-Op appointment earlier to the day before Thanksgiving, instead of the day after Thanksgiving because I did not want to get caught up in the traffic and mess that is called Black Friday. The purpose of this visit was to hopefully get all the rubber bands off that held my jaw shut.

Waiting patiently to see what the verdict is.

With Bands / Without Bands / The amount I'm able to open

Bands That Make Me Dance.. Finally!
Dr. Baker examined me and then went ahead and removed all the bands! Yayyyy! He told me to open my jaw.. and I pretty much couldn't. I asked what type of jaw exercises or timeline expectation I should have to regain better mobility, but he didn't really give me any specific instructions besides just practicing to open and close my jaw. I read on other blogs of folks going through the same that they were told that they should be able to fit a stack of 3 fingers with the jaw fully open. So I'll use that to gauge my progress, one finger at a time.

Opening Struggle
As you can see in the above photo, the last photo depicts how much I can open my jaw without bands right after the appointment. It felt really tight, but no pain. In fact, I still talked as if my jaws were still shut because I was so used to it for 4 weeks! I can talk much clearer but def have a lisp because I have to learn how to talk again with my new jaw positions and where the tounge now hits to pronounce words. At least I can open my jaw enough now to have much thicker soups and smoothies. I'll practice opening and closing by singing, reading aloud/talking more, and just simply opening and closing. It's tough because I have to break up the scar tissue I think and my jaw has been immobile for 4 weeks.

Things that feel awkward:
- Sticking my tounge out (especially when I want to lick some soup off my lips)
- Rubbing my lips together (when I apply chapstick and want to spread it)
- Yawning (just slightly opening my jaw)

Pay It Forward
After that, I headed downtown and because it was right around the corner from the hospital to go furniture window shopping and get more interior decor inspiration. As I'm looking for a parking spot, I saw a guy enter his car parked on the street to leave. I'm waiting patiently with my blinker on and all of a sudden he jumps back out of the car and walks towards me. I roll down my window and he gives me his parking pass he paid for and says he only used 5 minutes of it. I thanked him! and looked at the pass and I still had 55 minutes left! I have to pay it forward this week! How nice of him!