Thursday, January 26, 2012

Day 29

Just saw my surgeon for my 4 week checkup and everything looks good. My range of motion is now 40 mm and he said that's right on track and maybe a little better than most (he was probably just being nice, but I'll take it!). I'm finally allowed to blow my nose (gently) and drink through a straw. I tried drinking through a straw on the way home and it was.....awkward. My upper lip doesn't move enough yet to get around the straw when it's between my teeth, so I have to either suck liquid onto my front teeth (gross) or put the straw in through the corner of my mouth (weird). Guess I have  bit more healing to do before drinking through a straw is do-able.

The BEST news, however, is that he made an appointment to remove my splint in 2 weeks. Yippee! I still hear some clicking in my upper right jaw, much less than before but it's still clicking. I was worried that this might impact the splint removal date, but my surgeon said it's normal and nothing to worry about. Whew! After the splint is removed I will go straight from his office to my orthodontist to have a new continuous wire made for my upper teeth.

I asked about using muscle relaxers for my jaw tension and headaches, and he suggested taking Aleve every 12 hours instead. Grr.I'll try it but I must confess that I don't think it will work. Ibuprofen is my holy grail for pain relief and it wouldn't even put a small dent in my headaches. My other concern is that NSAIDS slow down bone healing. My surgeon isn't concerned about this but I am - I've come this far and don't want to do anything that will slow down the healing process. I need to balance my paranoia with the ability to function without holding a heating pad to my head, too...

1 comment:

  1. Glad to see you are doing well! My jaw tension was caused by the splint and went away when they dissected it from my mouth. =) Having something in your mouth makes you want to chew on it. Best of luck!

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