Week 6 - let the torture begin

I haven't been updating much because I had a slight relapse this week. We started therapy and that caused some significant swelling. I did get about 8 hours of riding in this week so I am starting to ramp up my training.

My Dr. had warned me all along that weeks 5 and 6 would be tough as we start "opening" my bite. Perhaps I am still living in the adolescent mindset of "it won't happen to me" because I heard him, but didn't really internalize it.

This "opening" of my bite was the first time I have had the urge to uncontrollably defend myself. I have heard a lot of people comment on trying to kick their dentist and such, but I have never had that feeling before. My Dr. has been absolutely wonderful throughout this whole process and I am sure happy I managed some restraint.

Basically, he asked me to shove this stack of tongue depressors in my mouth as many as possible. After I struggled to my maximum opening, he then pushed down on them and shoved two more in! I thought I heard muscles and tendons tearing and my squirming and whining had Fion telling him to stop. Years of athletics, reading training books and coaches telling me that stretching needs to be slow and painless to be effective, didn't help in my assumptions of how this would go.

The good news is that I have made great progress on my own this week and I doubt I will have to go through the Dr. pushing me open again. Since he has been following my blog, I will mention that 5 years of Tae Kwon Do experience may suggest you let me handle the stretching - otherwise my foot might accidentally end up where you don't want it ;) Three more sticks and my goal is reached!

Here is my progression of pictures from day 43 back. I am still a bit swollen on the left side (image right) from the torture this week....:

(2-25-07 Day 43) (2-11-07 Day 29) (2-7-07 Day25)

(1-30-07 Day 17) (1-27-07 Day 14) (1-24-07 Day 11)

(1-21-07 Day 8) (1-18-07 Day 5) (1-17-07 Day 4)

(1-15-07 Day 2) (1-12-07 Day 0)

Day 27

We had a pretty good weekend all told. I was back at work this week and went for a 2 hour ride Saturday. It was a slow ride but it felt great to be back in the saddle. My diet has been getting a lot more tolerable with my mouth open enough to force some solids in. I had some soft salmon, pasta and even some soggy cereal this weekend.

I found the following pictures to be interesting.
Picture 1 below is before surgery with my jaw in an open/natural position. I would describe this as what felt like the correct position for my joints.

Picture 2 is with my teeth clinched together. My teeth interfere more on one side here so everything feels wrong. I am also significantly over-closed with my lower incisors hitting the roof of my mouth at the base of my front teeth.

Picture 3 is post surgery with my teeth together. My jaw feels to be in a very natural position completely closed and my teeth all make contact at the same time as they are supposed to.




And just to carry on with the photo diary:

Here is my progression of pictures from day 17 back:

(2-11-07 Day 29) (2-7-07 Day25) (1-30-07 Day 17)

(1-27-07 Day 14) (1-24-07 Day 11) (1-21-07 Day 8)

(1-18-07 Day 5) (1-17-07 Day 4) (1-15-07 Day 2)

(1-12-07 Day 0)

3rd Post-op Appt. - Day 24

I saw my Dr. today for my weekly appointment. It has actually been 1.5 weeks since my last visit because my Dr. was in a remote town in Mexico last week. Turns out he and his team spend a week in Mexico once a year providing cleft-lip and palate surgery for children. I really picked a great Dr.!

The appointment went great and I am cleared to go back to my normal routines as I see fit. I have been bouncing around from day to day - feeling great for a few hours to being pasted to the couch a few more. Last night I woke up about 100 times with my facial muscles fully tense so I didn't get much rest. Dr. sent me home with more muscle relaxers to take at night so hopefully that won't be the case tonight. I also plan to start working from the office for at least half-days to see how that goes.

Going through my pictures, the most profound difference is in my profile shot. Aside from the ravages of the meds on my complexion, you can really see the effect of repositioning of my teeth, jaw and chin. I was still pretty swollen but you can see the differences pretty clearly.

Someone asked that I put the x-rays back up because they couldn't figure out what day to select to find them so here they are..... :)

Day 20

I removed most of the pictures from the earlier posts to speed up the load time on the page as well as organize my photos a little. I will now just add photos to the most current post and delete the old.



I went on my first bike ride of the year yesterday. I met up with Behrens as he left work and did an hour slow. It felt hard but I was happy to be out riding.




Here is my progression of pictures from day 17 back:


(1-30-07 Day 17) (1-27-07 Day 14) (1-24-07 Day 11)

(1-21-07 Day 8) (1-18-07 Day 5) (1-17-07 Day 4)

(1-15-07 Day 2) (1-12-07 Day 0)