4:00 a.m. letter to me mum....

'ello Mumzie!

...er, I mean, Hey Mom.! (Yes, I know I'm not British...it's just fun saying that)

Ugh. Where to start. It's 4 a.m., I have an hour until my next round of pain meds and things are pretty uncomfortable right now. Nothing I can't handle, but you know how sometimes it just helps to "talk" to divert your attention elsewhere?

I've crushed up 3 asprins, and mixed them with warm water (yuck), so that's going to have to do for now. Why the asprin? It's the arch-bars. But more about that in a minute...

Okay, first things first. Lots of comments about the "before/after" pics. Let me just say that it's *entirely* too soon to know how my mug is going to turn out, and no, I haven't entered the "Witness Protection Program".
Will my nose be different? Will my face look longer? At this point, that is THE LAST THING I'm concerned about!!...although while out for a little walk last night, Paul and I were sitting near Starbucks with a couple of friends, and one of them said to Paul: "So this must be your boyfriends brother, eh'?" To Which Paul replied: "Nope. It's the boyfriend." Strange that I don't look like myself right now. It's like having aninimity that I don't really need!

Yesterday, I had a couple of issues to address that had been pressing.
The first was a solution for icing my face. For me, those "stockings" the hospital provided are not that great. Between the paper-lined ice "envelopes" and the stocking itself, there was little if any cooling action going on. So, I went to Walgreens and bought a box of the "double zip-lock (quart sized) storage baggies and a big ole' bag of ice.
At home, I used a nice, old, thin tea towel to wrap the well-sealed ice up and then used blue painters tape to secure everything, making sure there was only 1 layer of ziploc plastic and 1 layer of tea-towel between my cheek and the ice. Much cooler, thankyouverymuch. ...and I need to ice.
The second thing I really wanted to address was this stuffy nose of mine. When I went in to Dr KL's the day I got out of the hospital, he cleared out my nose and that was fantastic, but it gets cloggy again and again. I asked him if a neti pot might be a good idea, and he said yes. So, what is a "neti pot", you ask? It's a little gross but effective. Imagine a little tea pot filled with warm salene solution. Then, you tilt your head sideways over a sink and put the spout up to and in your upper nostril and pour the water. It goes though your sinuses and out the lower nostril, loosening and flushing out a lot of boogs and stuff that keep you from being able to breathe.
For a demo, check out this "Neti Pot YouTube demonstration" In this case, the relief, far outweighs the grossness level. It has really helped me sleep at night, by keeping my nose much clearer.

Another thing I needed to do (but wasn't *quite* as successful...yes, I know, I know Learian!) is to not talk so much. Paul allows me to talk a little, as long as my teeth stay together, making my jaw not move. You see, with the thin upper jaw bone and the bone graft Dr KL did to help make it more solid, it's not good to talk and open my jaw. Even though I am rubber-banded together, the pressure of talking kind-of "works against" what we're trying to accomplish. I promised I'd do better today, and even carry around my white-board if need-be.

Okay, so lets talk about why I'm writing you at 4 a.m. My archbars hurt! Don't get me wrong,
I'm glad I have enough feeling in my lower lip to even be able to *feel* pain, but I woke up today and felt like these danged things are *embedded* in to my lip. Glad I'm going to the Doctors today to have it looked at. He gave me wax, but I'm going to wait until I get there and let him dig around to see if the archbars are indeed hooked in to my lip, or if it just feels like it. It's hard to tell just by looking.
..and speaking of numbness, there is plenty of that. My chin is dead. Can't feel a thing, and shaving it yesterday was like shaving someone elses chin. My upper teeth, pallet, lips, cheeks and nose are a little bit numb, but my guess is that I'll get more feeling back *there* before I do in the chin area. Seems that area had the most nerves disturbed by the MMA/GA surgery.

Lastly, heartburn. I know,I'm talking about a lot of different "issues" this morning, but I'm just trying to deal with one at a time, when it comes up. So far, over-the-counter "Pepto" has been working just as good as the by-prescription Pepcid. Definately one of the most challenging aspects of all this, as of late.

....but I'm trying to be a trooper and just work though it. Okay, time for pain meds, and hopefully another couple hours of shut-eye.
Oh, pain killers, don't fail me now......

xoxo:
Pinski