Busy as a B!

So my rubberbands tend to break in my mouth mid conversation a lot! awkward.

Food update:
Still on soft foods, chewing is still awkward.
I ate pita bread and hummus the other day, and the next day...boy was my face sore...too tough for me! boo.
I ate some mixed veggies tho, cooked of course.
I eat pb&j uncrustables and yogurt pretty much everyday.
I can eat watermelon!
sorry I haven't taken a picture for this post but I have been super busy! I started school this week so that's has been crazy AND coolest news ever.....

Rachele and I have become Representatives for Avon & mark. So I've been busy with the business!
If you are interested in Avon & mark. products...you probably have received an e-mail from us, but if not......you can e-mail us at BaileyBizRL@gmail.com for any questions, comments, orders, request a catalog, if you want to become a Rep. too! anything you want. We also have an eStore: www.youravon.com/laurenbailey we are trying to get Rachele's name on the page too, but Avon is weird like that if you sign up with another person under 1 acct. 1 has to be the primary and then their name goes on everything, but we are working on getting Rachele's name too to avoid confusion. So yea, Rachele and Lauren are working TOGETHER. and lastly, we made a facebook page...so please check it out and "like" it. here is the link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BaileyBiz-Avon-mark/145240158843072

Thanks so much for continuing to read my blog! and I just want to say thanks to our Avon & mark. supporters so far! You guys are great :)

Food!

guess what I ate yesterday???

Grilled Cheese - sans crust (too hard) :) (that girl looks kinda creepy) I also had little fat potato fries. I still had to fork and knife everything and make it small, but I was able to eat it! half chewing half ...I don't know just doing what I can to swallow it. My teeth feel very awkward when they come together. I was wearing my rubberbands while eating so that might've been why. I'm scared to take them out and chew...eeks! I don't want my jaw to fall off!

I survived my first week back at work!

6 week anniversary tomorrow, by the way!

So last Monday I started the 9-5 once again, not too bad....just tired for the most part, not used to waking up so early. I had a bout of some intense nausea last Tuesday morning, I think it was because of a mixture of eating a lot of dairy the night before (strawberry shake, yogurt), steamy shower in the morning, and not enough sleep. Lately, in the morning I still feel a bit nauseas, nothing serious but just enough to be annoying, so I take showers at night now, and I'm starting to eat a bit more since I wake up earlier and am awake for longer, so I think I'm "eating" too much (which is not a lot) which makes my tummy hurt!

This is my face as of last Friday....

Yea...kinda dark...I'm working with a camera phone though, so bare with me. I'll post more pics of my progress weekly with a real camera now that I don't have to go back to my oral surgeon for 4 (yes, FOUR) MONTHS! crazy right? wait...I'm getting ahead of my appts. here, so yesterday was the first time since I've seen my orthodontist since my surgery...bascially I was there for 10 min. all he did was add another rubberband in a triangular form (one rubberband attached to one hook on top and two hooks on the bottom) on the right side. He liked how my mouth was looking, we chatted for a few and I was on my merry way. He said he didn't want to tighten or make any adjustments because my bones are still healing etc. and that would just add more discomfort...and I was fine with that! So when I see him in Oct. he will start working his magic.

Today I had an appt. with my oral surgeon who I haven't seen for 2.5 weeks now (the longest I've gone w/out seeing my grampy surgeon) I showed him my newly added rubberband and he said that's fine, and my ortho would be taking care of my rubberbands and adjustments from here on out. I did a couple of open and bites, he thought things also looked well. He then asked me how my chewing was coming...and I was all like "what chewing?!? I'm starving..scrambled eggs everyday is not cutting it!" (p.s. as of this morning I am 153 lbs, according to my calculations that is a loss of 14.5 lbs in 6 weeks) so anyways, he's all like I want you to start chewing soft foods now and in 3-4 weeks start getting into the other foods. **ahhhhhh** (angel voices) so that's pretty great news..well kind of...so now I'm thinking well what should I eat? what is soft? .....pasta.....I'm already eating pasta...now I get to chew it instead of swallow it. So then my excitement went down a bit, but I just thought how this is good for my muscles...it's steps to chewing the real deal :) but THEN my excitement went up again because I was like heyyyy..french toast is soft! which lead me to think of grilled cheese, which lead me to think of pizza bread.....so I'm all about the carbs for now, basically..actually I've been that way..everything I have been eating has a lot of carbs in it....baby food is a big one. so that's my great news :) yayyy food! I had an uncrustable pb&j today...I'm able to eat that with out chewing, so toward the end I tried to chew it...very weird...something to get used to for sure. It will probably be easier without rubberbands in, but I was at my desk at work...I didn't want to make a big fuss over something I could eat without chewing it, and I have no idea how good of a chewer I am, I don't want to look like a cave woman who just discovered....well...semi-solid food! So after some practice, and assurance that I won't choke, I'll start chewing in public.

and then the doc. said, as I was saying before, "I'll see you in 4 months" so December is my next check up...kinda cool, that means things are really going well!

hmm...what else....
-the oil on my face has decreased in production. awesome.
-I've been off meds for about 2 weeks now. trooper.
-I bought every flavor of yoplait yogurt from those commercials that are all like mmmm boston creme pie etc. so I try a new one every day....red velvet cake, apple turnover, white chocolate strawberry are winners.
-the right side of my face....still ehhhh numb and stiff.
-still a bit swollen....obviously.
-everytime I go to the surgeons office, there is always a different tech. person, and they all think I'm under 18. (I'm 23) I was even carded to cash my winning scratch off lottery tickets.
-I made my own oreo pie, at Jewel they have Oreo pie crust and Oreo Jello....Bakers Square Oreo pie takes the cake.....or the pie...hehe.

that is all for now :)

How much longer?

only a few more weeks?....these are questions I'm hearing quite often, and I'm not even sure what the specific question is. I'm still a bit swollen which could take 6 months to a year to completely go away. I'm still pretty numb, esp. on my upper lip area right under my nose, because that is where 4/5 plates are, I'm also numb on the roof of my mouth, but only in the front part - like that little area right before the roof sort of caves in. and I'm still really numb on my right side, it's numb but sensitive, it's sore to the touch. My incision is looking pretty good, feels weird sometimes though, like if I move my face a certain way I can feel it, like it might rip apart if I continued with the face motion...yeeks. Anywho...the numbness can last for up to a year too, everyone is different. I hope it doesn't take that long, but I'm not going to really worry about it until 7/7/11. My right eye is pretty amusing though, I can't wink with it, still can't raise the eyebrow, that's why I've been wearing my glasses instead of contacts all the time because sometime it looks lazy or something (sloth-like), and it randomly gets puffy, it feels like a bruise around it, but numb at the same time. I was trying to put on eye shadow the other day for the first time since surgery and normally I can just shut one eye and apply the shadow, but since I can't close my right eye and keep my left open I literally had to hold the eye lid down. As far as my rubberbands, I have no idea how long I'll have them on, I've never used them before I had surgery, but I know people with braces do wear rubberbands to correct whatever needs to be corrected so I could be wearing them as long as I have my braces.



I had a doc. appt. last Friday. Everything is still looking good. When I bite I touch on the right side first, so he moved my rubberbands around, 3 on the left and 1 of the front/right, to even out the bite. Oh and I asked about my oily face, I was hoping it was a normal symptom...uh no, the only thing he said was maybe it's from the medicine. So hopefully that's it. He also gave me the OK to drink from a straw! sooo much more convenient than a syringe! but still no chewing. I'm not sure when I will be able to, I'm just taking it 1 appt. at a time..and my next one is Aug. 17th. I also have an my first orthodontist appt. since my surgery the day before that. I'm a little nervous, I hope if they tighten my braces it doesn't bother me too much. So to answer the question.......I have no idea how long, ask me in a year :)



Since my rubberbands are more bunched together I'm able to open my mouth a little wider, which has been cause for my rubberbands to snap in my mouth! It doesn't hurt it's more of a surprise, hopefully I don't swallow one. I SNEEZED for the first time since my surgery on Saturday! Wasn't bad at all, it was actually less intense of a sneeze than I normally sneezed. I've sneeze 7x since that day too, getting back to my old self by the day! I also drove my car, didn't forget how to do that! It's been an eventful weekend!

yummy!! (minus the brain freeze)

Happy Monday

So Friday I went to the doc. and I laid back in the chair and he said, as his hands are on my mouth, "open, bite. open, bite.....dynamite!" ha! he was pretty excited to see my bite coming along nicely. It was a short visit, he said everything looked great, he kept my rubberbands where they were and he said I could go 1 whole week till I see him again..which is pretty cool because this will be the longest amount of time without seeing him.



good news: I can eat cheese ravioli! -cut up really tiny of course but yay!



I went to Woodfield with my sisters on Saturday...my first big outing...I was pretty excited! I had jamba juice through my syringe in the Nordstrom shoe dept. Then we ate at PF. Changs...which wasn't really great for me because there wasn't anything on the menu I could eat besides the dessert..which was delish! There were 2 women sitting near us and very obviously kept looking at me, like one of the girls had to turn around to catch a glimpse of the zoo animal! It was really weird..I was obviously drinking water from my syringe..but that was it..I eat fairly normal..and I'm a little swelling, but I could just have a fat face ya know? I mean they were not skinny at all...it was just rude, my sisters were getting upset. Even when they left I made eye contact with her for 5 sec. like wtf?! do you want?!? ask a question, take a picture then ... yeesh!

So my face is still super oily...so gross! I don't know if this is normal or what..I really need to ask my doc. about this. I feel like Tim Allen in "The Santa Clause" when he shaves his full beard and it grows back in 2 sec. I'll wash my face, do a mask, then astringent...5 min. later my entire face is oil, like I poured cooking oil all over my face, I wipe it off, it comes back.....really annoying! Maybe those ladies staring at me could see their reflection in my face, hence the constant stares?

Nichole went to the zoo today and sent me this picture...

I really am a zoo animal!

2 weeks post op!

It's been 2 weeks and this is my face! It shows up well in photo's but I still have noticeable swelling in real life and am anticipating I will for a while. I'm still numb and my right side is still more numb than my left. Yesterday I had my doc. appt. and where it was all good news! I was worried because last Friday at the doc. he said since my bite wasn't lining up he thought he would have to do another surgery - to adjust the plate that is to the left of my chin and add a plate to the right side of my chin because my jaw was further back than it was supposed to. So I had my second surgery scheduled for tomorrow, but thankfully my rubberbands (aka my physical therapy) have been really working and improved my bite! My doc. was really excited and said I'm not "home free" yet, but he doesn't want to do the second surgery because the bands are obviously working, so hopefully they continue to work and everything will be all good :) So he repositioned my bands, I have 5 and they are all in the front of my mouth, so when I eat I have to take some out and I have to changed all of them every 2 days, but I go back to the doc. on Friday so I'm sure he will change them around again.

and this is currently my smile...and me raising both my eyebrows...poor right side. Kathy came over today and brought me a slice of oreo pie! :) love it!

So it's been 2 weeks since I've driven, drank coffee, put on makeup, worn contacts, sneezed! (I've had 3 urgers since surgery but nothing..thank goodness!), and lets not forget..ate solid food.

This great picture is posted by request..and changed to black and white to make me not look so bad..but lets face it, it's horrible. This was day 2! my sisters thought it would be funny to all be straightfaced since this was the only face I could make! and that's an ice pack on my head.

:)

IMG00461.jpg

Oreo pie 2 nights in a row! Yummmm.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile