Update from Allie!

It's funny how after all of the pain and suffering, stress, insecurity, frustration, joy, depression, impatience, and multitude of varied emotions that accompany this surgery and its extensive recovery, life starkly refocuses itself after it's all over.  Back to the future, back to relationships, back to exploring the possibilities that lie within you.  During the surgery process, my mind was consumed by the feel and appearance of my jaw, a small and largely insignificant aspect of myself.  Now those few months of my life are so distant, so intangible that it is difficult to realize that they happened at all.

After the braces were removed, I returned to school with my head held high.  Did the surgery fix everything? No.  Do I consider my jaw/facial structure to now be perfect? No.  Am I satisfied with the results and believe the surgery, to be worth all the suffering? Yes I do.

The preoccupation with my jaw has largely vanished, leaving me, at this highly transitional and formative period in my life, to return to learning about myself and the world I live in, growing, and gleaning as much happiness as I can from every beautiful moment while I am capable.

Recently, my time has been consumed by track season(sorry for not posting!).  This summer, I have an internship at an online publication (which means I can travel!), and will then be spending my fall semester abroad in Valparaíso, Chile studying Cultural Identity, Social Justice, and Community Development.  I am optimistic about the future and am gaining confidence in my goals, desires, and interests.

The response to this blog has been overwhelming-- I never dreamed that it would reach so many other patients looking for information about surgery!  I read everything that people write and have definitely teared up at some of the comments I have gotten, you all are so wonderful.  Thank you for being amazing!

And to the jaw surgery patients who are thinking about surgery, about to get surgery, recovering from surgery: YOU are incredible.  You have seized an opportunity to refocus your mind on aspects of life much more worthy of your attention than jaws and teeth.  The suffering, albeit awful, is such a short hurdle to jump in the grand scheme of things.

To end, here are some recent pictures because everyone loves those!

Aaaaaaand here's my teeth from beginning to end:

Before:

3 Months Invisalign Braces:

Regular Braces/Underbite in all its glory

 Done!

<3

PS. I love smiling now.  I LOVE IT.

Day 37: Breakable

"Have the courage to be imperfect."  I read this bit of inspiration on a friend's Facebook status (hi Claire if you happen to be reading this!) and began to rethink my post I wrote a few days ago.  Using this recovery time to begin to pick apart my other imperfections is definitely not the way I wanted to approach this situation.  Accepting exactly who and what you are is so essential to being happy, even in a time of these confusing, frustrating changes!

Now that I'm gaining more and more mobility in my jaw, I've been doing my best to ignore my splint and try to eat normally.  At the same time, I'm paranoid that the chewing I've been doing will somehow fracture my palate!  There are so many activities, such as riding a bike, that are now inaccessible for fear of breaking some of that fragile thin bone up there.  Even after the splint is out, my parents and surgeon have advised me against doing anything that may put my jaw in danger.  The last thing I want is for this surgery to grant me more limitations.  Hopefully in time, jaw surgery will not always sit uncomfortably at the back of my mind!

Day 22: Post-Surgery Food List!

Opened my fridge today and saw this:

I've taken over the refrigerator!

And I realized that although I addressed it briefly in this post, I wanted to make a definitive list of all the liquid-type foods I have been eating while in fixation!  If you're getting surgery in the future and need some suggestions on what to stock up on, I recommend:

GoGo Squeezes: All the little green pouches of applesauce in the picture!  I absolutely love these because they are delicious and easy to eat.  Apple-cinnamon is my favorite!  The only problem is they don't fill you up all that much, not that any of these foods really do. 

Ensure Plus: For getting in those calories!  Lots of protein and vitamins and minerals and all that good stuff.  I like the taste too: a lot of protein shakes have a grainy, medicinal texture, but this just tastes like chocolate milk.  Also good for mixing with ice cream!

Naked Juice: Yummy in the mornings, and fills you up more than you would think!

Bolthouse Farms Protein Plus Shakes: I'm big on chocolate, and this shake is chocolate-packed and contains lots of protein and other nutrients!

V8 Fusion Juice: To get in those servings of fruits and veggies!

Graduates Grabbers: Applesauce similar to GoGo squeeze.  There are a lot more flavor options, but not all of them are fantastic.

I did not like the taste of: Muscle Milk (ew), or Myoplex original (more ew).  

In addition to these foods, I mostly eat blended soups, melted ice cream, and smoothies.  I also take an iron supplement which can be mixed with fruit juice.  I can only eat what fits through the syringe, which means I can't have any little chunks that easily get stuck.

If your surgery is coming up in the near future, make sure to determine what you like and get a lot of it! Liquids hold me for a little while, but I get hungry very quickly and frequently.  It's been a challenge to keep my weight up (I'm still at about five or six pounds less than where I started), but the protein shakes help!  It's crazy that I've survived like this for so long.