Re: How wide can you open your mouth, post-op?

[Guest guest]

I don't know, maybe it's mm?

I'm not good with measurements. Whatever is the standard measurement

of jaw opening is, I can open 30 of that . Normal is 40 (according

to my OS). Before surgery my opening was actually more than normal,

something like 45-50. I'm not hoping to get that back, 40 would work

for me.

> > >

> > > I'm just curious if I'll be able to one day bite into a 6dollar

> burger

> > > from Carl's Jr. I'm 13 days post op from upper (3piece) and a

> > > genioplasty, and I can open my mouth a little more than 1 inch.

> > >

> > > How many days/weeks/months are you post op?

> > > What did you get done?

> > > How wide can you open your mouth?

[Guest guest]

Irene, 5 mm, my doc said, are about 1/4 inch. Best I remember from

my high school math courses, a centimeter is about 2.5 inches.

So yes. 30 cm would put you in the Joe E. Brown category. (Anybody

else remember the really big mouthed-comedian? Even a bigger one

than Martha Raye, that wonderful comedienne who had a heart even

bigger than her mouth, when it came to entertaining the Allied

troops...)

Probably it was mm. In my experience, these docs usually are talking

in mm...

And I'm not good at numbers and measures, either, for what it's

worth. I once wrote a story and quoted a source as talking about a

100,000-foot ship arriving at Mobile's State Docks. Later, to my

chagrin, I spent about three days explaining to callers that no, not

all women are innumerate -- only me. And no, it wasn't because the

story was written by a woman that it contained such a dumb mistake,

but only because I am inept with numbers. What my source had

actually said was, " a hundred-, thousand-foot ship. " And even that

sounds huge to me. But then, I couldn't tell you the population of

the United States, nor the world, for that matter, either. I just

don't think that way. And more's the pity. (Now my editors know to

be careful when I write about numbers; and if they don't, I warn

them.)

Cammie

> > > >

> > > > I'm just curious if I'll be able to one day bite into a

6dollar

> > burger

> > > > from Carl's Jr. I'm 13 days post op from upper (3piece) and

a

> > > > genioplasty, and I can open my mouth a little more than 1

inch.

> > > >

> > > > How many days/weeks/months are you post op?

> > > > What did you get done?

> > > > How wide can you open your mouth?

[Guest guest]

Jane, Jane, Jane... How quickly we forget!

" I can ONLY break a Mc's cheeseburger into little tiny

pieces... " ????

Can you remember how much you yearned to be able to do that, say

four weeks ago? Can you remember the frustration of the little tiny

piece behind your splint? Of all that you are free!

And before you know it, you'll be rid of the brackets and wires and

elastics and other fun things, and able to take on a box of Cracker

Jack or some popcorn with salt and butter.

I rejoice with you!

Pollyanna

I find the thought of a $6 burger kind of scary. Of course, I drop

$5.50 every time I bring one home for my beloved, along with fries

and a shake.

But burgers are still supposed to be 20 cents, or a quarter with

lettuce and tomato. Cheese may have cost another nickel. And those

were prepared individually, with mayo, ketchup, onion and pickle as

options, from real, fresh ground beef, on a real, black griddle, by

a wonderful cook named Miss Maizie, who was part of everybody's

family at the local Y.M.C.A. grill. And probably never received a

penny in pensions or health care insurance for her years of labor.

Sigh. I confess that I don't even remember her teeth.

Back to reality: the improvements in ortho and surgery since then

reconcile me to a $6 burger, right quick! Not to mention pensions

and employee benefits.

>

> I am 2 months post op and can only break a Mcs cheeseburger

into

> little tiny pieces! No biting!

>

> Jane

[Guest guest]

10 mm is a cm so 30 mm would be 3 cm a little more than 2 fingers

almost 3. I think would be so happy if I fit 2 fingers in! You

sound like your recovery is going smoothly. How is your numbness?

Mine is tarting to gradually come back on my right and my palate is

really coming back...I can feel where my top teeth start! Before I

couldn't feel a thing. Good luck enjoy eating!

Jane

> > > >

> > > > I'm just curious if I'll be able to one day bite into a

6dollar

> > burger

> > > > from Carl's Jr. I'm 13 days post op from upper (3piece) and

a

> > > > genioplasty, and I can open my mouth a little more than 1

inch.

> > > >

> > > > How many days/weeks/months are you post op?

> > > > What did you get done?

> > > > How wide can you open your mouth?

[Guest guest]

Jane, Mme. Butterfly:

Just goes to show you how much of that arithmetic stuff took with

me. (I wish I'd had you for a teacher; I think you would have made

it fun and interesting.) And I worked in a retail store the whole

time I was growing up, and had to figure sales tax many times a day.

I'm talking from the age of 10 or 12 here, and there were no

computers. (Later I learned -- twice -- about slide rules, but that

didn't stick, either.)

Actually, my papa sent me out onto the sidewalk to sell books when I

was four or five, in Cammie's Rive Gauche Bookshop. My operating

fixtures were an old wooden applecrate, some kind of cash jar, and a

pile of junk books. The books sold for 10 cents each, and I made a

killing (I was a cute kid, back then, and the wares and the

sidewalks were decent) -- bought him a Waring blendor for Christmas

with the profits, and he took over my " enterprise " by building and

installing book bins with cheapos along the sidewalks, as in the

famous Paris bookstalls.

Later in my career, he bought a library too large to stock, and I

sold books -- including a textbook on how to conduct autopsies and

an empty bottle that had held embalming fluid -- for 10 cents a

pound. So I've had adventures in math. Wonder whether I or my

customers came out better....

I did, however, meet my first husband when I shortchanged him by

mistake in the bookshop.

Anyhow, I got the cm. to inches thing just backward. Remembered the

approximate number, but reversed the application.

My only defenses: I told you so. And I did manage to pass college

chemistry with an A+ -- the second time around. And no computer, but

a slide rule.

C.

>

> I being a math teacher am thinking...2.5 cm is an inch so thats

about

> 10 - 12 inches which is a foot. You have one hell of a

mouth!!!

> No I thought immediately 3 cm!

>

> Jane

>

>

[Guest guest]

Jane,

Thank you for the Mc's cheeseburger idea. I was at a baseball

game last night and was so upset by the fact I couldn't eat anything

(and the fact that I was at my team's archrival's game) that I

almost left early. On the way home, however, we passed a McD's and

remembering your story, I asked my friend to stop.

I was prepared for serious frustration, but tore that burger into

the tiniest pieces (and then not-so-tiny ones), and almost cried

when I ate it. To be normal again! It's almost in my grasp...

Cammie, as always, thank you for putting it into perspective!

By the way, my friends in the car now think I'm crazy =]

-Zoe

> >

> > I am 2 months post op and can only break a Mcs

cheeseburger

> into

> > little tiny pieces! No biting!

> >

> > Jane

[Guest guest]

Zoe,

:) I know what you mean there is such a sense of normality about

eating a cheeseburger. The very hour I got my splint off I rushed to

give it a try. The thing about Mcs cheeseburgers are they're

very soft!! I remember they had put too much ketchup and mustard on

mine and I was thankful! It was smeared to kingdom come and I was

driving but I couldn't wait!

Jane

> > >

> > > I am 2 months post op and can only break a Mcs

> cheeseburger

> > into

> > > little tiny pieces! No biting!

> > >

> > > Jane