4 week update

[Guest guest]

Hi!

How are my June buddies doing? Out of limbo, I hope. Yesterday, I

needed an entire fleet of bulldozers but I couldn't even get out of

bed to get to the computer.I had an appointment with my OS and he

literally tried to yank and pull me out of limbo. I was concerned

because my opening was decreasing instead of increasing. I went from

a 23 mm opening after PT to a 19 mm opening after aggressive

stretching. My lower jaw was also shifted over to the left by almost

an entire tooth width. My OS took one look at me and said " muscle

spasm " . First he tried stretching me to break the spasm without any

pain meds. After much screaming and kicking on my part, he decided

to numb me up. I don't know how many times he stuck me but he

injected four vials of numbing medicine and steroids both on the

outside and from the inside. Ouch, but when he was done, I felt so

much better because the entire left side of my face was numb and

pain-free! He then stretched me some more, still with me kicking and

screaming, and got me to 27 mm! The pain was so bad I almost threw

up on him. I have not been able to open wide for three years now so

my muscles have shortened and atrophied. It's going to take a lot

more work to get to a somewhat normal opening. Afterwards, I felt

really dizzy and the 35 minute drive home felt like hours. As soon

as I got home, I started throwing up and couldn't keep anything down

including my meds. Eventually it took Zofran, Phenergan, Dramamine

and hydrocodone to get the nausea under control. Then I weighed

myself - I had gone from 91 lb that morning to 88.5 a few hours

later. I had thrown up literally 2.5 lb of fluids. I actually

contemplated going to the ER (which my surgeon recommended when I

called him) but luckily I was able to avoid that. I have a friend

who is a former ER nurse so she came over and gave me some IV

fluids. I felt much better after that.

Other than the muscle spasm, my OS was very pleased with my

progress. The new joints are in good position and are functioning

smoothly. My bite is a little off but bands and orthodontics and

some dental work will be able to fix it. He has me back in bands

again to pull my jaw back over to the midline. I actually feel

better with the bands in because everything feels more stable and my

teeth come together a little better.

Today, I'm sore but I feel a lot better than yesterday. No more

nausea so I was able to keep down plenty of fluids today and got

back to my normal weight. I had PT again today but because I'm still

sore and very swollen from yesterday, we only got to 23 mm. Still,

it's better than last week! My PT also suggested that I get some

speech therapy. After speaking through clenched teeth for the last

three years, I need some help to learn to speak normally again. I

tend to mumble.

Tomorrow I'm going back to work for the first time. That should be

interesting. I'm quite scary looking with my left side all swollen,

Bell's palsy (facial paralysis, also left-sided), enstein scars

on my face and neck and to top it off, I missed my hair appointment

yesterday so my gray roots are about an inch long. I'm working the

night shift so hopefully my patients will be too sleepy to notice.

I'm only scheduled for two shifts and then I have another week off.

I hope everyone is doing well.

minirascal-