First Surgery Recovery Days 32 and 33: The splint is coming out soon
Yesterday was a slow and relaxing Sunday. I didn't have anything of note happen in terms of my jaw. It was just another day of healing. It's still very cold here in New York. That should be obvious since it's February, but it does seem consistently colder in the last month than in previous winters. Also, snowfall levels for the season are 20-30 inches above normal up to this point, so there's that too...
This morning I went in for an appointment with my oral surgeon. It's been four weeks and five days since surgery, and he says he will take the splint out next Wednesday February 19th. A splint comes out after jaw surgery usually between the 4-6 week mark, so mine is coming out at the maximum amount of time. That's fine though, as I want to be sure not to rush things. I've been through a lot over the last 18 months, whether it be with all of the orthodontic work or just the last 4-5 weeks in recovery after surgery. I don't want to risk anything, so let's leave the splint in another nine days.
He told me he'll also remove some of the hooks and brackets on the front of my teeth. They're currently used to hold five rubber bands in place. The function of the rubber bands is to help my lower jaw slowly move a tiny bit toward the center since the muscle memory is telling it to go a bit off to the side. I've had rubber bands on now for four weeks, so I'm hoping they come off next Wednesday.
Tonight I slowly chewed the chicken, carrots and noodles in some chicken noodle soup. It was strange chewing since I haven't chewed on anything in over a month. After about five minutes, I could feel the muscles on the sides of my jaw kind of wake up. They didn't fully wake up like you might see a person jump out of bed and stand up. It was more like someone opening one eye to see what that noise was in the middle of the night. It wasn't anything major, but it was kind of like waking the muscles and telling them their vacation is over. Brushing my teeth thoroughly afterward was interesting since there was so much food stuck in all sorts of places, but I was able to get it all cleaned up.
In what I think is good news, I haven't taken a Motrin or any other kind of pain pill for 24 hours now. I'm about to go to sleep on Monday night and I think this is the longest I've gone without taking medication since my surgery on January 8th. I do have some pain, but I'm trying to get myself off the pills and back to normal. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have to take any other medication through the rest of recovery.