Another restless night - post expansion

More of a personal blog entry if anything:

I can't sleep yet again.

I must say one of the hardest things about this whole experience (aside from the general discomfort and pain), you realise how boring things can get, simply because you don't have the energy to do much; the jaw is still healing afterall.
Much of my day is spent listening to music (John Coltrane, Jeff Buckley, Muse, George Benson at the moment), sleeping, reading a book every now and again, surfing the net, staying in contact with existing friends by means of facebook/phone/in person (the latter - for those currently in London) etc.

Now, this is all great, especially when you have people around you that really care about you, and go to extreme lengths to show it. (during times like these, you really realise who your true friends are for example.) But it becomes pretty mundane after a while. Life becomes boring.

In some ways this can also be a very frustrating experience, as I know if I were fit and healthy at the moment I would be travelling right now; socialising; meeting new people of all walks of life. With this not being the case at the moment I have had to turn down the opportunity to travel to Spain, France and Dubai this summer. That was what I had lined up, along with chilling with my friends over here. As my initial expectations were that I would have a speedy recovery.

I guess this is again pretty age dependent, at 23 years, whilst facing the prospect of going back to University in a month time, it is an inconvienience simply because ideally I wanted to feel "refreshed" before my final year.

On a positive note however, I know that it is best to get this sorted out now then later on, but still I must say in the journey so far; coming to terms with how monotonous things can get is harder then it seems, especially when you just know you could be having a great summer as opposed to being bedridden.

This definently has to be the toughest battle mentally one has to face during this whole process. Saying that, I am confident that I will come out stronger by the end of it and in that respect this is a blessing in disguise.

Weight Loss - Post op.

Another blog entry for those individuals about to have this done:



As you can see I have lost a lot of weight around my face and neck area, this was a photo of me pre operation:



That aside I have had comments that the region surrounding my upper jaw area is looking fuller. I don't know if it is down to the swelling or if it is actually fuller. Aside from internal changes, I just can't tell.

I would say since the procedure I have lost a stone, or in the metric system 14 pounds of bodyweight. To prevent me from losing anymore weight I have been supplimenting with a weight gainer, but to be honest I don't have much of an appetite anymore due to the discomfort of not being able to eat anything solid for a while.

I am expecting to hit the gym 8 weeks from now to regain my lost muscle mass. But its all good, in the mean time, inside jokes with regards to looking like David Blaine have been made, funny shit!



Additional information:

Weight gainer I am currently supplimenting with can be found here:

http://www.in-trim.co.uk/ProLabNLarge2.jpg

Pain - Sleepless Nights

A blog entry for those individuals about to have this done:

Today I had a great day, had my closest around me, and on top of that had a good friend from out of town unexpectedly visit me. Not to mention, many of my closest friends not in London have been sending me spontanious (yet) funny text messages out of the blue, or have generally been taking an active interest. Don't you just love them?!

It is now 5am as I write this, I am unable to sleep yet again due to the pain. It is a week since expansion has stopped. To cope, I've just taken 2 painkillers to deal with it. I imagine the pain is a positive thing, as it probably means that my upper jaw is now healing. However, the area around my upper jaw seems to be swelling, with there being general discomfort in the surrounding region. The pain that hits this region is normally quite sharp, but not continious, though swelling has made my skin feel irritated & sore. I think the humid whether adds to the irritation.

As of yet the gap between my front two teeth left from expanding has not closed.