After 10 weeks of post surgery healing I found myself back at U of M hospital, Ann Arbor, MI. This is the day I might get to open my mouth. I was pretty anxious to see what was going to happen, I sat in the dental chair that I've become so familiar with over the past 6 months and proceeded to talk with the Dr. about my healing. What hurts, what is numb, how is my sleeping, inner ear pain / fluid. Then it came down the question of if I was going to open my mouth today, the Dr. resident was saying yes, we would put on some weaker bands that would allow me to open my mouth, but he needed the blessing of Dr. Helman, the department head, and master sleep apnea MMA/BIMAX surgeon. Except one thing, the resident miscalculated my time and told him it was 9.5 weeks, and we were really at ten, so when Dr. Helman came and said they were going to keep me wired shut, I was like....no......its been 10 weeks. With a little discussion of dates we convinced him and he gave his blessing.
Moments later, they removed the bands, and he told me to open. I tried to open and basically could not. It only moved a tiny bit, millimeters....... and it hurt......the muscles and joints that had not been used in 10 weeks failed to much of anything. This is expected I guess. The Dr. said this is normal and that it will get better as I use them. So I was sent home the promise that in another 2 weeks they would remove my arch bars and bands for good. Yay!!! Of course I get to scheduling and find out they don't have and opening for 3 weeks. Grrr.... but I've lasted this long and now that I'm able to open I think this last 3 weeks will be a cake walk (mmmm speaking of cake, maybe I can eat some!! )
On the way home I tried to eat french fries from McDonald's....couldn't even get a fry into my mouth....so I ate soup when I got home, this was not what I had in mind. I was hoping for a buffet and extreme eating!! The next day however was another story. I was able to eat scrambled eggs, and oatmeal, WITHOUT a blender involved. THIS IS PROGRESS!!!! Mind you it took me an hour to eat an egg and a small bowl of oatmeal, but I was VERY happy to have some real food sitting in my stomach. Its the simple things that make life what it is......eating eggs brought me extreme joy. Something that has eluded me for 10 weeks.
As of this writing I'm now 10 weeks and 4 days. I'm still not opening wide to chomp through any food, but its getting a little better every day. I can open nearly twice as wide as I could on day one. I actually fit some buttered toast in my mouth and bit it. Small steps I guess. So the Bimax surgery some extremes and in the end stretch, the minimum opening is the current extreme you focus on.
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