So here we are… nearly one month after the surgery and it’s almost over. Tomorrow I go in to get all the screws and wires taken out of my mouth (under local anesthetic thank God). And man, it’s not a day too soon. I’ve been able to be on a soft food diet for the past two weeks or so, which has done wonders for my sanity. The fruit shakes and blended stews and everything else that I’ve had to subsist on will be a thing of the past. Well maybe not the fruit shakes. Those are delicious.
Either way, I was able to polish off a cheap cheese pizza from a place about a five-minute walk from here. Covered it in hot sauce and chewed through it without too much difficulty and pretty much no pain. The only problem came from things getting stuck underneath the wires and making it hard to close my mouth completely. Hey, the doc said I could have bread. Pizza is just bread with cheese on it, so no problem there.
I’m also making a lot of progress on being able to open my mouth. About a week ago, I was barely able to get one finger in without a lot of effort. Now I’m able to fit two in with a little bit of work. I figure I’m still a good two weeks away from normal flexibility, but right now I’m able to eat without any real pain to speak off. Breakfasts are a little more difficult, but that’s to be expected since I can’t really open my jaw while I’m sleeping. Haven’t learned that trick yet.
So tomorrow I’m asking the doc two big questions… 1) When can I run again? 2) When can I eat real food? The first one will tell me when I can get back to hockey. I had to watch my team’s games this weekend from the sidelines. Safe to say I don’t want to do that again. The first one is just for my sanity… The things I’d do right now to eat a burrito or a plate of chicken wings without any issues are numerous. Anyway, I’m probably another two days at least from that. When I asked the doc if this would hurt come Wednesday (when I have to teach), she said, “Yes, it will hurt.” Least it’s a straight answer…
