42 DAYS POST OP

And I am celebrating 2 anniversaries today , the obvious one being the big 6 weeks and I am very excited as I had an appointment with the surgeon today and got goooood news. But as for the other anniversary being the fact that I have now officially spent 5 years in braces as off today! and it is going to be the last year! :D
So today was an EXCELLENT day I saw my surgeon today and he said everything looked perfect and that he was very 'proud' and happy with how everything has gone which had made me quite happy. He did say that I had to make more of an effort to move my mouth when I spoke and to stretch my mouth more, He said that My bone will  now be almost fully healed and that the bone would not move with anything I do from now on, and guess what this means?? I am now free to eat whatever I want, he said that he actually wanted me to eat more solids in order to push the muscles to get back to normal activity.
My infection scare was for nothing as it was just some extra tissue that had formed, I was told that this was normal around the surgery site.
I told him about how my jaw went off to the side and he said that this wasnt really a worry as it only really matters when the jaws are together, as this is the only time they are functional. He also said that I unconsciously pushed my jaw forward when I closed my mouth and that the elastics were there to try and guide my jaw not to do that.
One thing that made me ecstatic is  that I actually have very little orthodontic work to be done and that I should get my braces off in the usual 3-6 months :D The only thing that needs is a correction in the shape of my jaw/ teeth. My lower teeth shape does not match my upper teeth, so on the left side the lower come outside the top, but he said that would be easy enough.
Now for the usual:
Swelling: the surgeon said that I still had a quite a bit of swelling for this stage, but it'll go over the next few months.
Pain: I sometimes get pain when I talk alot but its bearable. The surgeon said that I may experience a bit of pain when chewing and that If that happens I should put a warm wet cloth on my face and massage the muscles.
Numbness: Last week I said that It may be getting worse but I can now say that is definitely not the case. this week I experienced major changes in my numbness and I am amazed that it occurred so suddenly, now when I touch my chin it tingles like crazy and i can not tell where its being touched by the tingling. The numbness in my mouth hasn't changes but doesn't bother me as I didn't even notice It till 2 weeks ago and I still don't really notice it. 
Opening my mouth: no change
Weight: I lost weight again and i'm not down 8kg again, and I actually have no idea how because I have been eating heaps.
Chewing: I  finaly started feeling normal chewing, I can chew pasta and that sort of stuff almost normally, so I cant wait to try something more solid!!
So this week has been good, particularly today, and Things have been going well so anyone a few weeks behind me keep up good spirits as things get better :)

35 DAYS POST OP

It is crazy how fast time has gone, it has already been 5 weeks! This week has been alright, i've had a few down moments but still feeling pretty good. This week I pushed myself to do more normal things and get back to normal, so I've been a little tired and on top of that my aunt came to stay a few days from interstate with my 2 year old cousin, who wakes up ridiculously early.

I have a few concerns with my jaw now,
1. being the fact that when I open my mouth my jaw tends to move off to one side.

2. I feel like my jaw is moving back a little, which I don't mind too much (it's only like half a mm), I felt a little weird with my jaw being so forward, I have an appointment with the surgeon in a week so i'll make sure there aren't any problems.  
3. I'm a bit worried about infection, I have gotten quite inflamed and sore on my left side, and I have gotten a red sore right at the back. i went to the doctors because I couldn't get into see the surgeon, and he said it didnt look too bad, just to get it checked out by the surgeon, and the orthodontist said the same thing, and to make sure that I was rinsing my mouth out with salt water.

I did go to the orthodontist this morning and he said that everything was going well, so the movement of my jaw obviously isn't bothering him. He changed the elastic arrangement and I now have alot more movement so I can now move my mouth more when I take which is always nice, I now only have 1 elastic on each side.

I have been looking at my bite lately and I can definately see that there is still some orthodontic work to do, my surgeon said that people usually get their braces off 3 -6 months after surgery and i definitely that ill need the 6 months.

Swelling/bruising- same
pain - I have experiences a bit more pain in my jaws this week and this has sort of sparked my fears of infection, this may also be due to me talking and chewing more.
numbness - i feel like my numbness hay be getting worse, but this is probably just me being paranoid. Although around my chin has been really sore, Its a sort of burning sensation, I feel like I have been laying out in the sun with only my chin exposed for 10 hours. I have been getting some shooting pains in my right side, it isnt too bad but I think this could be due to the numbness maybe wearing off.
Opening my mouth - It has gotten a little better I can almost fin 2 fingers, but my left side has been a little tight.
Weight - I have finally started to put some weight on I am now only down 6kg's
I'm starting to get a bit more used to my new smile, and to my chin, it feels a bit more normal now and not so huge

I tried to find some good pictures of before surgery, but Icouldnt really find any that didn't have my jaw pushed forward or from an odd angle, so this is the best that I could find, you can see that when I try to smile it looked really forces and I got dimples on my chin :) :

28 DAYS POST OP

It has now been 4 weeks, almost a month, and it has been a really good week. During the first few weeks I felt like I was taking 3 steps forward and 2 steps back, but this week I really just went forward. I attribute this mostly to my change in diet over this past week, I have been very uncreative with my food  but this week I have been trying some new things (I would like to say thanks to bracedblogger for giving me a few ideas, check out her blog if you get the chance :)) This week I ate real food, I had Sheppard pie, pasta Alfredo, lasagne, meatballs and spagetti. I have been trying to chew these foods but for anyone not allowed to chew yet I have been mostly breaking it up with my tounge. I can now see the back of my mouth and I noticed that at the back of my mouth its a splotchy red, so i'm a little concerned about that, but it isn't bothering me so i'm just going to wait and see how it goes and maybe mention it when I see my surgeon. One other concern of mine is my chin I feel like I have a really large chin, but i'm hoping that its just me having to adjust to the change, but i'll give it a few more weeks before I decide I hate it.
Swelling - Hasn't really changed I still feel a bit puffy on my right side.
Bruising - all gone
Pain - still have a little pain in my teeth but that is mostly gone, I changed my elastics on Saturday to looser elastics, so its not so tight. The pain in my jaw is mostly gone I haven't even required paracetamol in a few days.
Numbness - The numbness hasn't really changed, but my chin has been itching like crazy, and there has been a bit of tingling it freaks me out because I feel like a big is crawling on my lip. This is sort of a change but not really because I just didn't realise it before, but the other day i noticed that the gum above the incision area is all completely numb, the swelling kind of masked this. 
Opening my mouth - pretty much the same, may be able to open a little more.
Weight loss - I haven't lost too much more, my clothes are still being a bit of an annoyance.

You can see the swelling is slightly more on the left:

My right side is still numb so my smile is still a little lop sided:

 My profile again not much has changed:

DAY 21 POST OP

3 Weeks! and it feels good! This week has been pretty good, Thursday and Friday there wasn't much change, I felt the same as when i last posted, but I did begin to try chewing foods,mostly scrambled eggs and mash potato which turned out to be a bit of a challenge which did upset me a little, because i expected it to be something that would be really natural, which it didn't at all. Then Saturday I celebrated new years eve, I just stayed home because i was still not feeling up to doing all that much.But it was new years eve when I finally felt good, like really good, my swelling had come down enough where i actually started to look like my self and I was beginning to see the result a little better without looking like I had been in a fight. And the good thing is, I am really liking where i am heading, I now actually feel excited to see what the final results are. Then on Sunday, things continued to improve and if you didn't see my last post, I was finally able to brush behind my teeth, and it felt ohhhh sooooo good, it felt disgusting not being able to brush behind these teeth, mouthwash was not doing the trick so I was pretty excited. Monday was lovely, I was still feeling good and a went and saw my grandma, who hasn't seen me in over a week, and she was so happy to see me and kept telling me how good I was looking, So it felt nice to know that there was an obvious difference in my swelling even though i cant really see that much of a difference in the swelling. Then to Tuesday and

Today, I'm a bit puffy today, and i'm feeling really exhausted. there are a few reasons for this and that is:
1. we are experiencing a bit of a heat wave and 31 degrees(87 Fahrenheit) at midnight does not give the best conditions to sleep, so I have had 2 or 3 nights where i haven't had the best sleep.
2. Diet, now that i am actually opening my mouth to eat, I get very tired when i eat, I was telling my mum that i felt like I needed a nap after every meal, getting this tired I tend to give up mid meal and either not eating anything else or having something simple like yogurt.
 3. now that i can open my mouth a bit sometimes when i try to eat or brush my teeth I open my mouth a little too much which causes a pain through my jaw, but that is only temporary, but it does aggravate the swelling a little, not much but it does make me look a little puffier.
But im going to get an early sleep tonight and I should wake up feeling fresh and good in the morning :) Other than that everything is looking up.
Swelling - I've got about 10 - 15% left but it isn't very noticeable, It looks pretty natural. bruising - the bruising on my chin is all gone, one cheek is still slightly yellow, but you'd have to be looking to notice, and my wrist has still got a bit of bruising.
Pain - I mostly only get pain in my teeth in the mornings, I think I am still clenching my teeth in my sleep, but the elastics still hold my teeth tight together. I still get slight pain in my jaw at night, and i think that is mostly from overworking it during the day, this is bearable, one or two paracetamols makes in easier to sleep though.
Numbness - there is still the same amount of numbness in this one area of my chin. Today I started getting some tingling and a warm sensation on my chin, it is some what painful and uncomfortable, similar to what i had during week 1, but I don't mind too much as i was worried that this numbness would be permanent when nothing was happening for a week.
Opening my mouth - I can now open my mouth about 1 and a half fingers, before surgery it was 3 fingers so i'm halfway there :)
weight loss - With the change in diet i am now down almost 7 kg or 15lb, but i'm forcing myself to eat more now to try and increase my energy levels, and to try and stop myself loosing too much weight, I didn't plan on loosing much weight and my clothes are becoming a tad loose.
My smile is still a little off, but its looking pretty good:

swelling left is pretty minimal:

today:

Before and after - Im pretty happy, My cheek bones are more visible now, but im not sure if this will change with the swelling. It might sound wierd, but I feel like my nose looks better now, more in proportion:

DAY 18 POST OP

Sooo, I wasn't going to post until 3 weeks but today I was finally able to open my mouth wide enough to brush the backs of my teeth properly, and although I could only really do it in 15 second intervals until i had to give my jaw a quick rest, it was amazing. I know it seems a little weird that this is what i get excited about but other things like a soft diet were a bit of a let down because it was so much harder than i thought it would be. And not being able to brush the backs of my teeth was killing me because i am really anal about cleaning my teeth, so these past 18 days has been reallllyyy annoying haha.And brushing my teeth after 2 and a half weeks makes my teeth feel like they are the cleanest they have ever been. I'll give a proper update on Wednesday, but i thought i would let everyone know about my achievement :)