Seven months on - I'm still alive!

Hello to all my readers.

I've been receiving many messages asking how I am recovering and why I haven't posted. I know it's been six months since my last post and I'll try not to make too many excuses about a busy life, but that's exactly what's happened. Work has seen me travelling every couple of weeks, my social life has been super busy and I cannot believe so over seven months have passed since my surgery.  But I am sorry about not writing and want to continue this blog until my treatment is over.

 So here is a brief run down of what has happened since my last post:

• Healing & back to work - the majority of the swelling had gone down after 3-4 weeks and by the end of week four I was bored so decided to go back to work.  While I worked short days (6 hours max) it was probably a little too soon as I exhausted myself fairly quickly.  
• Transition back to solid food - this really did not take as long as I thought it would.  After the 5 week mark my jaw surgeon asked me to start eating soft food such as pasta and mashed potatoes and by week 8 I was back to a regular diet - just in time for Christmas.  This was a great surprise as I imagined I would be having a liquidized Christmas lunch.
• Pain - what pain?!  As I have mentioned in previous posts I must have a high pain threshold as I really have not felt any pain or major discomfort since my surgery.
• Feeling/numbness - the feeling in the majority of my face was back within a couple of weeks - however it has still not returned fully in my lower lip and gums.  Apparently the lower jaw does take a lot longer and some people do not get feeling back for up to 18 months.  This doesn't really bother me, it just means I tend to get food stuck on the inside of my mouth between my gums and cheeks and do not always realise it's there!  Surprise!
• Appointments - aside from the above it's just business as usual.  I had to see my surgeon a few times after my surgery before I was handed over to the orthodontist again.  Now it's just about having my regular appointments every four weeks.

So what happens next?  Well, I'm in the final months of my orthodontic treatment which involves a lot of fine tuning using elastics, power chains and various wires for the upper jaw.  It's both exciting and a little frustrating being at this stage - it's so close to being over yet also feels so far away!

And how do I feel about the result so far?  Ecstatic.  It's made such a huge change to my life already and I love my new face, but I will dedicate a whole post to this later.  In the meantime I've posted a couple of recent photos below (all cropped as they contain other people).

Let me know if you're still following my blog by leaving a comment below.  Next update within a week - I promise!