Friday, April 2, 2010

Progess

I think I'm getting a little more used to the rubber bands. I can now take pills, which feels like a huge improvement over using liquid medications with a syringe. Most of the liquids taste terrible too. How I take them is a little comical. I have to watch myself in a mirror to make sure I've opened my mouth wide enough to get the pill in. It feels like my mouth is wide open, and there's barely a gap. Then I have to figure out where it's open enough and put the pill in.

I have to be careful because my jaw, particularly the left side, goes into spasm very easily, and now that I can open a little, I want to talk and talk and talk.... I tried that the first day of the rubber bands and felt pretty terrible within about an hour. But my jaw is loosening a little bit each day.

Yesterday I was feeling bold and decided to try to eat a piece of chocolate. You could see this coming, right? :-) Anyway, a Hersheys is HUGE compared to what my mouth can handle. I had to suck on the candy rather than chew it and couldn't really open my mouth again after getting it in because it hurt. So I was kind of choking on it. All in all, I'd say it was not one of my better moves. I think I will wait another month before pulling that stunt again.

Still, this is improvement. Plus, I have a lot more energy. Right after I got out of the hospital, I'd walk 2 blocks and then nap for 2 hours. I was sleeping 13-16 hours per day. Now I can stay awake all day and have a decent amount of energy through the day. My breathing is still bad, unfortunately. I'll have to have surgery in a month.

But anyway, I am working towards another piece of chocolate. So I have a goal.

--K--