What's Left?

My son's orchestra performs this afternoon. The concert will be an unofficial test to evaluate the surgical success. I have yet to attend one of his afternoon concerts - 3 a year for the past 4 years - without falling asleep. In all fairness, I still take afternoon naps, and the concert takes place shortly after nap time. Yesterday's nap - only 20 minutes - spontaneously occurred watching the movie Doubt. Deb says that the part I missed was a bit slow.

As the recovery progresses, there are a few remaining effects of the surgery that need to resolve:

1. Chin pain - 6 on a scale of 10. Definitely improving.
2. Tight feeling on teeth at the gum line - feels like childhood braces were tightened. Likely due to arch bars
3. Grumpy, cranky, short tempered, impatient - personality flaws that existed prior to surgery - the surgeon would not agree to address these items
4. Numb lower lip and chin - common effect of surgery as are the remaining items on this list
5. Numb roof of mouth
6. No sensation in teeth - others have described this a wooden tooth feeling

If all goes well, the arch bars come off this week. My hope is that the arch bars are the root cause of the chin pain and the tight feeling at the gum line. Once these two sensations go away, I expect to be completely pain free and life will be good. Maybe #3 will change too. Soon I'll be saying "GREAT and I feel rested!"

If there would be an item 7 on the list above, it's shaving. Using a razor blade to scrape a chin with no sensation really scares me. So far, I've been lucky and it's worked out OK. So why not use an electric razor? Good question. I've actually tried one, and the added pressure from using the electric razor was uncomfortable on both my chin and near the mandible sites that were extended.