Gymnasium Blues/Facial Deception! - Day 33 (June 10)

 Added new Post Op Week 4 photos.

I'm a gym addict. During the year I was hitting the weights 4 times a week before classes really hard. I think I had acquired exercise dependence because I felt sluggish when I missed the gym for a week. I'm now on a month hiatus and yearn to get back there. Perhaps more than food? *Gasp* yeah I said it. En lieu of this, I've been trying to add some exercises into my daily trudging around the house. I set the chin up bar above my door and do 2 pull ups every time I walk by. I also ran a 5.5 km run last night and although it felt nice to run about 18 lbs lighter, a 22 minute run took me 29 minutes. When running I was constantly thinking, "Please screws don't fall out, please don't fall out" as the up and down impact had me paranoid of something rattling loose. That's a first while exercising!

 Pain with this whole jaw surgery remains minimal. The first question people ask is, "Does it hurt?" but in reality if you stay on top of recovery with nutritious foods and liquids with plenty of rest, there is tiny pain, if so none at all! I notice that my face is a tad sensitive in the areas to the right and left of my nose, but otherwise I can move my lips around just fine, and the other areas I could put mild pressure on. I remember only 4 weeks ago I could barely touch my cheeks as they were too tender and painful to even just put your finger on. I also notice that my neck muscles are somewhat sore when I look to the right and left, the same feeling you get when you work a muscle for too long. This surely must mean it is coming back. Lastly, if I use my lower jaw and pull my chin up and flex my chin muscles that area is still hurting a bit, but only when I flex it. If I'm just sitting there's no pain at all.

I upgraded to meat pasta last night! I cooked a batch of white pasta(whole wheat would probably be a bit tougher) with ground beef and pasta sauce. It was nice to have real food. It was really important to get the beef into real small chunks beforehand(either when you are cooking it or when you are eating it), as my jaw really couldn't handle the bigger chunks, but the smaller ones broke down and tasted quite nice. Chewing remains up and down, and therefore time consuming. I ate a small bowl and it made me really full really fast. I guess I'm going to have to build up a food tolerance. I noticed that the taste of this more natural pasta tastes way better than the canned stuff. Maybe it's just me but the canned pasta uses sauces that taste way too sugary, or like they used V8 tomato juice as the sauce, I'm not a fan.

I saw some people from my high school that knew I was getting the surgery the other day, and everyone just seemed sort of shocked. Different opinions ranged from: the nose has changed, my face looks broader and less long, my jaw is more defined. Some suggestions including getting my student ID and drivers license taken all over again because no one's going to believe me. The best moment of the day happened when my friend decided to try out the new look on my friend Matt, who was the last person to say hi to me. "Hey Matt, come over here I want you to meet someone."  Matt came over and I quickly blurted hi to him.  "I'd like you to meet my friend Jordan(close enough but not) he also goes to school in Guelph."  We then waited for his response to see if we duped him or not... "Oh hi Jordan, you look familiar, did I meet you at David's party?"  Incredible. We just laughed for a solid minute while he just looked at us. He said that he didn't recognize me because I looked skinnier. Fair enough, it was worth the laugh. I now know that I can pretend to be someone else, or people will think a doppleganger has replaced me.