Sunburned - Day 42 (June 19)

Yesterday I had the chance to do some mother - son golf bonding in a company tournament. It was a great time for golf followed by a banquet. Being outside for 5 hours however does not bode well after being inside for so long after these 6 weeks. Wear sunscreen when you start getting outdoors. As much as I've been outside, I've never been out for that long in 30 C weather. I'm now fully cooked on my arms and face, and it looks like I took a trip to Cancun. After golf, the banquet dinner was, interesting.

Salad: I couldn't chew lettuce leafs, they were far too chewy and thin to be ground up. Bread rolls? Politely declined.

Main Course: consisted of a thigh of chicken, steak, baked potato, assorted vegetables. Of the vegetables, a soft baked zucchini and tomato were both consumed with ease. I was also able to eat the chicken in finely cut pieces. The baked potato was the best part, when combined with the chicken and some sour cream it made my day, not the incredible 15 foot putt.

Swelling - hasn't changed much at all, I believe this to be about 90% of what I'm going to look like from now on. My chin feels like it has the most residual swelling at this point.

From my experience, I believe the face goes through a few phases before it heals:

1. Tenderness/bloating - your phase is fresh from surgery and it feels very tender when you touch it. It's also as puffy as your skin is willing to stretch.

2. Swelling goes down - your face still hurts when you touch it, but it doesn't feel like it is exploding out of your face.

3. Numbness/Itchy/Sharp - your face goes through this sort of weird sensation stage where you get these odd itchy feelings under the skin and it alternates with these pins and needles sensations, and in addition a numbing feeling the rest of the time. This is probably the majority of the recovery.

4. Another swelling going down phase.

5. You can now poke yourself in the face and it doesn't hurt. If you press with enough pressure it does, but you can now feel your face without feeling any pain.

6. The area feels completely normal, feeling and everything. I feel like my cheeks are hitting this step.

All in all the chin and the areas directly to the right and left of my nose are the only spots bugging me. My chin especially feels nothing still, and I don't notice any food there at all, which can be embarrassing. I also think my nose isn't as pointy anymore with my upper lip swelling going down.

Muscles - I can move all of my facial muscles very well. However, the fine motor muscles of my lips are still not there. For example I can't buzz my lips like a horse does. I think my smiling is pretty normal at this point.

Speech - I can't enunciate f's, v's, and w's without using a lot of effort. The upper jaw expansion is certainly noticed by my tongue, and it feels a lot bigger.  Talking can sometimes be a lot of effort, even after 6 weeks.