So let’s see: three months have gone.
Most people who get told the tale of the surgery marvel that I look so all right after only three months, but that’s because they naturally expect scars so numerous to make my face look like it’s been put together using leftover pieces from other faces. But of course that’s not the case in these operations; the healing is all inside. And it’s a looooong process.
Especially unnerving for me is the lack of some functions – certainly not fundamental like speaking or eating, but….
Examples?
- My sense of taste is greatly altered – I eat all right, but there’s hardly any pleasure in doing so.
- Any touch however light or delicate to the area from my nose down is unpleasant.
- I cannot smile nor laugh. Facial expressivity in general is still impaired.
- I cannot kiss (or be kissed).
- The control of my lower lip is still somewhat unreliable.
- I have started chewing gum (which I never liked) simply to get more exercise to the damn jaw muscles, and I think it’s helping.
- Brushing my teeth is an outright unpleasant affair, with the added complication that I never know if my teeth “feel” clean, and I end up brushing compulsively every couple of hours.
But twitching is gone, pain is gone, I sleep like a log and I KNOW that I am healing – so I haven’t even the slightest afterthought about the whole affair.
I just wish it’d go faster, that’s all.
