Day 36: New pictures, old pictures

36 days?!!?! It's weird that its been this long. I was washing my hands the other day and when I looked in the mirror I was actually surprised by how I looked! I feel really great, not too much pain or anything, so its weird to see that I am still so swollen. The biggest issue I have had so far is that I got hit in the face twice at my back to school assembly and my face hurt A LOT! But it was an accident so I didn't get too mad. I have a very small spot on my chin left that is still partially numb, but I can tell its coming back! If I turn on my side while i'm sleeping my face feels kind of tight in the morning. Otherwise, all is well!

My six weeks is on Friday, so I am looking forward to being able to chew again. Soon I will be compiling all my best tips/food ideas into one post so it will be easy to read! Good luck to Max, who is just starting his jaw surgery adventure!

I was going through old pictures today and I feel the need to post them!

My very first impressions, 7 years old,  and 15 years old, before I got my top braces put back on :( These aren't actually how my jaws fit together, they are just like that because they were flat on the table. 

Right after waking up from getting my wisdom teeth taken out in January! The black thing is a stuffed doggy :)

Always working! I had just started an internship that week and I  had a lot of work to do, no rest for the weary!

The dreaded side shot! This is how my jaw was when I was at rest, its weird to think that everyone saw me like this!

 Now these are new pictures!

Looking normal! I didn't get any strange looks for my puffy cheeks!

My mom thinks I look like this little girl, her name is Grecia (Greece in spanish) and mine is Atenas (Athens in spanish!) 

Anyone see the resemblance? :)

Oh hey there perfect bite, nice to see you again!

ONE MONTH!! Parallels in my life

Reflecting back on my one month since surgery, I am constantly stopped by the thoughts that I have to add 1000 words to my essay within the next couple of hours. Why you ask? Because in being my overachieving self, I am doing the International Baccalaureate diploma along with my regular one. While 98% of high school seniors are finishing up their 1 hour of homework, I am sitting here scratching my head about why I am doing this in the first place. And now to draw some parallels between IB and DJS (double jaw surgery).
Since freshman year I have been waiting for jaw surgery, I have known about it since before then, but we'll just start there. Freshman year was when I found out about IB, I knew I wanted to do it.

In the weeks before starting junior year, I was nervous/anxious, but just wanted to get it over with and started.  Same thing happened right before jaw surgery.

Once I started IB, I realized it wasn't as hard as people said it was. After I got jaw surgery, I was able to move around and stuff and I thought people were joking when they said they couldn't go back to work for 3 weeks.
Half way through IB I realize it's a lot tougher than its cut out to be and I may be in over my head. Half way through my 6 week recovery, my swelling is at a standstill, I'm always frustrated about what I can or cannot eat, and I just want it to be over with. The End. IB and Jaw surgery in a nutshell.

Pictures!

Wednesday: I won a basketball signed by Ashley Robinson

Saturday: Soccer game with the girls

Saturday night: Mariners game with my mom! 

Sunday: Taking a break from homework!

Wednesday again: my mother is always cleaning my face :)

Day 23: Isn't my swelling supposed to be going down?

Hey all! Not much new to say from today. I'm going back to school tuesday so I have been going shopping a lot! I went to an outdoor mall today and it was HOT, so now i'm all swollen again :( My mother made me a mummy style ice pack, but it got warm so fast I only used it for about 10 minutes.

Grossness, today I was feeling my swelling around my nose and I felt the flat ends of the screws in my face! nashty shtuff.

OH GUESS WHAT?? I got a AP Scholar with Honors award. Booyah.

Peetures now:

Day 22: Forgot my 3 week mark :(

Happy 3 weeks to me! I can't believe I have made it this far, its kind of crazy! Physically I feel ready to run a marathon, but I know I still need to take it easy. The heat is what makes me the most tired, and swollen. Living in the northwest, this shouldn't be an issue, but we are having uncharacteristically warm weather the past few weeks! This is the last weekend before I start school, and I am super nervous. I haven't been out for as long as I need to be out for school, and I'm scared that i'm gonna get super tired at the end of the day.

I got my hair cut today! Its layered and makes my curls look more...curly! All this back to school preparation is tiring! Well I have to get back to my homework now, but here are some pictures!

Yesterday:

Profile! <3 

Friday

Today:

New hair cut! A bit messy from driving with the windows rolled down :)

My crooked smile! Did this happen to anyone else?

Saw this on Big Bang Theory, had to do it :)

Day 18...and 19! School in a week :/...and Orientation

Remember how every time the school year ends, the next school year seems so far away? Well that happened to me, like it does every year, and now im stuck at one week before school starts with tons to do and not a lot of time to do it! Although I have been off of the codeine for a while, I still find it hard to concentrate for long periods of time. I'm starting to think I might just have a lazy brain!

Anyways, back to the jaw stuff. My swelling doesn't seem to be going down at alll, and it even went up a bit on sunday after a long day out with my dad. It's back down to how it was before, but I start school in 7 days and I dont want to walk around looking like a chipmunk!

My jaw keeps cracking at night. At first I thought it just happened when I slept almost flat on my bed, but it also happens when I sleep upright in my recliner :( Yesterday I was feeling really sick and had an awful headache that wouldn't go away, but now my sinuses (aka right where I have 18 screws) just feel like they have a lot of pressure. I have another appointment with my surgeons on thursday so I'll see what they say! I really hope I dont have to go to the surgeons office weekly anymore because I do not want to miss a ton of school right off the bat.

Yesterday I went to go see the girls I coach at a pre-season scrimmage and they were so cute! They won 6-0 and I was very proud of them :) It was very hot yesterday so I was drinking a lot of water, and one of the girls asked "Atenas, are you only allowed to drink water after jaw surgery? Because you are drinking a lot!" It was too funny :)

The blogger uploader thing isnt loading my most recent pictures but I will try again later!

*Edit* pictures are up! and I'll add in day 19 also. Busy day. I was at school all day handing out schedules. I was stuck with "D" and "E" last names. Do you know how hard it is to make those sound different while banded shut? Then I had "C"'s. I kept asking "Chen/Cheng or Chan/Chang" and nobody understood the difference :( to I just had to go through the first names of all Chen/Cheng/Chan/Chang's until I found them. Fun stuff. I also got my schedule. Full IB/AP, whoop whoop! No life for the rest of the semester! Then after 7 hours at school I went out to get ice cream with my best friend who hadn't seen me since surgery. And I got to talk to her mom and sister, who told me that one of her co workers got jaw surgery at 60 years old and was still bruised and had tons of swelling after 5 weeks! I'm glad I got this surgery now and not later!

Sunday - Really bad swelling after a long day out in the heat!

Monday - Back to "normal"

Tuesday

Bruise is still lingering!

I love my new profile! 

Wednesday - I'm happy my swelling didn't go up after being at orientation talking to tons of people all day! Like the snowflake pajamas? I pull them out when it drops below 60 :)

Wednesday night - My midlines are lined up again!

Day 16: too tired to post!

Fun weekend! I will deff post pictures tomorrow. Just posting so people know I'm still
alive!

Day 14: Has it really been two weeks?

Two weeks have passed and I couldn't be more happy! These have definitely been two of the hardest weeks I have ever gone through in my entire life. As of now I have enough energy to be out for a couple of hours at a time, but due to the setback I had with my jaw sliding back my doctor said I should stay home more. I feel like my swelling is at a standstill and has been for the past two days, hopefully it will keep going down soon! Right now I think I am at the point where if somebody didn't know I had had the surgery, they would think I just had a fat face! But I can feel that I still have a ways to go.

My father, who I got my jaw from ;) Don't worry, he doesn't always look this  weird!

I think I look mostly "normal"