Day 48

Hello. I have nothing good to say about the hearing in my left ear. I thought that it might be improving when I could feel some pops but basically it's just popping now and so the level of how much I can't hear varies from Darth Vador sounds to underwater tea party. As a kid, did you ever go underwater and have a tea party with your friend and then come up and try to figure out what they were saying? If you didn't then you may want to try it so you can understand what your friends and co workers are saying after your surgery. Another thing you could do to practice is go somewhere in a plane and when you get to 30K feet, put on ear plugs and then have a tea party with the person in the seat next to you. Actually, they said this hearing loss is highly unusual so it probably won't happen to you. The good news is that I think my swelling went down 1 notch. They told me at work that I looked less swelled Monday morning. As far as discomfort goes, I have a lot of complaints still. I have zingers, pins & needles, my bottom lip and chin are very numb still the gum line on top and right against the bottom teeth are sore and annoyed. The roof of my mouth feels burned but mostly numb and the area around my nose is stiff and thickly swelled. I feel a lot of pressure there when I smile or laugh. My cheeks and around my TMJ are still sore too. My teeth were a little sore from getting my braces changed out but now they're all right. I have some pain when I first take off my rubber bands. I think I'm holding them together too hard when they're banded. It's not really necessary since the bands are quite weak. I'm wearing the rubber bands in my sleep and throughout the day. I take them off a couple hours around my 3 meals. Neither Franco or Simon were specific on how many hours I could leave them off, so I just chose what I want. But, I make sure to wear them most of the time because I don't want to slow the process down. Also, if I leave them off too long, it hurts more when they go back on. FOOD things are good. This entire time I have not had much of an issue with food. It was definitely a problem the first week or two but I haven't really felt that hungry. I'm up to eating some chewy things like sausage but I'm not that good so sometimes I give up. I can workout and run. Overall I lost 10 pounds but it's already coming back on a little. Here are some photos of food I've eaten.

Sausage and bison chili

Mushroom Risotto

chicken cacciatore

Shepherd's Pie