There’s a movie called Pizza”. It’s next in my Netflix queue. I’m not obsessed.
Court is playing Wii tennis now. It’s so funny how the little swingy “whiff” noises come through his controller and the sound of the ball hitting and bouncing are on the TV…so I get it in stereo.
Today I went to see Dr. Li for my 3 week post op visit. I forgot to write about my 2 week post op visit so I guess I will do it now.
A week ago I went in to see Dr. Li and had a question. I had been feeling up my face as I do these days and I noticed a hard lump/bump kind of thing on my chin. Now, I know that he cut a rectangular piece of bone out of my lower jaw and pulled it through by chin, inserted a screw, and twisted the bone slightly to prevent it from popping back through the hole he cut. He told me about that additional procedure the week before surgery. What I was wondering was, “Am I always going to feel this piece of bone? Am I always going to have this bump?”
I think Dr. Li almost choked on his tongue right about then. He couldn’t even look up I think his stomach contracted so quickly. He immediately grabbed a human mandible (I have those sitting around my office too) and pointed at the tip of the lower jaw bone. He said in a very “I’m going to try to make you understand this very complicated thing so please bear with me” tone, “Shelby. This…BUMP…is called a CHIN POINT.”
Okay so it hurts like MAD to laugh and my mom and Court were right there and I had to physically HOLD MY FACE on while I realised right then and there that this surgery did NOT prove I was NOT stupid.
Dr. Li then (because this was a two part answer so as to drive it home) went over to his computer and pulled up a hundred or so pictures of before and after profiles of people who had had the GA (genioglossus/chin advancement) and said evry so condescendingly, “Now, SHELBY, this woman here would have said (pointing to before chin picture) that AFTER her surgery (pointing to after chin surgery) Dr. Li, I have a BUMP…” Things were flying out of my nose and my eyes were tearing and oh my jaw was aching…and still he continued. “This person would say they have a ‘BUMP’…and this person, and this person…”
Okay so after Mom, Court, Dr, Li and I rocked the casbah at my painfully funny expense, I (and my new chin point) was released to the world of Gerber which really is not all that bad (though I have still only lost 10 lbs since surgery – maybe too many banana pear yummy goops) and managed to sleep, slurp, and snooze my way to today when Dr. Li performed the big plastic mouth guard liberation procedure that allowed me to yum up some mashers and eggers…and to finally BRUSH MY TEETH!!!!!!!!!!
I can now confirm that most of the inside upper right side of my mouth is numb, and a lot of the left is feeling like I sat on it funny. Don’t try to imagine that. I bought new spoons (yes, I can even over-shop in the baby food section at Safeway) and have discovered that the cute soft ones that turn white if your food is too hot are AWESOME, and that I Hhope my nephew likes spoons made by Playtex (it was weird for me too) with little texture thingies on them (I have NO idea) because they hurt my mouth but they’re so cute!
I guess I should get off my bum and do something…brushing the insides of my teeth sounds like fun! I will NEVER take that for granted again.
For some reason I cant figure out your writing style.
What do you mean by that?