Day 22: Slug Lips

Smiling and saying cheese: 75% (After another successful rendezvous with my surgeon, I can't help but smile)

Loving the sepia, right?  And my huge lips, wrong?



Pain: 15% (No pain, no gain, thankfully there is minimal pain)

Weight: 12 stone 6lb or 174 lb

Weight loss at the minute: 7lb (Back down today but now that I can take my elastics off to eat there is no stopping me (evil laugh)

Hard food I would love  to chew today: I can now officially eat any soft food I want, that includes pancakes, mmmm pancakes. As long as they are cut up so I can swallow without chewing, the world is my oyster, well maybe not oysters as I don't like them. So I have changed this to hard food I would love to chew. Today's is a 'Cadbury's Easter Egg' OK you don't have to chew it but you do have to bite into it!

I see blue....it's glorious! Blue skies here in Belfast were it does not rain every day as is thought through out the world. Come and visit, my Russian readers. It is a soaring 17 degrees C here today. As you may have guessed I am in a good mood today and not just because it is a lovely sunshine day, but because I have just returned from a successful appointment with my surgeon.

It lasted a full four minutes and here's what happened:

• She asked how I was doing while she pinged off my elastics.
• She got me to open and close a few times while she watched my bite. This was not a strange feeling as before, because I have been opening my mouth daily. She was very happy with everything.
• She put her finger in behind my lower teeth and pushed down on my jaw. I think she was checking to see if my jaw would fall off. It didn't though, so she seemed content.
• She didn't put any elastics back on. I'll repeat that...SHE DIDN'T PUT any elastics back on. She said I could wait until I got home and then I would need to put them on again. She wants them on most of the time because of me having to get the op twice. She wants the bone to heal well. She said not to open my mouth further than it wants to and that it will be a gradual build up over time

So my new orders are....that I may take my elastics off when I'm eating but once I've finished I must put them back on for most of the day. I will be taking them off three times a day. Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner and I will fill my face, as the saying goes. That's exactly what I did when I got home. I had a milkshake, lasagna, coleslaw and cheese and a small pot of trifle. I then took my mugshot that you see above outside in our beautiful sunshine and then cleaned my teeth and re banded. I see my surgeon in four weeks. She said three weeks but thanks to our NHS waiting times, three weeks means four weeks.

I have kept a blog for over 22 days and will continue to do so. In the hope of not boring my loyal readers....tumbleweed.... I think I will not do a post every day. As I am now over the first three weeks, my recovery has slowed down in the sense that there is not much more new information to tell you each day. So, I will probably do a post every few days when something amazing in my life happens like retiring my blender which I believe I can now do. Thank you my faithful servant.

So if I do not post everyday, do not worry I have not died, I am just gathering new material for this blog. I will keep it updated as I have another orthodontic appointment next week. Of course if there is a mass protest from you readers that you cannot live without a daily post, I will reconsider. This is not Good Bye, it's see you later, or maybe see you tomorrow, if I have time.

My surgeon said that my swelling was looking good, though I have noticed that my lips look huge. Now if I were a woman, I would be delighted and probably there are many women out there who would pay top dollar for lips like these, but I'm not so sure how great they look on me. Hopefully they will reduce in size as I don't want to be accused of using 'plump up lip gloss' which makes your lips look bigger. You can buy this product in 'Sephora' in the USA. It's a make up shop and it doesn't matter how I know that.

Lastly, when I lick the inside of my lower lip with my tongue (which I haven't did in so long as my teeth have been closed) it is the strangest feeling. It feels like I'm licking a slug. I haven't licked a slug before but that's what I imagine it would feel like. It feels really slimy. Maybe it's because my lip is numb but just thought you would all like to know that information. I aim to please!