being defanged

days 0-1

• all four out under general anesthetic
• bleeding, pain, etc.
• a lot of fatigue as the body adjusted to enter maximum overheal and worked off the anesthetic
• mouth can open ~1cm total before jaw lock - pain on the left side and the feeling of maxing the joint's capability out
• ice packs tied to the side of my head
• basically slept 100% of the time
• noticed the left side of my chin below my mouth is numb — minor nerve damage / jostling that will hopefully heal
• searched "dry socket" on the internet
  • regretted it

days 2-3

• mouth can't open any more than day 1
• bleeding subsiding
• pain now manageable with standard painkillers (ibuprofen, paracetamol)
  • ideal because i despise how opiate-based painkillers make my brain feel
• ice packs tied to the side of my head
• bruising begins to show

days 4-7

• mouth still can't open any more than day 1
• bleeding subsided
• pain pretty much gone
• can mostly eat softer foods (e.g., eggs, noodles, oatmeal)
  • extremely small amounts at a time
  • instant ramen and oatmeal become my new best friends
• bruising now looks like the operation involved a baseball bat
  • starts to flow down my neck a little
• no crunch-inducing food (rip, no chips)
• no soda (rip, no bepis)
• no alcohol (rip, no wine)
• no hot drinks (rip, no coffee)

days 9-10

• mouth still can't open any more than day 1
  • now quite concerned about this
  • searched symptoms on the internet, found the condition to be called "trismus"
    • various sites informing me i had turbocancer or some other incurable disease, as they usually do
  • started to take a toll on my mental health around this point — it's extremely frustrating being barely able to eat, and regularly accidentally opening the mouth "slightly too wide" and causing the muscle to hurt
• realised i lost a lot of weight — roughly 5kg so far
  • really didn't have that to lose
  • began proteinmaxxing to try and help recover it
• bruising begins to clear up

days 11-13

• only remaining concern is the fact that i still cannot open my mouth any more than day 1
  • called the surgeon about it on day 13, left a message, didn't hear back
  • warm compresses on the side with the locking muscle
    • doesn't really help, honestly
• chin still numb, but a minor concern honestly — nerves can take a while to get themselves together
• coffee and alcohol back on the menu

day 14

most places define 2 weeks as the beginning of "in the clear".

• emailed surgeon again about the mouth opening
• got a callback, was informed it's basically an extremely pulled muscle, in my jaw
  • going to take time, heatpacks, stretching, and more time
• ordered a new reusable heatpack

days 15-18

• slow but material progress
• heatpacks every couple hours
• muscle stretching exercises
  • open slowly to as far as possible until painful
  • hold
  • close slowly
  • repeat 5x

day 19

• ate a burger

i'd consider this a success. a bit wobbly in the middle which caused me a great degree of anxiety, but an entirely common and manageably set of side effects of the surgery.