Day 9

I am really starting to get annoyed with these 30+ stitches inside my mouth. I can feel every single one :( Hope they start to dissolve away soon. I have been a little slack with the ice packs lately. How often should I still be using them, I wonder? My bands are going ok, been wearing them all day and night, except for when I eat and do my jaw exercises. I'm glad they gave me a whole bag of them because I keep loosing track of where I put them when I first take them out. lost a fair few already, they just seem to disappear.

Today was my best friend's wedding and I made it to the ceremony at 1pm. I woke up this morning feeling good on the inside but not so convinced about the outside. I still find it extremely surreal when I look in the mirror every morning and see the different changes. I know I am still extremely swollen.. "but is that really me?!"

I am not a very patient person, and this journey of recovery is all about being patient and waiting to see the real results happen over time.... but in the mean time, it is a struggle to feel and look semi presentable, especially for a wedding.

Anyways the wedding was beautiful and perfect. I am so glad I got to see her on her special day. There was a fair few people at the church who I knew, but who did not know about my surgery. I sat in the back row with another friend, hoping that they would not notice me. I just didn't feel up to talking (which is hard anyway) to people about the surgery etc. It was awkward enough just sitting there with my swollen lips and mouth open like one of those side show clowns. haha.. I gave the beautiful bride a quick hug and was on my way. Took a Panadol for the drive home and went straight to bed for a 3 hour nap.

I was hoping to take some photos of me dressed and ready for the wedding, but my stupid digital camera has been playing up ever since my trip to fiji. All my photos at the moment have been taken from my laptop and the quality is pretty terrible. Here are the day 9 photos taken tonight. My friend curled my hair for the wedding, but they mostly fell out when I got home.

I can slightly smile, its a weird forced smile and very different to my post surgery one. It will be interesting to watch how the smile develops as my lips become less swollen and loosen up.