Today was an easy recovery day. I didn't really have any issues with my jaw. As I've been saying over the last few blog entries, the kind of large plastic splint that's been attached to the back of my upper jaw for the last six weeks will finally be removed Wednesday morning. From what I've read on other blogs, it's a good moment, but it's not going to be incredible. I know it'll be postitive though, as having it removed will make it much easier to clean my mouth when brushing and rinsing. Food will no longer get stuck around the splint.

The photo shows the tool I use to add and remove my rubber bands ("elastics") and I added a dime to show the size of the rubber bands. They're pretty small. The rubber bands attach to several hooks and brackets on the front of my teeth. I was told a few of them will be removed on Wednesday. I don't know if this will be the end of using rubber bands to help move my lower jaw into position, but I hope so. I probably have a few more weeks to go with them. I've been wearing rubber bands 12 hours at night, usually 10pm-10am, and the rest of each day I remove them. I read on a few blogs that once my rubber bands come off for good, my jaw opening should naturally get to the right size just by me chewing food, since chewing is exercise for the jaw muscles.

I'm still waiting for numbness to go away in parts of my face. I expect that to happen soon. I still feel tingly on and around my mouth. It's not uncomfortable at all. I just wish I had feeling back by now, but I know it takes a long time.

It seems like more than 90% of the swelling is gone. I can't tell yet if my face is still barely swelling as the difference between 10% swelling and 0% swelling might be too difficult to see without a side-by-side comparison. Whatever, the case, all swelling will be gone at the max one year after surgery, though it should be gone by 3-6 months.

If you've been following my blog, you know I have been selling stuff on eBay like crazy. It's one of many things that helps to pass the time during the early weeks of recovery. It's a lot of fun once you've got several items up and people are bidding. Every time my phone makes the eBay jingle, I run over to see what happened. I've made over $1,000 in the last six weeks just by selling stuff I don't use anymore, and it's really not that difficult. I'd say the hardest part might be finding the right size box for shipping since I don't have a car and can't drive up and down streets looking for a box out to be recycled. Other than that, printing shipping labels is easy and you can schedule package pickups so you don't have to visit the post office. Last week I put up a 61-key Yamaha keyboard with a stand, bench, pedal and dust cover, and chose "local pickup only" since I didn't want to have to ship the large items in several boxes. I didn't expect that one day later a woman from Staten Island would contact me and buy it. She's picking it up this week. eBay does get some small fees from my sales, but still, it's amazing how easy it is to sell things online. It's much easier than I previously thought and likely much easier than several years ago. If you have something, chances are there's someone out there willing to pay for it. Give it a shot with one item, and you'll get addicted.

First Surgery Recovery Day 40: Still a bit numb, eBay selling is fun