Taken April 21st, 2011 (nine days post-surgery) when I decided to take the bandage off. It was getting disgusting and I don’t know why they expected me to keep it on longer.
The swelling in my lips was still at a ridiculous level, with special emphasis given to the middle of my upper lip. I still also drooled non stop, but at least now it wasn’t running down into the bandage. That’s part of what made it so disgusting.
I also began to recover muscle strength in my jaw. I still couldn’t talk in a manner that anyone could hear me, but I could part my teeth, if only just millimeters. Being unable to open my jaw I think was less about the rubber bands holding it shut, though that was without a doubt part of it, but more on that my jaw muscles were weakened a considerable amount from all the bruising and damage from the surgery.
That being said it was still a lot more than I had been able to do even a few days before. At this point I was relying on my second computer monitor with notepad blown up in huge letters to talk to my mom. It worked out pretty well but speaking is just simpler so being able to speak again, and be heard and understood, was something I was looking forward to.
Layton Aho 