Day 63: It's a runner! It's a chewer! It's Jake!!/No More Chomping at the Bit to Chomp.

It's been 9 weeks, believe it or not, since the surgery. I had an appointment with my oral surgeons (both of the one's that operated on me were there this time) on tuesday. I apologize for the late posting but school is getting really hectic and we had a test on wednesday. But, it was an appoint filled with good news. They cleared me for running! They also said I could take off my rubber bands in the front. I hope this is okay with my orthodontist! It is so much nicer not having those on. I found them to be really annoying! I still have rubber bands on my back molars, which doesn't bother me. Despite being able to run, I still cannot play basketball or other "contact sports" for at least 3 weeks (12th week after the surgery) as this is when the bone is likely to be fully set and healed. At the appointment, they took another X-ray, the 3rd since the surgery, counting the 2 they took on the same day (the day of the dog incident). I can't wait to take my radiology class so that I will be able to better interpret the x-rays. To me, it looked like my bottom jaw, where they broke it, was still broken. It definitely was not as dense as the surround bone. But, it feels great and the oral surgeons said everything looks "faaaantastic."

They didn't mention anything about chewing at this appointment, but at the last one the oral surgeon said that after week 7 I could begin to try chewing foods harder than scrambled eggs and work my up as I felt comfortable. Well, today I took my first bite! While to other people it probably just looked like a grad student happy to be getting a free lunch, pizza at that, to me it was like fireworks were going off as I bite completely through the tip of the sliced pizza. I cannot remember the last time I was able to bite completely through a piece of pizza with my front teeth, without having to gnaw or rip at the pizza. I later told one of my classmates that I took my first bite earlier today and how exciting it was for me. She got a laugh at of it. (Hopefully, this means we can go on a dinner date soon!)

When the oral surgeons gave me the "okay" to run at the appointment, a huge smile came across my face. Then, I realized I had to drive back to school, which takes me about 3 hours. That's the last thing an athletic guy like myself, who has been unable to run for 63 days, wants to do after being cleared to run-sit in a car for 3 hours. Running that 175 miles on the other hand, sounded more like it! But that obviously didn't happen and because of my hectic school week, I was just now able to squeeze time in for a run, today. It wasn't easy, and I can only imagine how hard it looked. Surprisingly, I did have some discomfort in my top jaw with my first several strides. It quickly went away but it definitely made me think twice about going on the run. I ran most of it in the grass next to the road to cut down on some of the pounding, and therefore the jarring my jaw would have to suffer through. I ran just under 2 miles in 16 minutes, faster than I thought I would be able to do. But, like I said, it wasn't easy and I was hurting. The next couple of days should be interesting as the soreness sets in. When it was over, as I stood in the shower after most of the "out-of-shapeness" wore off , I began to feel that "good" feeling that I have been missing the last 63 days. I can't wait to get back in shape and get on some longer runs before it gets too cold, and before my other leg goes out on me-that's another story, or maybe even worthy of a blog.

As far as the tickling in my chin goes, it has morphed into just a weird feeling whenever I touch my chin. I can feel something, but it just doesn't feel right. It's hard to explain, but I mentioned this to my Histology teacher and he gave me the 4-1-1 on the nerves in the area and said that this is common and to be expected as the nerves wake-up. In parts of my chin, I will touch it and feel a sensation of sorts in another area of my chin or jaw line. It's a really odd feeling, but at the same time, it's kind of fun. I have found myself poking or tapping on my chin in the middle of lectures to try to pin-point these areas. I have also found myself being starred at for this, well I hope that's why they are starring haha.

But things continue to improve with each week and I am now setting my sights on getting my braces off ASAP! I will see both the oral surgeon and orthodontist in 2 weeks. I hope to get a timeline on the braces at one of these appointments-I hoping for just another 4 months of them, but I realize it depends on how well my teeth respond.

This has been a long enough procrastination session, so I better get back to studying.

"Ya'll come back, now."