Week 6: OMG Rubber Bands?!?!

(July 13th, 2016)

My day started off so great! Everything seemed to be healing well, I've had pretty much zero pain for a few days now, and I've been on a roll with my workouts - I even had another one planned for this afternoon. And then... I met with my orthodontist. 

All Orthodontists Should Have to Wear Braces! 

I'm pretty sure that nice older man posing as my orthodontist is really just a sadist. Or maybe all orthodontists are sadists. (Like that dentist from Little Shop of Horrors, you know?) 

Things started off normally. He took out my wires, gave them a little bend, and put them back in. Then, he said something to his assistant about my needing rubber bands. At this point, I'm not shocked/scared. I've had rubber bands before and, although they were kinda annoying, really they were fine. As soon as she put these bands in, though, I could FEEL the tightness. O.M.G. They were so f-ing tight. (Each one is hooked onto my top 4's, loop down to my bottom 4's, then looped onto my top 3's in a "V" shape.) I could barely open my mouth. I could TELL they would hurt, and quickly. 

As soon as I went home, I had some delicious homemade noodles that I made with my parents the other day and then I immediately took some Advil. 

Three hours later, I sent the following text to my friends:

I'm sorry to be a big cry baby, but I need to explain to you guys my dilemma right now. So 6 of teeth feel like they're slowly being ripped out of my skull. But I can't exactly hold my teeth completely shut because then the contact between all of my upper and lower teeth hurt. So I have to keep this constant pressure to slightly keep my teeth apart.  But long term that just makes those 6 teeth hurt more! So. Sad. 

A few hours after that, I didn't even have to worry about it anymore cuz I couldn't open my mouth AT ALL. Those 6 teeth hurt, AND all of the other teeth that had any contact with each other hurt as well (from the pressure of the rubber bands holding my bite together). 

Oh, and when the husband came home from dinner I made those noodles again. This time, as soon as I put a spoonful into my mouth, I knew it was over. No chewing on anything. No noodles. No tofu. No super soft potatoes. Just no. I swallowed a few spoonfuls, felt totally sorry for myself because food doesn't TASTE like anything when you can't chew, and gave the rest to hubby. Back to shakes for me. 

Am I pathetic or what?!?! Sorry. 

Homemade Noodles

Ok, I'll stop complaining now and show you those delicious noodles that I can no longer eat. I can pretty much guarantee that you've never eaten, seen, or even heard of them before. I've never seen them in any restaurant and nobody outside of my family has ever heard of them before. In Chinese, they're called "mian pian." Literally translated, it means "noodle sheets" or something to that effect. Basically, they're flat little squares of noodles. You make the dough, then cut/pull them into little logs for later use. Then, when you're ready to actually make the noodles, you flatten the logs along the edges, pull them out long, and then you pinch off little squares that get dropped into a pot of boiling water. (They're kinda similar to "la mian" which is "pulled noodles" or this other thing called "dao xioa mian" which is "knife-cut dough." These can be found in certain Chinese restaurants.) Anyway, I took some pictures for you, cuz why not?

That's what they look like after they've been pulled long.
You could just dump them in the water like this.

And this is the finished product. I guess it's kinda like soup?

This is one my favorite foods. Like, on every one of my birthdays, this is what my parents make me. Usually we just eat it with chicken broth, but I went crazy when my parents came to visit me and I made this soup (which is also one of those very particular dishes that none of my friends have ever heard of). I say I went crazy cuz it takes 2 hours just to chop up all the ingredients. It's called "sao z" which may or may not translate into "soup for things." (I totally made that up.) You can pretty much put anything you want in it, but I used... 

• beef
• garlic
• scallions
• potatoes
• king oyster mushrooms
• daikon
• firm tofu
• napa cabbage

It's definitely a comfort food for me. So not being able to eat it made me super sad. 

New Video Series

I decided that my weekly videos are super boring and non-informative for anyone who happens to stumble upon them on YouTube. So, from now on, I'm going to do a little series of videos talking about why I got the surgery, the surgery itself, and so on. (I obviously haven't really thought it through yet. I'll work on it, though.) Anyhow, today's video is about why I decided to get the surgery. While I've already covered this topic in my very first post, in the video I talk about it in a different way. Feel free to skip it, though, if you want. Haha. Again, these videos are mostly for me to look at a year from now - just to see how my swelling and speaking is progressing. 

And my face today...

See the smile? Yeah, this is before the rubber bands.

Pain: 5/10

Numbness: Bottom gums numb on the outside portion. Chin area and right side of jaw still tingly/numb, but getting better. 

Discomfort: I HATE RUBBER BANDS!!!!! So. Much.

Weight: -4 lbs

(Black items stayed the same as the last post. RED items changed slightly.) 

~m