Updates No Longer Daily

Hi everyone,

I've decided to stop doing daily updates. By now, people are probably pretty tired of seeing my ugly mug. Plus, the day to day improvements are so minor that they don't justify spending 30 minutes every day taking pictures, cropping, uploading, and blogging.

However, I'll still post updates whenever there's a large improvement. If I ever get feeling back in the inside of my mouth, you can be sure I'll blog about that. If I get my sense of taste back, you'll see many posts of joyful celebration.

Day 44: The Element Lounge

Today was the birthday of Michelle Hong, one of my fellow former LEAP interns. Sharon and I went to her house in South San Francisco for some mingling. Since I can eat solid (albeit soft) foods now, I was able to enjoy a diced up Subway sandwich, some fried rice, and a birthday pie. Afterwards, we went to the Element Lounge in the city for some social drinking and dancing. It's free to enter if you get in line before 11:00.

The place was dark and crowded. In fact, the bathrooms occupied about a third of the space. My inner architect in me wants to boast that I could have designed a better lounge in my sleep. Still, it was nice to get out and move the blood, so to speak.

San Francisco was freezing cold as usual. However, the chilly wind was much appreciated at the end of the night to counter the steam room. It's amazing how sweaty you can get by trying to emulate Napoleon Dynamite on the dance floor.

Mouth Opening Update:

Day 43: I Can Eat!

It has been six weeks since the surgery. Today, Dr. Surpure gave me the green light to chew soft foods. So after leaving Kaiser, I opened up a box of Google sushi, chopped it up, and ate!

Unfortunately, I still can't open my mouth very wide. So I had to really struggle to put the sushi chunks in to my mouth. It was also very difficult to chew because I still don't have feeling in my gums. Half the time, I don't know if I'm chewing sushi or my own flesh.

I'm hoping that when I get my rubber bands off permanently, I'll be able to open my mouth wider. Right now, any progress I make while the bands are off are instantly negated when I reattach the bands after brushing. I'll be visiting my orthodontist, Dr. Pourami in Los Angeles next Tuesday. Then, I'll visit Dr. Surpure again.

A note to my fellow jaw surgery patients, try to avoid having one doctor in Norcal and one doctor in Socal. You end up spending a fortune on plane tickets.

Mouth Opening Update:

Day 42: The Return To The Bay Area

I'm back in Norcal. I'm tired. Tomorrow, I return to work. But at least it will be Friday. That is all.

Day 41: Acne Attack

I used to take Doxycycline to keep my acne in check. However, I haven't been taking any since the surgery. Part of the reason is because antibiotics give me a stomach ache unless I take it with food. And since I haven't really been eating solid food for a month... well, you do the math.

The downside is that my acne is back, with a vengeance. In the meantime, I'm going to try to stem the tide with Tretinoin (Retin-A) and Benzoyl Peroxide. The former sheds my skin so oil doesn't get trapped so easily. The latter dries the skin so I don' t always look like I'm glistening.

TMI, I know...

Mouth Opening Update:

Day 40: The Big Blue Bus

The San Francisco MUNI... infamous for its collection of eclectic bums and 1960s left-behinds.

The Santa Monica Big Blue Bus... similar to the MUNI, but with slightly less crazies.

Back in my freshman year, if I wanted to go home, I had to ride the Big Blue Bus to Union Station. This was a 60-80 minute trip that entailed getting on Line 1, traveling to Santa Monica and Bundy, then transferring to Line 10 just to go in the opposite direction. The train ride would take another 80 minutes.

I kid you not, the Big Blue Bus is 60 minutes of sheer terror. I once sat near a crazy woman who had... get this... a whip! She kept smacking the guy sitting next to her and calling him her bitch. I suppose he was the 'sub' in their relationship. Everyone squirmed uncomfortably and pretended not to notice.

Four years have passed. Today, I dared to embark on another Big Blue Bus adventure. The trip was long as usual, but ended up being relatively tame in terms of its cast of characters. Once I got to Union Station, I waited about 10 minutes for the woman in front of me to figure out how to buy a ticket from a machine. But that was about it.

I rode the Metrolink to Riverside, played some Advance Wars 2 on my laptop before it ran out of juice, and had a little shut eye. So now, I'm back in the boonies. Home sweet home.

Mouth Opening Update:

Day 39: Apple Sauce And Ensure

These last few days, I've been eating delicious cinnamon applesauce and chocolate flavored Ensure. It's nice to walk around Westwood again. With the basketball season effectively over, I can now focus my energy on other things.

Last night, I introduced Nataly to the Spider-Man mythos. First, we watched both Spider-Man movies. Then, we watched all the trailers and special documentaries on the upcoming Spider-Man 3. Afterwards, I channeled by inner Seth Cohen (read: comic book geek) and explained the entire Peter Parker chronology. I didn't get into the clone saga and Ben Reilly because it was too complicated. But with the help of Wikipedia and Google Image Search, I was able to give a basic tutorial of the Sinister Six and Spider-Man's biggest challenges: grades, rent, his job, and the death of Gwen Stacy.

I was raised by pop culture.

Mouth Opening Update:



Rawr! Run, Pinocchio!

Day 38: April Fools!

Wow! I totally didn't pull any pranks this year. That's right! No phone calls. No whoopee cushions. No cakes in the face. No borderline sexual harassment among friends.

Instead, I got a little annoyed at the Internet's pathetic attempts to con people with fake stories and lame tales of new video games that will never be and pop culture trivia pulled out of its collective butt. Google's Gmail Paper was pretty funny though. I must admit that WHoA (Warcraft: Heroes of Azeroth) was good too.

This must be a sign that I'm getting old and losing my satirical edge.

Mouth Opening Update: