Recovery Day 119

    Hey whats up everybody long time no talk! Its been a little over a month since i last posted a blog! Been busy with school and life in general! Where do i begin....My face is doing pretty good, i mean its crazy to think its almost 4 months since i had my surgery and i feel damn good! The swelling is pretty much non existent at this point and I am starting to feel my face again. Its mostly my lower jaw that is still numb and its starting to tingle so thats a good sign! Chewing is pretty much back to normal but i chew mostly on my right side because the left said tingles a lot! I have absolutely nothing to complain about! Apart from that my teeth are starting to look really good! In all my 20 years of life i have never been as happy with my teeth as i am now. I probably wont put those pictures up until they are completely done, so god willing in a year I'll be here writing that very post! Unless of course i just have a picture that looks great, then i'll post that first! 

     Now as far as eating goes its safe to say i am back to how i was before the surgery. The lowest i ever got was around 184 lbs and currently i am back to 204. So i decided that i am going to challenge myself to drop to 185 with diet and exercise and then bulk up to where i was in the summer which was around 210! I'm putting it on the blog that way i have to do it or else i'll never blog again in shame hahahaha I am giving myself until the end of January to do this so i'll be posting updates on how thats going!

   The first picture was taken June 28, 2011. Its a pretty huge difference and one better than i could have ever imagined. I still remember sitting in the doctors office and wondering if i really wanted to go through with it! Now here i am 119 days later! I want to thank all of you that have been reading this blog since day 1 and I am sorry for not updating more frequently! I've been debating on what other topics i can write about to keep this blog going so if you have any ideas please let me know! Alright guys thanks for reading and please, please, please remember to smile as often as possible! :) This is Juan "The Handsome" Blancarte signing out for now!

Recovery Day 86

   So just 4 more days and my jaw will be fully healed. Its crazy that its almost been 3 months. This is one of the best decisions I have ever made easily. The results have been amazing and i can't thank everyone enough that supported me through all of it. I'm glad i have been able to share it with all of you that follow this blog. I am forever indebted to all of you! Now i just came back from a weekend back in El Paso that i enjoyed very much. This time was different than the last time i was there, i felt weird being at home. It seriously felt like staying in a hotel! Then two days later i didn't want to leave! I guess i just needed to get used to things again. My favorite thing about going back home. apart from being with family and friends, is the food. Seriously there is nothing better than a homecooked meal. So i indulged this past weekend. I'm not even going to deny it. Tacos, tacos, and more tacos.

   I'd like to thank my dad for making these delicious little bites of heaven. Seriously as i write this and look up to see the picture my mouth is watering. I also had some green chicken enchiladas but i ate them before i even thought of taking a picture. Now this of course brings up the question about how my diet is looking now. So i took a picture of what i bought on my last grocery trip.

   Yup, I am pretty much eating anything and everything. I know the 5 dozen eggs might seem like a bit much but 3 dozen just wasn't cutting it. Hahaha I'm pretty much able to eat whatever i want now but i do avoid foods that are very hard because my bite is not 100% yet, I'd say its at 70%. I haven't weighed myself in a while but I'm still a good 30 pounds below my pre-op weight!

   I came back to my humble apartment to find two flags hanging next to my T.V. No lack of pride in our apartment! Hopefully we can continue to decorate the living room little by little because it is pretty bland right now. We're going to be living here a whole year so we wanna make it our own! My room has changed just a little bit. Its never ever clean so i took advantage and took a picture.

   Yeah i took this picture a few hours ago and its nowhere near that clean. And yes. Yes i am a Denver Broncos fan, thank you for noticing! Now a few people had been asking me for some gross pictures from the surgery. So my doctor did give me a little usb drive with some pictures in there that are less than flattering. So for all you freaks out there that enjoy looking at this stuff, this one is for you my friends. Feast your eyes on this!

   Isn't it lovely?! This is my mouth immediately after the surgery i was still knocked out when this was taken. You can see the clear splint that bothered me for 3 weeks in between my top and bottom teeth. Those rubber bands are there to hold my jaw together. You can see some of the stitch work but its mostly covered in blood. I have more pictures like this so i'll see if i post more later hahaha

   So my face is definitely progressing still week to week. I can't wait to post the before and after pictures a year from now! And i still have to wait for my braces to be taken off! So guys as always thank you for reading, i really mean that. God bless all of you! This is Juan "The Handsome" Blancarte, signing out for now.

Recovery Day 77

   Hey whats up guys, so i am on day 77 so in 13 days my jaw should be healed at least in medical terms. Its crazy that its almost been 3 months already. I still remember lying in bed and feeling almost depressed because of how bad recovery was. Now i am here and its looking like one of the best decisions i ever made! My face is feeling better than ever! I am chewing better than ever! No pain, all it is now is just letting my braces finish the job. I wish i had taken more pictures before the surgery because i am running out of comparison shots haha

 A lot of people ask me why i don't smile in my pictures and i want to save those for when i get my braces taken off. So if you guys are still reading this at that point, which i hope you are, then i will definitely post those up! I'll be going back to El Paso this weekend for some doctors visits so that should be fun. I really just want to eat. I finally got to go to Six Flags this past weekend and that was really fun, can't wait to go back. Basketball season is also right around the corner so i definitely want to go to some Spurs games! School has been very busy lately. A lot of late nights and early mornings studying but it'll be worth it in the end. I got quite a surprise this morning when my mythology study guide had around 250 names in it that i need to remember. Flash cards are currently being made. Oh the joy.

   So yeah i'll be back in El Paso this weekend fellas so if anyone wants to hang out just let me know! Unless I don't like you. Just kidding. Kinda. Hahaha Thanks to those who have been reading this thing since the beginning consistently and inconsistently i really appreciate it a lot, i wouldn't do it if there wasn't an audience! As always please share, and this is Juan "The Handsome" Blancarte signing out!

Recovery Day 68

   You know what really grinds me gears? The fact that it takes more than a few days to see differences in my face now hahaha I am very, very close to the end of this 90 day venture and the differences have become very subtle. Lately I have been obsessing over what kind of hairstyle and facials hair i should rock with this face! Sue me i am excited hahaha Lately i have had a few personal revelations, just as the sky is blue, i am a happy person. Seriously i don't think i was built to be sad. So from now on i shall be happy 110% of the time. Lifes too short and girls are too pretty. I know what you're thinking, "This idiot went out and found himself a girl", and the answer is no. I just feel different about a lot of things now. I should be done with college in 3 years and then what? The rest of my life. I really don't know how life can get any better than right now! I mean i have football, family, friends, food, health and a new found lease on life! God is great my friends, god is great. This is to one day looking back at my life and saying "Damn, i had one hell of life."

   This is Juan "The Handsome" Blancarte signing out. :))

Recovery Day 58

   Hey guys whats up! Just decided to put some before and after pictures today and share a little bit of my college experience with you guys! I just want to say you guys have not gotten the full college experience until you move away from home it is a totally different monster that involves hunger pains and some home sickness (not to mention forgetting to do laundry). It is an experience that i recommend everyone to try! It also, believe it or not, helps with school! Thats what everyone living here is here for! It gives you the feeling of being totally independent and doing your own thing! There are some drawbacks like the whole food thing but you'll eventually get into your own little routine!  I have class Monday thru Thursday, i take a shuttle to school every day, its a quick 5 min ride to school.

   Thats where i wait for the shuttle, and in the distance you can see the school just a little bit so its not event that far. My earliest class is at 8am and the latest i get out is at 3:15pm so its not that bad. The apartment complex has a pool and a nice little 24 hour gym. Now onto my little pantry where i keep the majority of my food.

   That right there is my little humble pantry as of two days ago, i have been trying to keep clear of junk food now, so i ate all of it in one weekend hahaha. I do also have a mini-fridge in my room that has mostly drinks and yogurts!

   Food is definitely one of the things i miss the most. I was sitting in classical mythology the other day dreaming about green chicken enchiladas. It gets bad hahaha Cravings come and go but it isn't too bad after a while. Thats the biggest change i have noticed is having to restock on groceries. I was so used to waking up saturday mornings and having the fridge restocked and now i am the one that has to be aware of what is needed.

   The progression above is Day 0, Day 7, Day 14, and Day 58 i believe! So yeah the swelling is of course very hard to see now. I would say the surgery was a major success! The doctor says i still have some swelling that needs to go down and some parts that are still going to move just a little but all in all i am overjoyed with these results! So guys as always thanks for reading, this is Juan "The Handsome" Blancarte signing out.

Recovery Day 53

  Guys i decided to blog because i had an awful experience today! I decided to shave my whole face for the first time since surgery and holy crap! I couldn't feel certain parts of my face and it was so scary and surreal shaving it! I couldn't feel anything! It didn't even feel like i was shaving and i didn't know if i was putting too much pressure or if i was about to cut skin. It was a Bottom 5 Experiences of my life without a doubt. You have not become a man until you shave your face while it is numb. I wanted to cry, i didn't cry, but i sure wanted to. Good news is i did finish shaving without hitting the jugular. Here are the pictures!

   The main reason i shaved was because i wanted to see the scar lefts behind by the incisions on both sides of my jaw. The reason for those incisions was to take a little muscle out and put it in my lip. Im really happy with how everything turned out but i am not looking forward to shaving again! :( This is Juan "The Handsome" Blancarte signing out!

Recovery Day 50

   Hey guys so i am little over the halfway mark and there haven't been any real changes since i last blogged. I finally got to see my doctor on Monday and he said things are going awesome and better than expected! I don't have to make an appointment until January so thats good news! Seems like everything is all coasting until everything is finally healed. They replaced all my broken brackets and now the rest of the job is left to my braces. I have to be back in El Paso in about a month to get them adjusted. Food wise i am eating a little of everything but i do avoid certain foods that piss me off because they take so long to chew hahaha! One of the biggest changes i would say is the image i have of myself. I never thought it would affect me this much. I am not myself yet, what i mean is that i am not the same Juan from few months ago. I feel more quiet and a little more laid back. I feel very insecure about my face even though my friends tell me i look good. Its weird having the same face for 20 years and then just having a totally different one overnight. I was always used to being the loud one in class and now i am the quiet one. I am not used to looking like this, my doctor said it will probably take a whole year for me to feel completely comfortable with myself. I know eventually i will be back to how i was before.

   On a brighter note i had a good day today, the only bad thing about going back home is that it feels like i mess up the rhythm i have over here. I do enjoy school, and it is becoming a lot more interesting. Today i had the chance to meet radio host Glenn Beck, i have never been too much into politics but it does intrigue me a little. I am pretty sure if i looked into it enough my interest would grow and i could handle myself in a conversation. My friends David and Celeste are very much into politics to the point where they have decided as of now to become Political Science majors. So i will definitely be trying to inform myself  a little more over the next few months.

   This weekend while i was back home i went with my mom to visit one of her customers who works at the hospital i was at. The conversation we had eventually led into the topic of bullying. Guys i have to say bullying is a major issue, i will admit i was selfish with bullying as in i only thought about myself when it happened. I do remember being bullied as a child and its not one of my favorite experiences. The reality is millions of kids are bullied each and every day. It is ridiculous, its all over the place! It is a HUGE issue and i think it is one that can be easily handled. If you guys ever run across someone who needs a friend or is in a tough situation not even necessarily bullying but just in a tough spot just give them a smile or try to befriend them. It bothers me a lot when someone is being bullied or being laughed it for a very immature reason. I have never stood up for anyone or said anything to stop the bullying and i don't know why i kept my mouth shut. I really do regret that. So remember guys just smile and you never know you might just make someones day! It is that easy! This is Juan "The Handsome" Blancarte signing out for now!