The Thin Man’s Plot Thickens

A week post-surgery on Tuesday, Adam had lost twelve pounds.  This is totally unacceptable.  So I’ve been crunching numbers on how to increase his calorie intake.  Since the fluids have had a tendency to fill him quickly, I’ve settled on 5 “meals.” Each meal has to consist of at least 560 calories and 17 grams of protein for 2800 calories/day and 85 gram of protein/day.  I’ve pretty much forbidden drinking water since water has no calories.

His swelling has gone down considerably. Although he’s still a little swollen and numb, with the weight he’s lost, he looks almost back to his old self.  He has some pretty tight rubber bands holding his teeth together. He’s not as intelligible as he was even last week when he tries to talk.  This morning at his orthodontist appointment, he was shown how to change the bands himself and encouraged to go 3 hours/day without them.

But the plot thickens in my husband’s jaw saga.  The orthodontist this morning said that the plate on the left side of his jaw needs to be removed.  (*aaaarrrrgggghhhh!*)  However, apparently the orthodontist says that by removing this plate, he can–through orthodontics–move the back teeth on the left closer together faster thereby speeding up the recovery time by 3-4 months.  The removal of the plate will be an outpatient procedure that will be done at the surgeon’s office next Thursday.

He has yet to have a good night’s sleep even with a sleeping pill that the doctor prescribed.  Please pray that he can get some good rest.  He’ll start back to work from home half days next week with his new job.