I can't believe it's been a month since I passed out, fell, and severely broke my jaw. Thank you all so much for the well-wishes and concern! I'm recovering pretty well, and the doctor said that my jaw is healing very well.

I still don't have any answers as to WHY I passed out. I saw a neurologist on Friday and had an EEG. The neuro exam was completely normal, and I should get my EEG results in a couple of days. The neurologist said that he highly doubts it was a seizure, and he's pretty sure that my EEG will be normal as well. That is a good thing :)

I have another follow-up appointment tomorrow with the ENT surgeon who performed both of my surgeries. I'm not sure what he's going to do, because I know my jaw will still be wired for a couple more weeks. It takes 6 weeks for a bone to heal, and it's only been 4 weeks.

I also have an appointment on Friday with a cardiologist, hopefully to rule out any heart problems that could have caused the syncope (fainting). I doubt they will find anything. Something in my gut tells me that it had something to do with the ice cream I had eaten--as ridiculous as that sounds.

My friend Renee and I had made plans to have wine a couple of nights ago (Friday). I asked my surgeon about it, and he said it was okay as long as I stop taking my pain medication (oxycodone) for 24 hours before I have wine and for 24 hours after I had wine. So my last dose was on Thursday afternoon. By Friday morning, I was feeling a little sick. Friday night I was so sick that I called Renee to cancel. I was sick yesterday too--I've had chills, sweating, nausea, stomach cramps, and trembling. From what I read online, you can become physically dependent on oxycodone in about 4 weeks, which is how long I was taking it. I think that I am having withdrawl symptoms, which is really scary. When I first got the script in the hospital, I told them no--I was scared to take it, because I've heard that it's really addictive. They kind of pushed me into it, and told me that I would only get addicted if I didn't take it as prescribed. I was very careful to take it as prescribed. So anyway, I had planned on resuming the meds 24 hours after having the wine with Renee, but after all this, I've decided not to take it again. Today, I'm still feeling sick, but much better than Friday night. Hopefully I'll be back to normal within a couple of days. The jaw pain is still there, but it's not unbearable. I just constantly feel a tingling in my chin where my nerve was severed, and it drives me crazy.

ANYWAYS, the liquid diet isn't so bad. I usually have a fruit smoothie (made with Boost or Ensure) for breakfast and sometimes lunch, pureed soup for dinner, and pudding for my daily dessert. The pudding was really hard to eat at first, but now that I can open my teeth a little, it's much easier. (A couple of weeks ago, the wires that were holding my jaws completely shut were replaced with rubber bands. I still have metal things and wires running along my gums on top and bottom, but I can open my mouth a little now). I haven't been counting calories at all since I went into the hospital, and I've been doing really well with "intuitive" eating. I eat whenever I'm hungry and I eat a "normal" amount of food, stopping before I'm stuffed. I thought this would be good practice for when I get the wires off--hopefully I can continue eating this way even when I have a huge variety of foods to eat.

I've been running, but not very much. I still try to run every other day, but the most I've run in the last month has only been 3 miles. I'm scared to run outside (fear of passing out again), and the treadmill is SO BORING that I can't stand it. However, I've been toying with the idea of possibly running a full marathon in October 2011. It would give me a good reason to run once I get back in the groove of things.

Again, thank you so much for thinking of me. I hope you all have a great holiday!