Day 5 - Francis is plotting to kill me, I know it.

Today's craving: BK Chicken sandwich

Last night I was woken up with, you guessed it, another really bad spasm. I allowed myself a mini freakout at 3:30am and then told myself I needed to get some more rest, so I forced myself back to sleep. Regardless, when I woke up in the morning, I still felt pretty tired. Mom made me some breakfast (2 little cups of Kellogg's Instant Breakfast, and 2 cups of strawberry ensure) and I watched Erin Brokovich.

After the movie I got up to grab my robe and as I was lowering myself back onto the recliner, I was hit with another muscle spasm (Is this shit getting old for you too, yet?). This one had me in tears. I've been pretty good so far about just breathing through the pain and letting it pass but this one took me by such shock that I couldn't control it. I asked mom to page Dr. Fujimoto to see if we could get an answer about these spasms, and a couple of other questions we had brewing.

To try and take my mind off of it, we watched the Kevin James movie "Here Comes the Boom". It was a good distraction, and only had a few laugh out loud parts, so it didn't cause me too much pain to watch. After the movie Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for a while. Grandma snuck in some of her yummy food (that I didn't find hiding in the fridge until later). I was looking forward to them coming over so I was happy to visit with them.

The doctor called us back and let us know that these muscle spasms are totally normal. He said that my jaw has a muscle memory, so randomly it will "remember" that it wants to open and will try to. He says this will tend to happen more when I am very relaxed, which makes sense, because most of them have woken me up from sleep or happened shortly after. He also gave mom some information about the maximum dosage of the pain medications I can use each day. Brenda's a good nurse, but math has never been her strong suit :P Luckily, we were in the clear.

Mom was having a Matt Damon craving, so we decided to show Kevin "The Rainmaker". I went through this phase in 4th and 5th grade where I was obsessed with John Grisham's novels. I read all of his books, starting with The Client, and was convinced that I needed to move to Mississippi and practice Trial Law. It explains so much…So we watched The Rainmaker, and I was thinking it might be a fun challenge to watch all of the John Grisham novels that have been turned into movies while I am out on leave. Looking it up, it's only 7 movies, so totally do-able.

Francis had wanted to sit on my lap toward the end of the movie, and since we normally hate each other, I thought I would extend the preverbal olive branch and let him sit with me. We finished the movie and Mom and Dad were kind of play-fighting with each other. At that moment, time kind of slowed down. You see, Francis is a pacifist. This is ironic because he bites me all the time, and is generally a little a-hole. But he hates seeing anyone hurt someone else, even if its just in fun. So I saw mom wind up like she was going to sucker punch dad and I knew Francis was gonna freak. So I tried to yell "STOP" which I'm sure sounded something like "SSHHDRRRPPPP" but it was too late. Francis erupted, which scared me, and threw me back in the chair and led to the 3rd big muscle spasm of the day. Kevin brought me more pain meds and talked me off the ledge, while Francis really didn't give a shit. Just another day in the life.

In other news, all of the skin has chapped and peeled off my lips. You see, my tongue is trapped between the wires, so I can't lick my lips at all. I've been covering them in vaseline, but I guess it hasn't helped. Sorry if it's TMI, just trying to keep it real.

So, after a busy day, I sat down to the beautiful dinner below:

MMM beef broth with a side of antibiotic. 

Here's my progress picture for today:

I think it looks like some of the swelling has gone down from yesterday. And looks how nice and exfoliated my lips look! Silver lining I guess?

Thanks for reading!