Things I HAD to share...MMA Candidates...

There are many things that happen physically to your body and face thru this process. Besides looking like Jay Leno...What i will share with you is only my experience, I can be sure that you may have a very different experience and this may or may not be helpful but my intention is to share everythign possible that can prepare you better, so here it goes:

Your face......outside of knowing that it WILL hurt for a little while....know that my experience will be different since I had to have 2 surgerys. I will share what i felt after the first surgery, actully the ONLY difference with the second surgery is that the second has been a LOT more painful and much longer recovery. Also with the second since there were more pain killer meds, my stomach was also in disarray. The rest of the pain to the nth degree after second it must be, by logic, because my poor jaw and mouth were already sore from going thru the first MMA surgery of 6 hours....then messing with my sour mouth again....is probably just a natural response. I will talk about this later, as most of you, probably all of you who read this blog that are going to go thru MMA ...So speaking of my face. Physically, I was swollen for 3 weeks the surgery bruces dont show up until 4-6 days later and these begin to turn all kinds of color. My lips were pealing and constantly shedding and hurting, I imagine it must be from all the stretching the surgeon has to do, afterall, all i had were to tiny incistions in my cheak. The stitches from those incisions are cut but Dr. after 5 days from the surgery. My other stitches were internal and they disolved. The lips begin to gain their natural state after many many tubes of chapstick...I am not kidding. The other thing that happens after 2 weeks, is that you begin to feel inside the mouth, so you begin to feel these horrible wires that are holding your arch bar.....they are not nice...they are sticking stright into your mouth - so make sure you get some wax from your doctor an shape it all over. You must, i reinforce, get a lot of little boxes of wax. I am very picky with hygene and my mouth....dentist is one i never missed since I was very young - every 6 months. So with this in mind, wax comes off every other day, when i do a deep cleaning....I will talk about the toothbrush soon.....but i always have a bottle of seilene water ( i think that is what is called) ask the hospital to give you plenty in your doggy bag. I rinse with this because it heals your wounds.....then i also bought ALCOHOL - FREE mouth wash.... so i do both ( I told you I was picky). Some people buy baby toothbrush, I did too. What i found works best is my electrical toothbrush, but 'brush' itself is very gentle....the brand is %$%%^&^&&***.

(Comercial)
ohh yes, before I forget, Johnson baby powder....is magical - they put it on my chest and arms at Stanford and I felt so good - so I now buy it and put it on twice a day - its refreshing and comforting ----no wonder babys are mostly happy after they get their powder ;o). I forgot about it and I garantee you, it too will make a difference for you.

My face around my chin area developed little bumps, like a rash. You cant see them but you can certainly feel them. So, i wash my face 2-3 times a day. I can feel the pressure of my hands and cant really do a good job of controlling how hard i press, because most of my face (eyes down) is numb...chin area mostly. So i decided to use one of my make up brushes...since I dont use make-up, i must have been with my friend Adriana and bought it out of impulse. But glad I did. I took that brush and put glicerine soap and then i can see (and not have to feel the pressure) on the mirror that I have put soap all over my face. I rince with luke warm water. After, with the SAME brush, which is magically gentle on your face, I put moisturizer, anything tha has hydration and is good for your face...if you are man reading this, get Aveeno, its not girly, if you are woman - you have tons of this all over your bathroom - any face cream...but make sure you load it on....again i think this is a reaction from stretching your face. THIS IS MY EXPERIENCE, as I said, may not be yours, we are all different!

What happens with my body? yes, I am getting to that. Good news is you will loose weight...eating thru a syringe and only liquid can get crazy. so I will create a menu and helpful hings section. I LOVE to cook, so everyday, part of my energy and action goes to cooking ( I never thought in my life, I wouls say this) so strange things happen during recovery from this surgery, one of them was really knowing that cooking without being able to taste is really hard but it is still my number one past time in recovery. I am lucky my parents love me, they eat everythign I cook and every day is a different country. They sometimes end up eating also some of my recipies I will share in this blog...yummy soups! So, on with what happens to my body ( as I still experience it)...YOU must try to move as much as possible, i did not do this in days where the pain was great (most after the second surgery). After the firs surgery, i was up and full of energy in 1 week maxed...My recovery was fast. On this second one, it has not been fast and it has been a lot more painful...so this is where the famous question which comes first he chicken or the egg? comes to mind. The pain would not le me get up from my 'throne" as my dad calles it.....otherwise your best friend thru this process ' the couch'. So since you cant get up, you dont walk or exercise...which is actully worst. So I was in a lot of pain througout my mouth, and still am, primarily my lips. Then my stomach was really mest up for a few days. I think it was all the meds and not eating a lot...that has passed, thank GOD. I WAS VERY and I put in capital letters and continue to be...constipated. I do fiber in my shakes twice a day, I dont eat foods that dont facilitate the process...I have to take magnessian milk, discusting stuff that they insists is "cherry flavor" ....lots of pineaple, papaya and prune shakes....I even have issues with all this...So I hope it goes better for you - but dont feel OMG if you are constipated. This of course with all the meds, does not feel like a very healthy body....and like my mouth hygene, I pay tons of attention to food (choose organic vs. anythign) etc. I do have a stomach of a rock as I have grown up and traveled thru many third world countries, so my stomack can take anything...but its in pretty sad shape from meds and not getting rouphage ( i think the call it) from vegies and salads....just liquids -

I also experienced something wierd. My body temperature. It woudl drop like in 5 secons to being freezing and then it would also go up very high. It reminded me so much of being in Florida...its either scorching hot outside, saunas are free there, or freezing goin into any office, mall, resturant....So not sure what this is, maybe home sick =).

well I will write more on this experience soon, I am sure things will come to mind. For now I leave you with below interesting thing and sayings.







This was read at one of my sweet friend's mom's funeral… Felicia, on the right. Mrs. Rose was a pistol and very involved with her community in NY.


From Mrs. Rose Sevilla:
To laugh often and much to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;to appreciate beauty, to find the bestin others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy childa garden patch or redeemedsocial condition; to know evenone life has breathed easier becauseyou have lived. This is to have succeeded.




Isn't Beautiful?

Search Engine - UNBELIVABLE - try it.

This is the coolest search engine in the world - it is awesome! and enter any question...really..and watch what happens. I asked for where is the nearest pharmacy, also typed 'mountain bike' why are we in Iraq? ...but go ahead...try it. I was blown away by the technology...the kitty is just cute - here it is:

http://www.msdewey.com/