Day 7: Pucker, Purse, & Scrunch

Starting my "exercise regime" today per MD I should be doing these multiple times per hour.

• Pucker : kissy-face
• Purse : pulling lips as far back as possible
• Scrunch : scrunching my face and nose centrally as much as possible.

Have you ever worn a mud mask on your face?  It starts off feeling like that, like my skin is stiff and it is that discomfort/ borderline painful to begin to move. Then the underlying musculature starts to yell. If I hadn't had such an intensive anatomy course I probably would not really remember facial muscles, but I swear I can feel each individual one as it starts to contract.  The upper lip  and nose muscles are actually the most painful, so I'm nerding out a little trying to figure out if it is the levator anguli oris, the levator labii superioris, or the levator labii superioris alaeque nasi (spelled that one without looking Dr. Swanson, boo-yah!)

A little bit of Grey's Anatomy for your enjoyment.

On another progress note, I also slept in my own bed last night!  I was still propped up and had a giant pillow buffer between me and my husband (out of both our fears to keep my head elevated and out of harms way). Unfortunately, I still only slept for 4 hours increments (still waking up as soon as the pain meds start to wear off :-/), but psyche -wise it made me feel a little more myself to be in a real bed after a week of sleeping in the reclining chair in the middle of the living room.