15 Days Post Op

Its been a few days since I have updated, so I'll recap:

First Post Op Appointment- They were pleased with how I looked (bite and incisions). For some reason it felt like I had 4 bands in my mouth, but there were actually only 2! Which she replaced and showed me how to in case I needed to before my next appointment (June 9th). I'm pretty confused as to why I only have 2 bands. All the people who I read about before surgery had a mouth full of rubber bands. I'm hoping this is OK. She also showed me my X-ray. She told me that if everything looks good at my next appointment, then she wouldn't see me for about 5 more months. If thats the case, I will request that a copy of my records me sent to me at that time so that I can put up that X-ray!

Since then, nothing has really changed. The swelling seemed to go down SLIGHTLY, but this morning its back again. I'm more swollen around my neck and chin today. I'm just hoping its because I haven't been sleeping as upright as I should be recently... and not an infection or problem like that.

Heather (or any other post-surgery friends), do you have what feels like a hard "pocket" of swelling near your jawline? Its been like that since the swelling was down enough for me to feel the area. I'm hoping its just normal swelling.

I haven't taken any pictures since my last post, but I will hopefully take some tonight and post later.

I've been able to open a little wider; its so weird to feel like you are opening to a normal extent, then look in the mirror and it only be a little wider than the width of a finger! Can anyone tell me why this is affected by surgery? I would think that since the joint isn't actually manipulated that after the swelling was down you would be able to open normally. Why does lengthening the bone affect how wide you can open for so long? Is it muscular?

My mom thinks maybe I've been doing too much lately (talking, errands)... but I feel like I've barely done anything. As a whole, I feel perfectly normal. So its difficult to tell myself that I'm NOT normal yet, even though I feel that way. I'm home for the summer to heal and just be at home for a while before I head back for Fall semester.

Heather was saying that she has been feeling those "waking up" sensations of the nerve; I have not been feeling any. Somewhat worrying... but even if my sensation doesn't come back at all, its not terrible. I've pretty much already gotten use to it anyway. The only thing is when I have a drop of food or drink on that area, I don't notice it.

Heather, were your stitches on your cheeks the dissolving kind, also? Are they still there? Mine are. I'm not really sure how long they are suppose to remain there. I haven't felt my incision stitches coming out yet like you have. I can't believe you are still having pain. Its so strange how different this surgery can be for people. I hope that your pain/discomfort quickly goes away!!! My surgeon never even mentioned physical therapy. I wasn't aware that it was an option for this type of recovery.

Oh, one more thing. Every since surgery, I have been coughing like crazy. At first I just thought it was because my throat felt so raw and beat up. My throat doesn't hurt anymore, but I'm still coughing and having to "clear" my throat all the time. Has anyone else experienced this? I was on antibiotics for a sinus infection before surgery, then antibiotics after surgery so hopefully that cleared up anything. And since I don't have any other symptoms, it shouldn't be a virus...

Guess thats all for now. I'll try to get those pictures up soon.

10 Days Post Op

First off, good luck to Holly tomorrow! You'll do great! We're all thinking of you!

Tomorrow is my first post-op appointment. I'm curious to see how many rubber bands they put on me. I only have 4 right now (2 on each side), and they aren't really noticeable at all... especially since I can't smile too wide yet. Will they do molds? Seems strange to not allow me to chew, but do molds that have to be ripped off and tugged like crazy. Maybe just X-rays? I'm also going home tomorrow (5 hour drive). I had the surgery where I'm in school because there is a "top" hospital here associated with the university and my orthodontist's office is just down the hall from the surgeons. Apparently this proximity allows them to communicate well (though I have not seen any evidence of that.) I really ended up liking my primary surgeon and the resident who was involved in my surgery (met about 3 before I met the one who would actually be doing the surgery). One thing I remember about surgery, my primary surgeon was there when I was brought to the "pre-surgical area." As soon as she saw me she, she asked if I was ready and gave me a hug. It was comforting.

Surprisingly enough, I feel practically like my old self. Granted, this was my first day out and about (did a little shopping and a few errands), but I really feel great (knock on wood). I
NEVER expected this. I was expecting the worst, so that if it wasn't that bad, I would be pleasantly surprised, and if it was, I would be prepared. I thought I would still be sleeping constantly, unable to speak, and in pain. I'm happy to report that that is not the case.

My swelling seems to be at a standstill, but it basically just looks like I've had my wisdom teeth out now. The bruising has gone down almost completely on my right side, but still remains on my left side and top of my neck. The numbness hasn't changed. I'm not sure when/if it will, but I feel lucky that its only a small part of my lip and an area of skin on my chin and cheek. I was so worried about my whole lip being numb.

I still feel like I have an overbite, but as long as my teeth are in a correct "bite", I don't really mind if I still have that look. Its definitely better than it was. Aesthetically, I might have benefited from a genioplasty, but thats just more healing that I would have had to do, so I'm ok with the surgeons' decision not to do it (Which is what I was hoping for in the first place-- not to do it.)

New foods: chili; yogurt with a spoon instead of through the zip-n-squeeze; ice cream in its true form, not melted or thinned with milk.

Hope everyone is having a great week! It was a beautiful day here :)

Day 10 Pictures










My eyes are still puffy too.

One Week Post Op

One week down!































I can't wait for the swelling to go down and I'm not such an oval-face anymore.

This picture is right after surgery: my nose and forehead were already bruising



















Not much to report. Swelling has gone down some and my throat is getting better. My energy is definitely coming back also.

New food accomplishments:
-"spaghetti-Os" and "chicken-Os" which is just like chicken noodle soup. I manage to put a noodle-O on my tongue and just swallow it whole. Doesn't do much for taste, but it just feels good to have some non-liquid food on my tongue!
-carnation milk shake with chocolate ice cream
-cream of potato soup

I'm already so sick of sleeping upright. My rear just doesn't like all this responsibility! One of the books we have said to sleep upright for 2 weeks.

I'm not really sure how my profile looks yet, but I know things aren't exactly where they will be because of all the swelling.

For my pre-surgery friends:
-buy vaseline lip therapy tubes! They are a life saver.
-also, expect your skin to have some crazy changes after surgery. I never had a problem with oily skin, but I feel like I'm a teenager again (times 10! it gets that bad). I'm not sure if its a side effect of the anesthesia or the swelling.
-zip-n-squeeze bags are great. I mostly use them for fluids now. 2 days ago I started using a spoon to poor my "foods" (shakes, soups) in my mouth... it just makes them more appetizing for some reason.
-if at all possible, have someone with you for the first 3-4 days. I couldn't walk by myself for the most part for that time period.

I think thats it for now.

Surgery Recap: Surgery day->Day 5 Post Op

Hi everyone. I'm sorry that this is INCREDIBLY long. I tried everyday to sit and write a post, but I couldn't get past 2 sentences or so before I got too tired or the swelling seemed to intensify. I'll recap:
Surgery Day

Woke up at 6:15 and checked into the hospital at 7:30am. We were called back to the prep area at 9:45am. They went over all my history and I met with the anesthesiologist and a few nurses. I have always had problems getting blood drawn and IVs placed; my veins are small and always seem to "roll." Well, they put one in, and I started to get a lot of pain in my arm. They checked to make sure the IV wasn’t infiltrating. Apparently it was “fine,” although it still hurt in my forearm. They gave me some medicine to relax, and let me tell you, it had very surprising side effects!... but those were gone within 5 minutes. They told my parents to tell me goodbye, then rolled me into the OR. The last thing I remember is that 3 people were standing over me and told me to take a deep breath, I think I struggled for some reason and said “No, not yet.” Ha, don’t know why I, but I wasn’t ready to go under!

I woke up in recovery and I remember asking the nurse a lot of questions, and heard her mention that to someone. I definitely remember asking how long the surgery took (3.5 hrs) and if they ended up having to do the genioplasty (which was a slight possibility; and they did not, thank goodness!)

Next thing I knew, they were rolling me down to my room. I think the man rolling me tried to comfort me and said how pretty I looked. Haha, he could have said anything at that point.

I’m not sure what span of time passed, but eventually my parents were brought in, and my nurse gave me the pain meds, Roxicet (which is the only time I’ve taken them, surprisingly.) That night was pretty horrible. At first I was in a room with a lady who must have been delusional, she would scream for a nurse about every 5 minutes but never seemed to need anything. They eventually moved me to a private room, where I ended up vomiting up large amounts of blood twice. Now, I truly respect nurses and the jobs that they have to do (I’m a nursing student). However, my nurse that was pretty bad. There was somewhat of a language issue, but it was mostly that she hardly ever asked any questions, and basically only came in to check on my IV the whole night. When I noticed my hand was swelling, I told her and she called the Stat Nurse to come re-do it. I don’t know what’s wrong with my veins because I have had problems with every IV I’ve ever had. The Stat Nurse came to change it, because of all the nurses, she is the most experienced. It took her 2 more times; she thought I was on blood thinner because I bled way too fast, so she moved to the other arm. We asked the doctor and he said that they had not given me any blood thinner, so who knows. Then at about 4am, one of the surgeons that was still in the hospital came by to check on me and said “Now, I see you have only drank about 600ml of fluid so far. We need to get you drinking more than twice that before you can leave tomorrow.” I looked at him, very confused, and said “The nurse has never checked to see what I have been drinking and has not told me to drink a certain amount.” At that point, I had barely at 100mL of water. She also dropped my syringe tubing in the sink that was used to washing hands, and proceeded to put it back on the syringe I was using to drink. My mom saw her doing this and asked for a new one. The next shift that morning gave me an amazing nurse; she was really on top of things.

By that afternoon, I was drinking enough to go home. So they sent me for X-rays, then released me.

Days 1,2,3, and 4 Post Op

I’m grouping these together because that’s how I remember them. Pain never got too bad during these days, so I never took the pain meds (worried they would make me nauseas.) I have taken the phenergan a couple of times though, helped me sleep through the major discomfort. You feel like there are pounds and pounds of pressure on your face. I’ve had a hard time with my throat. It felt like I got my tonsils out (again). It doesn’t really hurt anymore, but it itches like crazy and makes me gag and cough about every 15 minutes.

I’m feeling better right now than I have since surgery. When people say recovery is slow, they are RIGHT! I wake up and touch my face to see if any of the swelling has gone down, and of course, it hasn’t. I’m just as swollen today (Day 5) as ever, but my coloring is a little better. I’m starting to bruise, but I think that’s good… shows I’m healing.

So far I’ve found a few numb spots:

-about a silver-dollar sized area right below the right side of my mouth is completely numb

-the right half of my bottom lip is numb, but the tingly type

-strangely, a part of the left side of my neck is numb.

I haven’t taken off my “jaw bra” except to fix my hair, so I’m sure when I do, I’ll find more.

I managed to get down 2 motrins today, so I’m hoping it might help a bit with the swelling.

Eating/drinking has been the biggest challenge yet. I’m NOT hungry at all, which is surprising, because I love to eat. Normally, I’m always thinking about food! Haha… but my mom has been making me eat. Everything is just so unappetizing. So Far:
-chocolate ensure

-gatorade

-apple juice

-V8 fusion

-yogurt + milk + soy protein powder

-attempted chicken soup (-minus the chicken and noodles) but I

started to bleed for some reason.

I have absolutely no urge to eat… which is bad because I know I need to eat enough so that I can heal.

I think those are the highlights. I’ll post soon. Thanks again for all your comments this week, it really has helped!

Pictures so far:
1 Day Post Op

2 Days Post Op

4 Days Post Op

5 Days Post Op

Hope things are getting better for you, Heather. Has the pain diminished at all? I’m guessing you have so much more than me because your nerves weren’t messed with… which is good! Although, I’m sure it feels like hell right now.

Holly, your day is coming closer! Getting ready?

HI EVERYONE, JUST A WORD OR TWO TO UPDATE YOU ON LEAH'S SURGERY. THE SURGEON SAID SURGERY WENT GREAT......THE SPLITS WERE GOOD.....THE NERVE ON ONE SIDE WAS "OUT OF THE WAY" AND THE OTHER SIDE IT HAD TO BE MANIPULATED SLIGHTLY BUT WAS DEFINITELY INTACT. SHE WAS TOLD THAT SHE SHOULD REGAIN COMPLETE OR NEAR COMPLETE NERVE FUNCTION AFTER HEALING, WHICH HAD BEEN A BIG CONCERN TO LEAH. SHE HAD TO DEAL WITH NAUSEA FOR ABOUT 24 HOURS AFTER SURGERY BUT IS FEELING SOMEWHAT BETTER NOW. WHEN IT GETS A LITTLE MORE BACK TO NORMAL FOR HER, SHE WILL BE FILL IN MORE DETAILS FOR YOU. BUT FOR NOW SHE JUST WANTS YOU TO KNOW HOW MUCH YOUR SUPPORT AND GOOD WISHES MEAN TO HER. TAKE CARE, LEAH'S MOM

Last Post Before Surgery!

First off, I want to thank all of you for the warm wishes and thoughtful comments! It really does help to know that, in addition to my family, I have all of you to talk to about everything that is going on.

I have to check in at the hospital at 7:30am tomorrow morning. My parents came in town this afternoon, and instead of dealing with having roommates, we got a hotel to stay in for tonight through Sunday. But I may be in the hospital for a couple nights, they can't really tell at this point.

I've been really good at keeping my nerves at bay until this evening. I'm getting incredibly nervous and jittery. My mom has been amazing at helping me to prepare for all of this; she's been doing just as much research as me!

I'm letting myself analyze things way too much. I'm a pre-nursing student (soon to be in nursing school), so I keep thinking of little things that could happen, yada yada. But it makes me feel more confident to know that my surgeons do "1-2 of these a week."

So the surgical hooks were put on Tuesday-- they aren't terrible. They didn't bother me at all really until I woke up this morning with a huge hole/indentation in my lower lip from one of them. So for those of you who will be getting them in the future, keep that ol' braces wax handy just in case.

One thing that I could use some advice on from you post surgery folks!.. I sneeze ALL the time! Whether I'm sick or not, it must be allergies. They say to avoid sneezing at all costs... any advice on how to do this?!

Here are some before pictures for you all:


The last is just a normal smile with my jaw forward... hopefully it won't be forever until I can fully smile again! Wow, won't it be nice to smile like that withOUT jutting my jaw forward! (positive thoughts.. positive thoughts)

I told my mom to snap a few pictures while I'm in the hospital, even if I'm not giving her any cute expressions! I hope to be able to post myself by Sunday; I guess it all depends on how long I stay in the hospital.

Well, I guess thats it for me tonight. Thank you guys for all the support! It means the world! Keep checking in, there will be a post ASAP.

Pre-op... the real countdown begins!

Today was my pre-op appointment. First we met with my primary surgeon and the chief resident who will be assisting. This was nice considering I had only spoken with my actual surgeon for about five minutes at my other appointment, and had met with a completely different resident. But they were very helpful answering the few questions that I was still concerned about. So the surgeon went over the surgery and other details, then the resident took pictures, measurements, and molds. To give you an idea about my case, my overjet is 10mm (ah!). I'm the first on the list for Friday, so he said he would like me to be in the operating room by 8am. I'll try and bullet a few more highlights from the appointment:
-I will be having a BSSO. They say it is very unlikely that they will have to do a genioplasty which is good because I would much rather not have the additional breaks (more swelling, more risk for nerve damage, etc).
-Titanium alloy screws and possible plates. I asked if I would have to get those removed if I ever needed an MRI later and she said that those would not interfere with that.
-If the break is clean and they like the way my bite looks (stable) then they may remove the splint before I even wake up. This really surprised me because the first resident I had met with told me that I would definitely be in the splint for 4weeks (+). I think this is a good thing, right? It seems like everyone hates that thing and are relieved to have it off.
-They said it is not necessary to donate my own blood (in case there is need for a transfusion) for this procedure because I should not lose enough blood to need one.
After my visit with the surgeons, they directed me to the pre-surgical department where I met with a nurse practitioner who reiterated the do's and dont's for before surgery:
-no eating after midnight
-don't shave the day before... I think this is kinda iffy; it came from a not-so-with-it older RN. Apparently you can cut yourself and get an infection... but you can cut yourself and get an infection 2 days before surgery also, so I'm not sure why that matters. But maybe I'm wrong.
-call the night before for my surgery time
They took my vitals and then I was all done.
Those are the main points I remember, but I'm sure there are some that I'm forgetting. If so, I'll update later. In 4 days from right now, I'll be in the recovery room! My mother or sister will hopefully be posting some sort of update while I'm in the hospital. I'm also going to post "before pictures" at some point prior to surgery. Thank you everyone for your support! It really does help, and I know I'm just preaching to the choir. Good luck to everyone, especially to Heather this week!!!

I will be updating at least once more before surgery. Only 3 normal days left!

Two Weeks Left

Yes, two weeks left of normalcy... for a while at least!

The semester is over and today marks two weeks until surgery. I'm glad to be able to relax a bit before all of this starts. I'm planning on making a trip to a few craft stores to stock up on some things to consume my time while I'm a homebody; maybe a few books that I've been wanting to read but never find the time, also. For those who have gone through this already: how did you end up spending your time when you were still recouping at home? I'm assuming its going to be a lot of movie watching for the most part.

Thanks to Holly and Ingrid for the food suggestions! I'll definitely be adding those to my list.

No updates for now except:
-Preop: 5-12
-Ortho for hooks: 5-13
-Surgery: 5-16