11 Days Post-Op Double Jaw Surgery + Sliding Genioplasty

Hello!

I haven't made a post or video in the last few days since virtually nothing has changed, except the swelling is down a bit more.

Since you last heard from me, I spent a few more days lounging around Ann Arbor before coming back to Sarnia. Anthony had to go away on a work trip. Yes, it sucks being married and living apart, before anyone asks.

Hanging around the apartment with my dad is not nearly as comfortable as recovering at Anthony's. For starters, I only have a 21" TV and basic cable. The most comfortable place to spend most of my time is in bed, which I dislike, because my room is hot and I don't like being in bed all the time.

However, it is nice to be reunited with my cat, have access to my car, and the option of visiting friends or family.

A few days ago, I was inspecting my new bite in the mirror and I noticed my left side is VERY open; as bad or worse than pre-surgery. I spent 48 hours panicked I was going to need a second surgery. I'm not the worrying type but I honestly couldn't stop thinking about it. Fortunately I had an appointment with my orthodontist today, so I knew I'd get an answer. My orthodontist said it's perfectly normal and so far, everything looks great. He even complimented my brushing. So basically the appointment went much better than anticipated!

A funny story before I get to the benchmarks. So, I live with my dad. We don't really talk much outside of day-to-day roommate stuff, so he doesn't know much about my surgery. I realized how little I must have talked about it when we had this conversation last night:

Dad: So when do you get it out?
Me: Get what out?
Dad: I mean, when do they cut the wires off?
Me: What wires? Ohh, I'm not wired shut! I just can't talk because of the swelling.
Dad: Oh. You going back to work tomorrow?
Me: I don't go back to work until July 27th!
Dad: Ohhhhhh.

Anyway, the benchmarks:

Energy: Still about the same...it comes and goes. I feel good in the morning and get tired by late afternoon. I've been lying down for an hour nap lately. I try to get out of the house at least once a day; it does wonders for my sanity.

Sleep: I had a bizarre sleepless night a few days ago, but other than that, I sleep about 7-9 hours straight through, waking up once to take some Ibuprofen. Still sleeping sitting up on my memory foam wedge.

Pain: My right TMJ aches every morning starting around 4am. My chin also throbs most of the day and night. I've also been getting a daily headache. That's about it...all of it is very manageable with Ibuprofen.

Swelling: coming down at a snail's pace, of course.

Numbness: My lower lip came back the other day but the feeling is still quite dull. I think my nostrils have also come back quite a bit as well. I have very faint feeling in my lower eyelids and I can detect some feelings of pressure on my chin (which feels awful).

Muscle movement: It's getting slightly easier to close my lips. It makes rinsing with the Chlorhexidine much easier as well as eating and drinking. I'm not really drooling anymore unless I'm looking down at something (so no sewing for me just yet).

Eating/drinking: I eat 3 times a day: an Ensure for breakfast, and generally soup for lunch and dinner. I made one of the recipes from the Dinner Through a Straw book my surgeon gave me. It's a pureed potato and cheese casserole. The book said it made two servings but it filled an entire ice cream container and it's very filling, so methinks two is going to be more like 15. I've been able to drink more water lately as well.

I have not had any alcohol or coffee since surgery, although at this point it's probably fine to indulge a bit since I'm off the Percocet.

Other: I bought some vanilla syrup so I can make vanilla iced coffee so I will be doing that sometime this week. I try to have things I can look forward to doing. I'm also looking forward to being able to have an ice cream cone, and to riding my bike. I think I'm going to wait a few more days before pulling my bike out of storage. It's going to be quite a chore getting it out, and I'm still a bit scared of going over bumps.

Here are some photos! No video since I don't feel up to it tonight.


Lips are getting closer together every day. The bruise on my neck is nearly gone.






Profile pre-surgery...wow. My nose looks much smaller than it used to (though it's hard to tell in the current photo above). It's still a different shape than it was pre-surgery but I kinda hope the new shape sticks around; I like it.

Days 5 and 6 Post-op Double Jaw Surgery and Sliding Genioplasty

The last 2 days have been much better than the 2 that preceded them. I'm feeling slightly more normal and I actually find myself hungry, which is kind of a nice feeling after 2 days of nausea.

Anthony and I made the 340 mile round trip yesterday to see my surgeon in London. My surgeon and the assistant were both impressed with how little swelling I have and how much feeling I already have back. They installed a temporary hook on my left central incisor (front tooth) to help torque my jaw over to the right. It was uncomfortable while they were poking around my swollen, sore lips but I felt better about it when my surgeon said, "I'm amazed you can even feel that."

They took my x-rays which I will post below. I have to say, I was shocked when I saw I have 2 large screws in my chin rather than the usual plates. Ever since then, I can't stop visualizing my face having a drill taken to it. My chin, in psychosomatic revenge, has been extra sore. My chin is actually throbbing as I type this, which I can't be too mad about because any feeling at all is a good sign.

I was smart and brought 2 Zip-N-Squeeze bags with me. You know what works great in a Zip-N-Squeeze? A McDonalds vanilla milkshake. It was the fastest I've eaten anything in days.

Once we got home, I was pretty tired. We did manage to take a walk around the block...I think. Unless that was day 4. It's all starting to blur together.

Today was also uneventful. More Netflix. I'm not a TV watcher but I have definitely gotten my money's worth out of my Netflix account this past week. I'm almost done season 3 of Orange is the New Black, and I've started watching Grace & Frankie, which in some ways is actually funnier than OITNB.

Anyhoo, here are the benchmarks:

Swelling: slowly coming down. I started taking bromelain again and I've been using heat packs 2-3 times a day for about 15 minutes at a time.

Numbness: Upper lip is probably 90% back. Only half of my lower lip is back and that half is tingly. Cheeks are fine, under eyes are still numb, nose is fine except for my nostrils which are about 70% back to normal.

Facial movement: I can make a snorting face (if that makes sense) briefly. I can feel my muscles move when I try to smile but it hurts. Laughing is very painful and makes my muscles ache and the incision sting.

Pain: in my right jaw joint and in my chin. Taking less Percocet and more Ibuprofen, but going 5-6 hours without meds today. Talking gets tiring very quickly and I have to take breaks from it.

Photos:


October 2013 (pre-treatment) vs June 16, 2015. Please join me in a round of "holyyyyy craaaaaap." Check out my chin! Ugh no wonder it hurts.


What you are looking at:
Upper jaw: plates on either side of my nose. Outside of those are 2 wires threaded through the bone to allow flexibility.
Palate: You can see my transpalatal arch wire running along my palate and hooking into 2 teeth
Lower jaw: 2 plates
Chin: scary looking screws
Teeth: brackets with the arch wire and tons-o-cavities


Today


24 hours post-op.


2 hours post-op.


Even though I'm super swollen, I am already liking my new profile.




Bruises and double chins.

And from the archives...


Pre-treatment and the day after SARPE.


And last but not least, please watch as I drool down my chin and don't notice for the entire duration of the video. Sigh. It hurts too much to spend another 8 minutes talking.

Days 3 and 4 Post-Op Double Jaw Surgery + Sliding Genioplasty

Hello! I have made it through the better part of 4 days post-surgery.

Day 3 was brutal. I woke up with a bad taste in my mouth, and was having a hard time eating or drinking due to nausea and severe pain. In the early afternoon, the pain peaked and I ended up crying for awhile, which makes the pain and congestion so much worse.

The day is mostly a blur of weakness, nausea, and Netflix. I felt better briefly in the evening but the nausea came back in the evening. I had a good night's sleep but I felt pain when I woke up. I think I might need to start setting an alarm to take Ibuprofen or Percocet in the middle of the night.

This morning (day 4), I was even more nauseated, and could barely stand to swallow water. I decided to have some Gatorade and see if that would help. I lied on the recliner while the nausea escalated. I didn't vomit during SARPE so I figured I wouldn't this time either. Wrong. I got up and knew it was coming. Mentally, it's excruciating. Physically, it happened very quickly, and wasn't painful. I instantly felt better.

I lied on the recliner for a few hours, hoping my system would settle down. Anthony went out and got me some Gravol (antinauseant) and I have been doing much better since I started taking it. I drank an Ensure shake (from the bottle!) and had a small bowl of soup (with a spoon!).

I'm hoping I don't go downhill again because my gosh...no human being should have to go through what I just went through. If it means taking Gravol a few times a day for the next few days, I can live with that. I decided to stop taking my vitamins until I'm eating more and can stomach the pill salad a little better.

Getting some new tingling in my cheek. Jaw joints still feel sore. Some yellow bruising on my neck.

I think the swelling has gone down ever so slighty.

Here are some photos!




Bruising on my neck





I made another video as well:

Surgery Day up to Day 2

I'm alive! Here's what I've been up to since Wednesday night. It's going to be long.

Anthony picked me up in Sarnia and we were off to London for my last night of normalcy. We had dinner at Moxie's and then had a beer at Toboggan Brewery. It was a really nice night.

I literally set 6 alarms that night and I lied in bed absolutely petrified I was going to sleep through them. I only got maybe 2-3 hours of restless sleep.

Finally an alarm went off around 5:10am. We got up and walked over the hospital (I had gotten us a hotel nearby to avoid double parking fees). From there, everything went pretty quickly. I got called into the pre-surgery area within minutes and hooked up to an IV. Anthony and I had some time to sit there and chill out before they brought me away around 7:45am. Before SARPE, I lied on my stretcher in the OR hallway for an hour, so I expected that again. Not so...I wasn't even in the hallway for 5 minutes before I found myself hoisting myself onto the operating table. The assisting resident surgeon was so young, oh man. He looked like he was my age (29). They put the oxygen mask on me and off to sleep I went.

The next thing I knew, I was being wheeled out and I was SO HOT. I was totally out of it but I was ripping my blankets off me and struggling to break free of my fiery bed covers. I could hear the nurses say, "I think she's hot, get the blankets off her. Oh wow, she's drenched, poor thing." My gown was soaked in sweat!

The first few hours after surgery were absolute hell, I can't even sugarcoat it. The surgeon had told me he was going to pump me full of freezing before taking me off anesthesia. I was so frozen I couldn't feel my tongue or any part of my mouth. My mouth was so dry and I needed to swallow, but I couldn't feel anything. I also felt like I couldn't breathe. All I did for about 2 hours was stare at the clock and tell myself I must be breathing because I could see the clock ticking. I felt like I was going to die at any moment.

Because of the angle I was lying at, blood kept trickling into my lungs. Along with staring at the clock, I spent the 2 hours wheezing and coughing up blood, but it was going nowhere because I couldn't swallow. Every time a nurse came to check on me, I complained I couldn't breathe or swallow. Eventually they brought my surgeon over who said he wasn't concerned about it.

They asked me a few times if I was in pain which I was not, so they decided to wheel me up to my room around 1 or 2pm. I really wanted to see Anthony. As the nurse was getting me settled in, Anthony showed up. At that point, I got emotional and had a panic attack while struggling to breathe. :( I don't know why, but the nurse seemed unconvinced by my whining and pretty much ignored my pained wheezing. I decided to try and be more positive after that when she came in the room, and she got much friendlier with me from then on.

My nurse didn't want to give me water until I could prove I could swallow, but I needed to moisten my mouth before I even tried. I poured a bit of water in my mouth and was able to swallow. You can't even imagine how happy I was. I'm not sure what time that was...maybe 3pm?

The rest of the day was spent lying in bed. The hospital no longer offers in-room TVs so I watched Netflix on my phone (couldn't reach my iPad). I watched The Intouchables, one of my favourite movies. They brought me dinner and I was able to drink the apple juice and tomato soup, with a spoon even. I didn't have any elastics in which is unusual compared to all the blogs I've read.

Anthony came and went a few times. I was doing okay with just the nurse's assistance so I wanted to him to go out and enjoy himself in London while he had the chance.

I was able to get up a few times for a walk and to use the restroom.

I slept on and off from 8:30pm-7am. I brought earplugs and wish I had put them in, as it was pretty noisy in the hallway. My surgeon came to see me in the morning. He showed me how I've spent 29 years of my life holding my jaw to my side to compensate for my asymmetry, so I'm going to have to learn to hold my jaw over to the right from now on. He put on 3 elastics on my brackets and said it would help. He told me to take them out to eat and brush my teeth, but my lips are so huge and I am managing fine leaving them in. I also forgot to bring the spare elastics with me to Ann Arbor, oops. I see my midline has already improved since yesterday.

I didn't anticipate I would have to consciously hold my jaw in the proper place and it sucks. I would probably rather have the splint and/or surgical hooks to hold it in place for me.

The surgeon told me the surgery went really well and that it actually went faster than planned. I think it was about 3.5 hours but I'm not totally sure (he booked the OR for 4 hours). Everything went according to plan: Lefort I, bilateral sagittal split osteotomy, and sliding genioplasty.

Now that I'm in Ann Arbor, I've been staying in bed watching Netflix. It's pretty boring and my back is hurting from being propped up for 2 days straight. Really wishing I owned an Ultramatic bed right about now!

So far, everything I've bought has come in handy except for the large syringe and the pure Lanolin. They gave me ointment at the hospital for my lips so I've been using that instead.

Swelling seems to have levelled off as of yesterday and surprisingly, I haven't bruised yet. It's been weird looking in the mirror and seeing a different person! My profile looks totally different. I am excited to see the final product.

As far as my bite, I really can't feel it right now so no comment on that yet. I am worried I'll bite down on my swollen cheeks so I haven't been too keen to practice biting.

Feeling is coming back a little bit. I can feel my upper lip now and my lower lip is about 50% feeling. Chin area is at 0%, cheeks are about 80%ish, lower eyelids are 0%.

Here are some photos and a video!











I am so excited to see what my face is going to look like and to get back to normal life and normal eating.

Pre-Surgery Video

I made this video last night to talk about preparing for surgery, which is TOMORROW!



I'm off to London tonight with my husband where I will eat a delicious "last" supper before surgery and hopefully get a good night's sleep.

See you on the other side, folks!

My Surgery Shopping List

Today is 2 weeks until my double jaw surgery and genioplasty. The month of May always flies by and this May was no exception. I've been happy to be distracted by all the busyness because it keeps me from obsessing about the surgery.

Anyway, preparing for jaw surgery is no easy task. Here's what I've purchased...I think I'm pretty much done, except for groceries.

Some of this is stuff I mentioned in my previous post!


Pillow case protectors


60mL syringe for drinking liquids


Wedge pillow


Zip-n-Squeeze set for thin liquids


Zip-n-Squeeze set for thicker pureed foods



Jaw bra


Sports squeeze bottle


Vitamin E (to help with healing)


Vitamin B-complex (also to help with healing)


Pure lanolin to keep lips from chapping when swollen


Bromelain to help with swelling



Smooth Move tea (if you've taken heavy painkillers, you know how it is)

I also have my trusty turkey baster since it was super helpful after the last surgery.

I haven't really put together a grocery list yet, but I imagine I'm going to mostly subsist on smoothies and pureed soups. I already have some smoothie ingredients and I will be focusing on adding lots of fibre-rich foods to my smoothies (fibre powder, psyllium husk, flax meal, etc).

Besides all this, I have some magazines and books to keep myself occupied. I'm sure my Netflix account will get used more than ever, as well.

Monday is my pre-op appointment at the surgeon's office and the hospital. Depending how interesting it is, I may or may not blog about that.

T Minus 6 Weeks Until Jaw Surgery

In six short weeks, I'll be going under the knife for the second time to fix my jaw. If you're new to my blog and interested in reading about my experience with surgically-assisted rapid palatal expansion, AKA SARPE, feel free to check out the SARPE tag.

On June 11, I'll be undergoing double jaw surgery and sliding genioplasty. Both my upper and lower jaws will be moved forward, otherwise known as bimaxillary advancement, or maxillomandibular osteotomy, otherwise known as bilateral sagittal split osteotomy and Le Fort I. Me? I call it the triple whammy.

It is hard to believe I've already been in braces for more than 11 months. As you may know, within these 11 months I got engaged, enjoyed two vacations and Christmas, planned a wedding, and then got married, so it's really no wonder 11 months have flown by.


Yup, we did it.

Last week when I realized I had a mere 7 weeks to go, I decided to start buying stuff.

This is what I've purchased so far:

• Memory foam wedge pillow
• This set of Zip-n-Squeeze bags for thin liquids
• And this set for thicker puréed foods
• This jaw bra...it's like a bra, for your jaw
• Sport-style squeeze bottle

Still on the to-buy list:

• Cheap, dark pillow cases
• More hot/cold gel packs
• Pure lanolin (to keep my lips from cracking afterwards)
• A good blender (any recommendations?)

I am feeling pretty well prepared, mentally and shopping-wise.

As I did with SARPE, I plan to blog my way through the experience again, so stay tuned for more!