One Month Three Days

It has been one month & three days since my double jaw/chin surgery. That is hard to believe!! I look back at the pictures and I do see a difference, I'm sorry to say but I am still not sure what to think of it all. People tell me I look great but I'm still a little uneasy about my face. I know it all takes time and so therefore I will be patience. I still have swelling in my cheeks and on the right side of my face. I know it will take a year or so for everything to go back into place. I do see each day changes so I am hopefully
:-)

I have gone back to work this week and surprising enough it isn't to bad. My jaw does get sore by the end of the day. I'll come home and put some heat or cold packs on my face and take some Advil.

I was at the surgeon this week and he wants me to continue with wearing my elastics at night which suits me fine. He stated that it is holding everything in place. I mentioned to him about the swelling on my right side jaw and he wants me to keep a close on it as it could be a sign of infection. I see him in two weeks and might actually get to start chewing again, he wants me to start stretching my mouth a little at a time. He also told me I am still using my chin muscle and that should drop by 30%. I explained to him I don't have any feeling in my chin and I actually don't notice using it. I have noticed that my gums are growing somewhat over my teeth. I have no feeling on my top jaw or teeth pretty weird when I brush my teeth. I will need to mention that to him when I go back to see him.

Currently I have come down with a cold and what the worse part about it is I am not allowed to blow my nose, reason being is stitches in my nose could rip apart and cause some major problems. I have another few weeks before I can blow my nose too. Tried taking Sudafed but that does work very well with intersitital cystitis so had to discontinue using that so I'll grin and bare it and let the cold run its course!

I go see the Ortho this week he had stated last week they will be changing my top wire. When I seen him last week he took the bottom wire off and alot of those nasty hooks that were tearing my bottom lip apart. Very very thankful for those to be gone. He is also happy with how things are going too. Like I said everything will come together all in due time !!!

One Month three days

Trying to smile but still have numbness.

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16 Days

It has been indeed a very interesting time these past 16 days lol. Alot of changes has gone on from a swollen face to not to sure of the face now. Don't get me wrong I'm not trying to be negative here but it is a big adjustment. You see yourself for 40 years a certain way and then you look in the mirror and you don't see you anymore it's an adjustment. I talked to the surgeon about this and he told me that he didn't want to be gory but he peeled off the muscles on my face to get to the jaw bone. He told me it will take time for my face to contour and my muscles in my face are lazy right now as they have been through alot. I kinda had an idea about muscles part I did watch some videos and the can get pretty gory lol. I watched the videos after the fact by the way haha.

I'm excited and nervous on how I will look when this is all done with. I will be happy to have a new smile that will be so weird to not feel my top teeth come out when I smile. I'll be so excited to do and see that. Right now I have bands on my back teeth that prevent me from opening my mouth and when I smile I look like the joker LOL.

My heart honestly goes out to the people who have to be banded for more then a week or two. I heard people having to be 6 weeks with these rotten things on. It is tough on a person, as all you can do is liquids and it can be very trying on your patience. So for those out there that is banded longer then I hope to be I do honestly sympathize with you and wish you ALL the best on your venture.

Well here is to a new face bring it on !!! It will take time and I know when I look back at this I will say
" It was so worth it " I just need wait and stop being so impatience. :-)

Two Week Post Op ...

It has been two weeks now since I had my surgery and the road to recovery has been up and down. My experience from all of this was a big bag of mixed emotions.

                                                                         DAY 1

The day of my surgery I had to be there for 7 AM and boy that day was rough, while I waited in the pre surgery I broke down and cried. I was very scared of not knowing what to expect when I woke from this. The OR nurse came to get me at 8:30 AM I gave my husband a kiss as I didn't know when I would get the chance to kiss him again. As I knew my face would be swollen and not be able to feel my lips. I got into the OR and I seen surgeon and bunch of other people there and I was still pretty upset by all of what was about to happen. I looked around the OR room and seen all the instruments and thought to myself is that being all used on me? Which only made me more nervous. They gave me some needles then the gas mask and I was out.

 Next thing I know is someone man is calling my name this is when they pulled the breathing tube out (don't recall but I was told)  and then I hear my name again and I wake up in the recovery room. I then asked my nurse what time it was and she stated 1:40PM. I then told her to put me up as I couldn't breath. She told me my vitals were fine and my oxygen levels were fine too. Then a few mins later she came and gave me a needle that opened my airways. The reason for this was the tube that they put down your throat to help you breath well it had irritated my throat and so therefore it was swollen making if difficult to breath. I had then asked her if I was wired shut or had elastics. She looked and stated she didn't see anything. I was surprised as surgeon had told me he would be using wires or elastics. I was very happy to hear that I wasn't either. So I waited a little while longer in the recovery area until my constant care nurse came.

 Around 3:30 PM the constant care nurse came and wheeled me up to my unit along with two other ladies one was the nurse who was taking care of in recovery and another from respiratory. As we were going through this extremely hot hallway I thought to god I was gonna get sick or pass out from the heat. As this hallway was made up of glass so the sun was beaming through therefore making it very hot. When I looked up, one of the nurses said to me there is someone who has been anxiously waiting for you. There was my husband I gave him a big way and somewhat of a smile. He came into my room and told me surgeon was very pleased on how the surgery went and that it took 5 1/2 hrs and told me that surgeon did have to break my chin, not long before the nurse who was taking care of me asked him to leave as I needed my rest. Well that didn't go to accord to plan, I couldn't rest I really wish I could have slept that first night but she sat there the whole time watching me, which believe it or not makes it hard to sleep. She was very surprise with the amount of drugs that were giving to me that I was still wake.

 I did end up having problems with my IC condition just like I knew I would and do you think they had any idea what I was going through NOPE no one understands what it is unless you have it yourself. The surgery had me stressed out just made matters worse. The lady who was next to me knew more about the condition as her sister had it. She told me her sister got her bladder taken out because she couldn't put up the pain anymore and the lady suggested I don't take the route if all possible as her sister is worse off. My constant cares nurses were getting pretty peeved at me as I would have to go to the bathroom every half hour or so and they would have to unhook my IV from the wall. One of them said to me " Really you have to go again"  I apologized to them and explained this is what happens. I asked them if I could get a hot water bottle as it can sometime calm down my condition, she stated no as it wasn't safe ( I have been doing this now for three years) oh well I suffered that night.

                                                                            DAY 2 


Second day my husband came by and I was so happy to see him and my hot water bottle ( I texted him to bring it in I didn't care at this point if I was allowed or not) my constant care nurse was gone. He took good care of me in the hospital. Now the unit I was on was not familiar with cases (jaw surgery) like me and really didn't know what to do. The nurses even told me this and well let's just say that made me a tad nervous as well. They said they don't get many cases of jaw surgery on that unit. Don't get me wrong they were a friendly bunch (except one).  My husband went and got my cold packs every 20 mins or so and just sat with me. The nurses joked with my husband and told him they were gonna hire him cause he was taking such good care of me. I was able to finally go to sleep knowing that he was there and now I felt safe. My surgeon did come in early in the morning and looked me over and told me everything is going wonderful. He told me he had made changes to what he said he was gonna do before, when I seen him the day before my surgery I explained to him that I wanted to get rid of what I call the bull dog look. He stated he didn't know what the outcome might be. Apparently he came back in that evening after his work day was done and retaliated all his numbers. Turns out that my top jaw was only moved 2mm and not 4mm & centered, bottom jaw was 4mm not the 6 mm that he thought he would, he did have to break my chin and move it 2 mm as well. He wanted to tell me that day in the OR but he seen how upset I was and didn't want to tell that he was making changes as he thought it would make matters worse with me. He was pretty excited with the changes and told me I will be very happy as well.

                                                                              DAY 3


Third day the surgeon came in again and stated that he was taking me off the IV and if I could take my meds orally that he would more and likely send me home. So time came for me to take the meds and I thought to myself how the hell am I pulling this off I can only open my mouth a little but I wanted to go home , I did it !!!!! So shortly later he called the unit I was on and told me I can go home but had to go to his office first . We went through that back door so the other patiences wouldn't see me LOL. Didn't want me to scare them I guess. So he looked at me again and gave me some instructions and a whole bunch of meds and I was on my way. I got home and slept most of the day, it was great to be home. I was able to get my IC condition under control with being able to relax and hot water bottle and lots of rest.

                                                                            DAY FOUR

So by the fourth day my swelling went up real bad but cold and hot compresses really helped me out alot with that. It has been a struggle with not being able to eat solid foods, I have been living off of ice cream and soups, until one day I decided that I will blend up potatoes with lots of milk. Let me tell you OH MY GOD it was the best and filled me up. I can't drink Boost or Ensure as it will get my condition out of control so I wasn't getting enough protein for energy. I did start using gluten free whey with my milkshakes a little at time and it has helped me out. I have gotten very creative with my meals, I have blended potatoes/hamburger together, broke spaghetti into tiny little pieces and lots of sauce and I ate chicken and potatoes yesterday blended mind you.

I am thankful that I don't have elastics, as some people who I have made friends with that I have been talking to from a facebook page ( We got/Need Jaw Surgery) who has recently got this done around the same time as I have, has helped me out in so many ways. We have shared stories and done some comparing twitches and pain. My heart goes out to them as I feel I have no room to complain because they are worse off then me. They have to eat with a syringe bless their souls. I am lucky I currently eat with a small baby spoon. I can get away with alot more then they can.

People ask me how the pain is and to honest with you I can say not bad. Reason being is my condition has alot worse pain that broken jaws go figure eh. I do have a higher tolerance in pain because of my IC so I guess I am lucky in that. Don't get me wrong I do have some discomfort but I take Tylenol for that.

It is funny I have been on blogs and facebook pages about jaw surgery and I can't believe people who say they would do this again. I am sorry maybe I am being a baby but NEVER EVER would I do this again. Nope not me sorry you won't catch me going down this road again I hope and pray. I would rather give birth to a horse then go through this again LOL ... the surgery and being under for 5 hours is what scared me the most.

Well enough said here is a picture of me not to long ago, I am hoping this isn't what I will look like when all said and done. I would like to see more swelling going down. I would like to thank all my friends & family for their support. I don't think I could of gotten through this without you guys!!!!

                                                                           DAY TWELVE 
                                                                          

Tomorrow is the big day

Wow tomorrow is the day of my surgery. I can't believe how fast it came up on me. A friend of mine told me that it would come up quick on me and she was right. I have a bunch of mixed feelings right now and figured what better time to write. I have Snow White & Seven Dwarfs running the back ground trying to calm me down. I wish I could say it is working.

I had my appointment with Dr. Mitton and he once again sat down with me and told me he will be breaking my top jaw and moving it 2 mm up and to the left as well. As my center is off abit. So he will be fixing that up. Then he will be breaking the bottom jaw which is the one that has the most work on it. It will be broke and moved by 6mm. He has some concern on my bottom jaw with bone density. About 6 months ago I had my wisdom teeth pulled and there was one laying along my jaw line. It took alot of the bone away which he didn't see and now the bone density concerns him. He explain to me also about his concern over my lips as I don't have alot of them he said and moving my top jaw can loose some of the red in the top upper lip.

My surgery is scheduled for 7AM but the doctor told me he won't more and likely get to me until something to 9AM as it will take that time for the anesthesiologist to get me to the deep sleep I guess about 45 mins. I will have a nurse with me for the first 24 hours which I am glad to hear.

I'm sitting here watching the clock and currently it is 10:30 PM and I really don't want to go to sleep as you and I know that will bring tomorrow here quicker. Don't get me wrong I am excited too to see the new me when the swelling and bruising goes away. Right now I am a bundle of nerves. I know I am in good hands. My husband will take good care of me when I get out, which I am hoping will be Friday.
I will keep you posted on how things are going once I feel up to it and get back home. Talk to you all later and see you soon.

8 more days...

I have been on a roller coaster ride this week, emotional roller coaster ride that is. I am excited, anxious and a big bag of other mixed emotions. I came down with a cold due to all the stress I am sure and a  week before the surgery. Just freaking lovely!!!

 I have talked to different people about the surgery and they all say the same thing. It will all be fine! I think the worse part of this is ME!! Yes me, I am a control freak and not being able to control what is gonna happen to me I think is what is eating me up the most. I need to learn to just let go and everything will be fine. :-)

I went to my Pre-Surgery Clinic this week and don't get me wrong I understand why they have these clinics. My husband came with me and I am very thankful for that as I am sure after sitting with that nurse & dietitian and the Anesthesiologist I would have canceled the whole thing. Why you ask? The nurse put the fear of god into me describing what I will be going through. Which I already knew as I have been doing my research but what really threw me off was her saying I would have to stay in the hospital for five days. I looked at her and said" No three days" She argue with me and then gave into me and said ok three days maybe five LOL. I hate the hospital with a passion I go shack wacky in that place. 

Dietitian well god love her she was trying to put together a diet for me and by the end of it she was baffled because I have IBS & IC and alot of things that were on the menu was a no no for me. So we came to a decision I will be on water, vanilla ice cream, no salt soup, chocolate milk. Great to look forward too LOL. She said I will be losing alot of weight, ah ya on that diet you want to believe I will HA HA. When I get home of course I can try some foods that the hospital can't provide. Comfort of home so to speak.

Anesthesiologist was different, I couldn't understand why I had to see him as this isn't my first time being put to sleep. He told me that I shouldn't feel to much pain. He said its not like having gall bladder surgery which is very painful he said. At that point my husband turns to him and states " I was suppose to get that surgery yesterday but got rescheduled. He just looked at him and said the reason why I won't feel pain is my jaw's will be held together and won't have to move.

I went to the surgeon's office to get some impression done, cat scan and x-rays. Got to see Dr. Mitton for total of two seconds lol he came in to twist and turn my head when I was getting a x-ray done. Had to go back to get my impression done again this week as the first one didn't turn out as the stuff they use to molded your teeth got caught on my braces. The nurse said hopefully I won't have to come back a third time. As she never had that ever happen to her having someone come in for a third time. 

I talked to Dr. Mitton nurse about my cold and told her where the nurse at the hospital stated they may cancel my surgery because of the friggin cold. She asked me how bad it is and I told her it was too bad. I will have to get in touch with her this week to let her know how I am doing. I asked if I could take anything for it and she said I can. I took Cold/FX we will see how I make out with that.

Gonna get together with a bunch of friends and family for a big food fest. I won't be eating anything solid for awhile so I want to make it good. A nice big yummy juice steak!!! 

I would like to thank my family & friends for their support ... especially my very patience husband who has seen me at my weakest. I love you dearly!! I don't know if I am allowed visitors but if I am please stop by to help me pass time or I'll be sneaking outta there haha...

I'll keep you posted with my progress as it goes on...

20 More Days!!

So here is where we are currently, I got hooks placed on my teeth for the surgery. This is what surgeon will be using to either put elastics or wires on to hold my mouth closed. They are pretty bothersome as they rip apart my lips. Thank the lord for wax being invented!!

You know I never thought I would ever get here. Hard to believe that in two more weeks give or take (20) more days that I will be getting my jaw surgery WOW!!

I have been reading alot on facebook on a group called We Need/Got Jaw Surgery. It has people's stories and pictures of there progress. Pretty interesting page indeed to the point that someone should say to me " You really should stay off the internet? "  I woke up this morning and the first thing I said to my husband should have of been" Good Morning Hunny" but nope I come out with something " Did you know that you can get mold inside your mouth" yup this is what I came out with, I read this on that facebook page about the people experiences with jaw surgery that you can get mold inside your mouth.  I swear to god that is what someone said and that it is important to get some antiseptic mouth wash or something or other. I thought to myself "EWWWW" Anyways I can see how that can happen as how the heck can you really brush your teeth inside your mouth?

So it will be pretty interesting on how the heck I am gonna cope with not being able to eat. It will prove interesting, not sure what I can eat. I did read some people suggest using a sippy cup. Which I might try out. Sleeping is gonna be a task too as I guess you can't lay on your side. You are suppose to sleep on your back. I am a side sleeper so I am gonna guess I will be pretty tired the first week or so. I don't have a lazy boy or anything like that that I can just stretch out on. May invest in some body pillows to prevent me from rolling over. I also seen this wedge like things at Bed, Bath & Beyond that props your upper body up.

I have been off my meds for my Intersitital Cystitis since April 1 and *knocks on wood* I have been doing really well. My surgeon did give me some sleeping pills though because I am clinching my teeth and he believes I am stressing out about the surgery. He states that isn't a good thing as it is wearing on my jaw bones.

I am really ranting here and I know it all doesn't make sense as it is bits and pieces of what information that I am come across. That is all for now and will keep you posted.

Five weeks away

So I seen my surgeon and he is happy with my braces and how my teeth are looking. He did give me some hope and said that I might not have to get my chin broke, HOW AWESOME IS THAT !!!! He will know more in April when they do all the xrays and such.


I have been reading alot of peoples blogs on their experiences and have been a great help to me.


Found out this week as well that my dear husband has to get surgery two weeks before me for his gallbladder. So my caregiver maybe under the weather but honestly who knows he might be fine when the times comes for me. I wish him all the best in his recovery and surgery!!


I am getting nervous and in my sleep apparently I am clinching my teeth and the surgeon wants me to take a sleeping pill to help me relax and sleep. Because of my IC ( Intersititial Cystitis) wakes me up a few times in the night as well and I am not getting the proper sleep. I have to check with my family doctor though because of my medical conditions that I have. Will find out next week weather or not he wishes (family doctor) for me to take it or not. The pill he (surgeon) wants me to take is Rhovan. Has anyone heard of this drug? I don't know how I feel about taking a sleeping pill.


I have to come off all of my drugs before my surgery which is gonna be really rough as I do require them for my conditions. So I will have to really have to pay attention to what I eat and drink as I do not want to get into a flare well off my medications. Can be really painful (IC flares)


I am also very excited as well to get this all over and done with and can't wait to see what I will look like.


That is all for now...

Three months away ....

So I thought I would do a update on my progress. I was able to get my hands on pictures that were taken when I started this whole journey and decided to share.


These pictures show what my teeth looked like before :

In these pictures I have bonding on my two front teeth. I had a dentist years ago place that on to help with my smile. God it is awful looking now that I look at it. I am glad to be rid of that. I am simply amazed at how awesome my teeth look like now.I know people use to say to me that they didn't notice my teeth when they looked at me. This is what I had to look at everyday!!

Now here are the x-rays of before :

Pretty crazy looking eh? I also can see in this picture why the Doctor wants to break my chin as I have a tiny one lol, never realized it until I looked at this x-ray. I was told that the muscle in my chin is 50 % larger then normal. That was caused from me smiling with my mouth closed.

Ok now the progress pictures which are AMAZING if I do say so myself LOL ....

Now the x-rays :

In this x-ray you can really see my over bite. I can't wait for the finished product. 

So my next appointment is March 15/11 and I guess we will be going over alot of things at that point and time. Am I nervous ? Heck ya!  You wanna believe I am. 

I have two major concerns:

 One is will I like the way I look after this? I did look around on the internet and looked at people's pictures who got this surgery and I haven't seen one that looks worse off. 

Doctor told me that when he is done with me my best friend won't even recognize me and that worries me ha ha. I am super excited though !!

Second part which is a major major part is my condition that I live with each day. That is Interstitial Cystitis. Why you ask? Getting wisdom teeth pulled is a pretty common procedure right ? And really shouldn't cause major problems. That is not the case for me; because of my condition and the medication that I was on from the dentist, I had to get catheterized. Something I really don't want to go through again. I will more and likely have to stop my Elmiron which I take daily, it prevents pain & discomfort caused by cystitis (bladder inflammation or irritation). The reason I need to stop this medication it is a anticoagulant (blood thinnner).

Alot of people don't understand my condition and believe it or not doctors have a hard time with it too. Anyways as you can tell this is a major concern for me, I could go on and on about it as it can be frustrating at times. I'm not asking for pity, if anything I would like to be understood.

Enough already on with the show, my next appointment after March is in April 19 I believe and was told I would be there for most of the afternoon. I guess there will be alot of going over things and cat scans and such. Then I will be going May 2 the day before my surgery where I will be a bundle of nerves. I won't be sleeping that night.

That is it for now and will let you know how things go ....