Sunday, June 17, 2012
Happy Days
Just a quick update. I think my jaw is finally lining up. I've only worn my guiding elasitic for about 2 hours over the last three days and my bite is staying in place! This makes me more happy than you could imagine because this issue has been my biggest worry since the surgery. The pain in my joint is much less lately, even though I've been chewing more things along with being significantly more active. And my bite feels much more stable. This is the light I was looking for at the end of this long tunnel! I guess the joint swelling is finally going down. Thank goodness!
Saturday, June 9, 2012
11 weeks, before and after pics
Sorry I haven't posted. We've been so busy!
I had my check up about 2 weeks ago. It went well. Doc was very pleased with how well I was doing and how everything looked. Said the bones were all healed and I was free to do what ever I felt like I was capable of. But no chewy or crunchy foods, it would aggravate my joint swelling. He said I still have a good deal of swelling, in the joints and in my cheeks, and that it will take me several more months to get rid of that. He said considering my case, it's common to have the lingering swelling. They removed the stubborn stitch that was under my top lip and discussed use of the guiding elastic. I still have to wear the guiding elastic, but it's on an "as needed" basis now. I'm able to leave it out for a few hours, then I feel my bite shifting, so I put it back in. It doesn't bother me anymore, but I worry about my bite shifting once I don't have braces. He also said that my 30 mm opening was pretty good for this stage of the game, that's all you really need to be functional. And it will continue to increase over time.
The OD did some fun (insert sarcasm) stuff the following week. But I'm excited to wrap this up, so wrench away doc! Here are my pics before and at 11 weeks:
.JPG)
The biggest cheezy smile ever...look, top
teeth over bottom teeth, woohoo!
I had my check up about 2 weeks ago. It went well. Doc was very pleased with how well I was doing and how everything looked. Said the bones were all healed and I was free to do what ever I felt like I was capable of. But no chewy or crunchy foods, it would aggravate my joint swelling. He said I still have a good deal of swelling, in the joints and in my cheeks, and that it will take me several more months to get rid of that. He said considering my case, it's common to have the lingering swelling. They removed the stubborn stitch that was under my top lip and discussed use of the guiding elastic. I still have to wear the guiding elastic, but it's on an "as needed" basis now. I'm able to leave it out for a few hours, then I feel my bite shifting, so I put it back in. It doesn't bother me anymore, but I worry about my bite shifting once I don't have braces. He also said that my 30 mm opening was pretty good for this stage of the game, that's all you really need to be functional. And it will continue to increase over time.
The OD did some fun (insert sarcasm) stuff the following week. But I'm excited to wrap this up, so wrench away doc! Here are my pics before and at 11 weeks:
.JPG)
The biggest cheezy smile ever...look, top
teeth over bottom teeth, woohoo!
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Happy Mother's Day
Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful Moms out there.
We are all blessed to have the best job in the world. I never thought so much responsiblity would be so rewarding. I am greatful every single day for my precious little girl. I was chosen to be her Mommy, and I couldn't be more honored.
Have a wonderful day!
We are all blessed to have the best job in the world. I never thought so much responsiblity would be so rewarding. I am greatful every single day for my precious little girl. I was chosen to be her Mommy, and I couldn't be more honored.
Have a wonderful day!
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Week 5 pics
I got a call from my boss yesterday. They got my leave approved and I return on the 1st. My checkbook is so relieved! I'm still super dependent on my my Ibuprofen and Tylenol for pain relief. Sometimes I still need a Vicodin at night. But it's all pain in my right TMJ. If it weren't for this darn joint problem, I'd be mostly pain free. But, it's getting better, so I'm not trying to whine about it.
Not too excited about my looks yet, I'm hoping there's A LOT of healing ahead. I feel like my face is cartoonish, resembling Droopy dog. The flipped up nose and long space between my nose and upper lip are the things which concern me most, but maybe it won't look so bad in 6 months. Not liking the jowls either, but I had a bit of that pre-op too. That can go away easily with liposuction if I still hate it in a year. I'll try not to focus on my looks for a while, because the OS said it will be 6-12 months to see the final result. Some pics from today...
Where oh where has my upper lip gone? Where oh where can it beee??! (singing)
Droopy dog reincarnated...
Looks really wonky to me, hoping it will all straighten out
Not too excited about my looks yet, I'm hoping there's A LOT of healing ahead. I feel like my face is cartoonish, resembling Droopy dog. The flipped up nose and long space between my nose and upper lip are the things which concern me most, but maybe it won't look so bad in 6 months. Not liking the jowls either, but I had a bit of that pre-op too. That can go away easily with liposuction if I still hate it in a year. I'll try not to focus on my looks for a while, because the OS said it will be 6-12 months to see the final result. Some pics from today...
Where oh where has my upper lip gone? Where oh where can it beee??! (singing)
Droopy dog reincarnated...
This is as wide as I can open right now. The right TMJ is the painful one, but the left has limited range of motion.
Looks really wonky to me, hoping it will all straighten out
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Weeks 4 & 5- phantom cobwebs and bee stings
Right around the 4 week mark, the cloud lifted. I woke up one day and didn't feel like I'd been hit by a truck. Everyday after, the pain became noticeably less. And within a few days I was down to half a Vicodin ES plus 500 mg Tylenol twice daily. Please keep in mind, if you are reading my blog preop, most people don't experience the pain I have. Most people are totally numb through most of it. I had very little nerve damage, partially due to luck but mostly due to a fantastic, experienced surgical team. But, that means I have more pain early on. I'm okay with that, it will serve me better in the long run. I also had quite a bit of joint damage, particularly in my right TMJ, prior to surgery. That is because I delayed my surgery for so many years. Most of my post-operative pain has revolved around that right TMJ, which is expected to heal. My suggestion is to do the surgery before you end up with so much joint damage in the first place (hind sight is 20/20).
Right around the same time, I hit a wall with food. I thought I might vomit at the mere sight of one more bowl of soup or mush. My daily regimen of gruel was dragging me down. I just NEEDED some real food. One day I had made Mara a lazy dinner of chicken nuggets, tater tots, and canned green beans (homemade meals have been scarce lately). I looked at my can of soup and decided to not blend it and see what happened. So I mashed the chicken and carrots with my fork and swallowed bits of them mixed with broth and whole grains of rice. I just didn't care anymore. Then I thought, if could swallow rice whole, then I can swallow other things whole if I cut them up to the size of a grain of rice. So, I commenced to dicing up a chicken nugget into 1mm cubes. I then dipped each tiny piece into ketchup and swallowed it whole, one by one. Forty-five minutes later, I had eaten 2 entire chicken nuggets, 5 green beans and 2 tater tots! I felt vindicated, despite the pain it put me in. The next few days I continued to swallow tiny bits of real food and my energy really started to kick up.
The process of nerve regeneration is quite fascinating to me. The areas where I have more numbness are my cheeks, nose and upper lip. They feel tight, heavy, mask-like and falsely sticky. Over the last two week though, I feel the numbness slowly melting away from my upper eyelids downward. As the nerves come back to life, they fire intensely or incorrectly. This gives me weird sensations of phantom runny noses, cobwebs on the cheek, and bee stings on my lip. Shocking as they are every time, I'm grateful for them because it reminds me I am healing a little more every day.
Monday, at around 4.5 weeks, I had my splint removed. It was planned to be on for 6 weeks, but because my bite was so off and I couldn't close my teeth without moving my left inner cheek out of the way, the OS wanted to take the splint off to evaluate the situation better. He said everything looked good even though only my left canines touched. They took more x-rays and handed them to me with a note for the OD. I snuck a peak on the way to OD, wow, just crazy! I have a total of 6 plates, 32 screws and 2 pins! Add all that to the plate and 6 screws in my wrist from a quad riding accident and I think I am officially THE BIONIC CHIC! I want a tee-shirt or something :)
The OD said everything looked good too. He didn't seem the least bit concerned about the sideways jaw. He said jaw surgery isn't an exact science and there are usually discrepancies which need corrected with orthodontics post-op. I personally don't quite understand why it can't be put back together perfectly, but perhaps my expectations are too high. So, the wicked band made an unwelcome come-back that day. Looks like I'm stuck with it 24/7 for the next 4 weeks at minimum. It's going to pull my jaw back to the right and square it up as the joint swelling decreases. Well, that's the game plan anyhow. Fingers crossed, 'cuz this bad boy HURTS. It better be worth it. They removed all my surgical hooks, wires and bands then let me brush and floss. I asked if they had a wire pot brush and some bleach I could brush with. My mouth felt that gross. Then I got new wires, bands, an two new hooks for the wicked band. AAAHHHH, all clean. After that, I made Keir take me to Bob Evans for some pancakes and eggs. Wow, real food with a real fork. Good riddance splint.
The last few days have been good. I can now speak without spitting and drink without drooling. Eating more foods, feeling less pain, and becoming more active happens slowly but surely. Mara told me, "Mommy, you can talk like a big girl now. Good Job!" I just love her so much. She has made me smile through the pain and get out of bed when I didn't think I could. She makes me pretend cakes and soups to "help me feel better" and kisses my "boo-boo face" with the sweetest little smile. In the beginning she said, "see what happens when you don't brush your teef Mommy? You get cabities and the doctor has to cut your bones!" So stinkin cute! I'll post pics tomorrow, just don't feel like putting on any make up today. I'm packing up boxes of clothes and shoes that Mara has outgrown to send off to a dear friend and her little girl. And that just does not require mascara :)
Right around the same time, I hit a wall with food. I thought I might vomit at the mere sight of one more bowl of soup or mush. My daily regimen of gruel was dragging me down. I just NEEDED some real food. One day I had made Mara a lazy dinner of chicken nuggets, tater tots, and canned green beans (homemade meals have been scarce lately). I looked at my can of soup and decided to not blend it and see what happened. So I mashed the chicken and carrots with my fork and swallowed bits of them mixed with broth and whole grains of rice. I just didn't care anymore. Then I thought, if could swallow rice whole, then I can swallow other things whole if I cut them up to the size of a grain of rice. So, I commenced to dicing up a chicken nugget into 1mm cubes. I then dipped each tiny piece into ketchup and swallowed it whole, one by one. Forty-five minutes later, I had eaten 2 entire chicken nuggets, 5 green beans and 2 tater tots! I felt vindicated, despite the pain it put me in. The next few days I continued to swallow tiny bits of real food and my energy really started to kick up.
The process of nerve regeneration is quite fascinating to me. The areas where I have more numbness are my cheeks, nose and upper lip. They feel tight, heavy, mask-like and falsely sticky. Over the last two week though, I feel the numbness slowly melting away from my upper eyelids downward. As the nerves come back to life, they fire intensely or incorrectly. This gives me weird sensations of phantom runny noses, cobwebs on the cheek, and bee stings on my lip. Shocking as they are every time, I'm grateful for them because it reminds me I am healing a little more every day.
Monday, at around 4.5 weeks, I had my splint removed. It was planned to be on for 6 weeks, but because my bite was so off and I couldn't close my teeth without moving my left inner cheek out of the way, the OS wanted to take the splint off to evaluate the situation better. He said everything looked good even though only my left canines touched. They took more x-rays and handed them to me with a note for the OD. I snuck a peak on the way to OD, wow, just crazy! I have a total of 6 plates, 32 screws and 2 pins! Add all that to the plate and 6 screws in my wrist from a quad riding accident and I think I am officially THE BIONIC CHIC! I want a tee-shirt or something :)
The OD said everything looked good too. He didn't seem the least bit concerned about the sideways jaw. He said jaw surgery isn't an exact science and there are usually discrepancies which need corrected with orthodontics post-op. I personally don't quite understand why it can't be put back together perfectly, but perhaps my expectations are too high. So, the wicked band made an unwelcome come-back that day. Looks like I'm stuck with it 24/7 for the next 4 weeks at minimum. It's going to pull my jaw back to the right and square it up as the joint swelling decreases. Well, that's the game plan anyhow. Fingers crossed, 'cuz this bad boy HURTS. It better be worth it. They removed all my surgical hooks, wires and bands then let me brush and floss. I asked if they had a wire pot brush and some bleach I could brush with. My mouth felt that gross. Then I got new wires, bands, an two new hooks for the wicked band. AAAHHHH, all clean. After that, I made Keir take me to Bob Evans for some pancakes and eggs. Wow, real food with a real fork. Good riddance splint.
The last few days have been good. I can now speak without spitting and drink without drooling. Eating more foods, feeling less pain, and becoming more active happens slowly but surely. Mara told me, "Mommy, you can talk like a big girl now. Good Job!" I just love her so much. She has made me smile through the pain and get out of bed when I didn't think I could. She makes me pretend cakes and soups to "help me feel better" and kisses my "boo-boo face" with the sweetest little smile. In the beginning she said, "see what happens when you don't brush your teef Mommy? You get cabities and the doctor has to cut your bones!" So stinkin cute! I'll post pics tomorrow, just don't feel like putting on any make up today. I'm packing up boxes of clothes and shoes that Mara has outgrown to send off to a dear friend and her little girl. And that just does not require mascara :)
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Day 23- grasping for optimism
Sorry I haven't posted all week. I've been a bit down in the dumps. I'll do my best to minimize this airing of grievances. Tuesday morning I woke up to a gusher of a nose bleed. I didn't know a nose could bleed so profusely without having met the business end of an upper extremity. I could not get the bleeding to stop. So, I call the surgeon and they say come right away to the office. That was fun, getting dressed one-handed (other hand pinching my nose with a dish towel), and getting my 3 year old out the door for school. Although, Keir did most of the work. By the time we made it to the office my nose had stopped bleeding. That was probably an hour and a half. OS says it may have been the motrin I was taking regularly in between my Vicodin. He had told me to take it, and I was. I've taken large amounts of NSAID's for many years due to my back problems and never had any complications, but perhaps this was too soon after surgery to resume. So, he said no work on Tuesday or Wednesday and I may return on Thursday.
Thursday I go to work only to have another craptastic day. Got screwed over by a co-worker, then subsequently told that I was being relocated to another office which would add an hour drive each way to my commute. So, I'm barely able to do my job now, which is local. Now, I'm to drive an hour plus to work, learn a new job, talk way more that I would have to at this office, then commute an hour plus home each day. Can I drive that far while still taking pain pills? I'm thinking not! SHIT! I could barely process all this because of the pain, so, I went home and cried some more.
Friday I wake up to more bleeding and so much pain I just want to chop my head off. Why is my pain getting worse instead of better? And why is my freagin mandible so far off the left?! I've had it. I feel like the OS isn't listening to me, I can't take this pain anymore, and I obviously can't work when I'm spewing blood everywhere. So, it's an understatement to say that I went back to work too early. I'm a tough cookie. I've had chronic pain (and I mean PAIN) since I was 14. I have never taken narcotics for it, I take my NSAID's, I get my injections, I shake it off, and I get on with life. I limp down the halls at work, cry in the bathroom when it gets the best of me, shake it off and do my job. I'm a, "go to work with a fever of 103 and a mask on my face to protect my patients" kind of person. I rally and I get it done. Always. But I'm afraid I have finally met my match. Double jaw surgery has beaten me, and I'm finally saying, "I can't handle all of this". I'm not trying to scare you all, but take it from me...work at two weeks post op is NOT A GOOD IDEA!
I took off Friday, this is Saturday and I'm taking off Monday to get a hold of my OS to see what they say about working. I know I need more time and I'm going to have to take it, even though it almost guarantees I'll get fired. I just don't know how much time, or what restrictions I could follow to make it easier on me.
Some pics from tonight. Please forgive my shameful hair and not enough make up look. It was a very long day and I just felt obligated to post some recent pics.
Thursday I go to work only to have another craptastic day. Got screwed over by a co-worker, then subsequently told that I was being relocated to another office which would add an hour drive each way to my commute. So, I'm barely able to do my job now, which is local. Now, I'm to drive an hour plus to work, learn a new job, talk way more that I would have to at this office, then commute an hour plus home each day. Can I drive that far while still taking pain pills? I'm thinking not! SHIT! I could barely process all this because of the pain, so, I went home and cried some more.
Friday I wake up to more bleeding and so much pain I just want to chop my head off. Why is my pain getting worse instead of better? And why is my freagin mandible so far off the left?! I've had it. I feel like the OS isn't listening to me, I can't take this pain anymore, and I obviously can't work when I'm spewing blood everywhere. So, it's an understatement to say that I went back to work too early. I'm a tough cookie. I've had chronic pain (and I mean PAIN) since I was 14. I have never taken narcotics for it, I take my NSAID's, I get my injections, I shake it off, and I get on with life. I limp down the halls at work, cry in the bathroom when it gets the best of me, shake it off and do my job. I'm a, "go to work with a fever of 103 and a mask on my face to protect my patients" kind of person. I rally and I get it done. Always. But I'm afraid I have finally met my match. Double jaw surgery has beaten me, and I'm finally saying, "I can't handle all of this". I'm not trying to scare you all, but take it from me...work at two weeks post op is NOT A GOOD IDEA!
I took off Friday, this is Saturday and I'm taking off Monday to get a hold of my OS to see what they say about working. I know I need more time and I'm going to have to take it, even though it almost guarantees I'll get fired. I just don't know how much time, or what restrictions I could follow to make it easier on me.
Some pics from tonight. Please forgive my shameful hair and not enough make up look. It was a very long day and I just felt obligated to post some recent pics.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Day 18- giggles and teardrops
Overall, I'd have to say today was CRAPTASTIC. It was my first day back to work, which I was not ready for, but I had to go back. Woke up at 630, took a pain pill, then went back to bed until 730, which was the plan. Shower, dress, hair, makeup, and packing lunch all proved to be exhausting at 0730. Got to work to find my boss was there (actually my boss's boss), so I had to put my game face on . Talking had my face in knots by 0900. At 1200 I slopped my soup into my sore mouth as gracefully as possible, then went for a walk with my boss. That sounded like a great idea when he suggested it, but proved to be quite taxing from the cold-induced pain. I don't know him well, we are both new. But he seems like a genuinely nice guy and it was so nice to have a non-surgery related adult conversation. I came back from our walk, tried to get back to work, then the pain hit me. And then came the tears. Luckily, nobody saw. I quickly composed myself, took a Vicodin AND 3 Ibuprofen and got back to work. The rest of the day was a cycle of laughing or smiling with/at someone and then immediately cringing in pain. Wow does it hurt to laugh!
When I got home I went straight for the cozy clothes and plopped my butt down on the couch. I skipped dinner, no energy to even deal with it, took more pain meds, had a bowl of ice cream, now I'm off to bed. I'm pretty sure tomorrow will feel like groundhog day. And I'm completely sure that I'm being a whiny asshole. I'm okay with that.
This concludes tonight's self-pity party. Tomorrow I will look for my dignity.
When I got home I went straight for the cozy clothes and plopped my butt down on the couch. I skipped dinner, no energy to even deal with it, took more pain meds, had a bowl of ice cream, now I'm off to bed. I'm pretty sure tomorrow will feel like groundhog day. And I'm completely sure that I'm being a whiny asshole. I'm okay with that.
This concludes tonight's self-pity party. Tomorrow I will look for my dignity.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)