Boyfriend's Surgery 17th Dec

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#1 Post by **Munkys Girl** » Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:49 pm

Hello! I registered here on behalf of my boyfriend so we could both look up info on his surgery. Reading everyone's experiences and seeing all your great photos during our wait has been so helpful and encouraging, thank you to everyone that has shared. So now he's finally going through the process himself, I thought I would start this thread while he's still in hospital, so maybe one of us could update here and hopefully share photos too.

He had surgery on Wednesday night to correct his underbite. He had his bottom jaw moved back and his top moved forward (I think the overall distance was 13mm? Anyone with similar case?) He also had his bottom wisdom teeth taken out (I imagine this is a minor detail compared and won't make much difference?).

The first night he didn't sleep too well and sicked up a little of the blood he had swallowed but when I questioned him about it it didn't really seem to be as horrific for him as I'd imagined. I think he found the drainage tubes (I think that's what they were!) the most uncomfortable and he said they had caused him some pain.

When I went to see him today though, he seemed to be feeling much better. He didn't manage much for breakfast but had some soup later on :) He's already drinking regularly from a cup even though it looks very tricky! He's able to talk a little but it's a bit achey so he wrote to me using a whiteboard. He has swelling in his cheeks and lips but it wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting (he still looks cute to me!) although it's only Day 1 so maybe it will swell up a little more before it starts to get better.

Right, time for bed so I can go visit him in the morning for Day 2! We were originally told he could be home tomorrow but I think he might need an extra day.

Thanks for reading :D

#2 Post by **switchblades** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 6:26 am

Good to hear he's doing well! Very quick with drinking from a cup too, which sounds promising (to me anyway!)

Good luck, it's great he's got someone like you around to help him out!

#3 Post by **Munkys Girl** » Fri Dec 19, 2008 5:17 pm

Thanks so much for your sweet replies!!

He's just had Day 2 and has been managing to talk loads, I am so surprised at how well he can. He is a bit mumbly but he always has been lol so it's not really too much different! He even managed to phone me in the middle of last night! He had a sleep walk to the end of his bed and woke up when the drip tugged and got a bit disorientated, but he thought to ring me still dazed at 4am to tell me that he "didn't know what had happened" lol bit of a shock but luckily he was ok, just a bit confused. After both the nurse and he assured me he was fine really, I was mostly just impressed that he was able to work his phone and talk to me :p

I thought that he wouldn't be able to come home yet but since he had picked up and is able to drink, wash, etc he was able to! He had more soup for dinner and even stole some mash potato off my plate!

The swelling seems to fluctuate a little but it's mostly really good so far. He already complained of some annoying tingling and itching but I hope that means he could be getting some sort of feeling back already. By the end of the day, I also noticed some movement in his bottom lip when he talks and he can smirk a bit so I can tell when he's smiling now! I think that's pretty good for just Day 2!

I was a bit concerned when I saw that his jaw didn't quite line up vertically, like a cross bite. But he said the surgeon didn't put the bands on that hold it in place yet for some reason and that he'll be doing that on Tuesday. Is that normal? Seemed a bit odd but I'm sure the surgeon knows what he's doing, everyone told us he was great and he seems to have done a good job from how smoothly things are going so far.

#4 Post by **Munkys Girl** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 6:48 pm

Yeah he said he was really confused until I assured him the nurse would come and make him feel better if he pushed his orange button!!

Day 3 has gone well. The swelling is a little better again. He is still feeling a little nauseous but we got some medicine which will hopefully help :)

He's been occasionally using ice packs tied in cloth around his face. They are gel packs which can also be warmed. I thought I had read on here somewhere that when the swelling is subsiding that heat can also help but the nurse I asked seemed to think it was a bad idea. Does anyone know when or if at all to use heat? I googled for an answer but it got a bit confusing lol so it would be good if anyone here could clarify.

#5 Post by **Munkys Girl** » Sat Dec 20, 2008 7:00 pm

Ooh not to worry about the heat question (if anyone was!!). I found some clearer info just by searching the forum instead. Seems alternating between hot and cold might be a good idea, but think we'll wait a little while before trying it to be on the safe side lol.

#6 Post by **Munkys Girl** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:09 am

Shame the forum locked for a while as I was going to keep this thread updated with progress but I'll try to just do a little update now!

I thought everything had been going well. At the end of the first week he was properly smiling, talking more clearly, eating well etc. In the second week, his swelling came down even more and I could really start to notice the improvement (I'll ask him if I can post pics soon) but then at the next check up...!

Munkys Girl wrote:I was a bit concerned when I saw that his jaw didn't quite line up vertically, like a cross bite.

...We found out that the jaw was in an unexpected position because of the jaw muscles or something to do with how the jaw moved. Apparently it wasn't a mistake by the surgeon but the computer they used to figure out the proper positioning doesn't allow for that kinda thing. I might not have explained that properly but that's as good as my understanding of it is lol. By this check up, he had been wearing bands to help position the jaw correctly but it wasn't making a significant improvement and we were told that it would be quicker and better to have more surgery!

So on Jan 12th, he had a second operation on just his bottom jaw. They went in to adjust the existing screws so it wasn't as serious as the first op and only took about an hour. Still not much fun though and the swelling went back up again, it felt like a big setback. Now it's been over a week though and he's pretty much back to the stage he was at before which is great!

#7 Post by **Skitters** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 10:31 am

Wow, really sorry to hear about the setback of another surgery. It's great how quickly your bf seems to be recovering despite the problems. Hope things continue to go quickly and easily for you both!