September 2011 Buddies!!!!

[Minerva]

Thank you, Underbiter.

Hopefully you're out by now.

[boatsink]

Hey Jo, haven't heard from you since your third operation. I hope your well.

[gothpenguin]

Hey Jo, how are things going?


Anyone else been getting prickly pain in their chins? Over the last few days its actually become quite annoying?

Also, it still hurts to brush my teeth or when I bit down to hard on things?

Jeff

[Marian]

Hi guys

I am writing on behalf of Jo.

During Jo's third operation there were some complications - it was to do with another medical issue rather than the jaw surgery itself.

I am in contact with Jo's brother and will keep you guys updated about how Jo is doing.

If you have any messages that you would like to pass on to Jo please send me a personal message and I will pass them on for you.

Very best wishes to you all.

Marian

[Minerva]

Thanks, Marian.

Sending her a bunch of virtual flowers, and wishing her a quick recovery.



Minerva.

[Marian]

Hi everyone

Good news!!! Jo is starting to get much better. She has been strong enough to go on Facebook today which is obviously a massive relief to her friends and family (I've never seen so many messages supporting someone!!!!).

She has had such a rough time and it will be lovely to have our September buddy back on Archwired.

Marian xx

[gothpenguin]

Hey All,

Just a quick question; its been seven weeks since the surgery now and I'm dying to get my elastics off. I've gotten no indication from my ortho when that will be. Have yours told you any dates/timelines etc?

Jeff

[Marian]

Jeff - I'm the same as you - I'm on my 7th week with these bloody elastics.

What are your elastics doing? Mine are pulling my top teeth to the right and bottom to the left to line up the midline. I also still have a square of elastics on each side - I think this is to close the gaps at the side between the top and bottom teeth.

My next appt isn't until 9th December so they'll be on until at least then. They look a bit yukky don't they.

My husband keeps asking when my elastics are coming off so I don't think he's finds them very appealing either.

How is the feeling in your lip. I am still numb on the left hand side and very tingly on the right, with the odd spasm of pain - like a big elastic band being flicked at my chin.

Are you happy with your smile yet - I'm not really happy with mine yet - still looks a bit gruesome to me!!

[underbiter]

well its been a hectic 12 days. I basically ended up having an emergency operation the next morning following my third op to push my bottom jaw back and wires added whilst i was asleep, as my vitals dropped and my breathing became really bad and the decision was made for me in the morning to cut the wires off in surgery. Against my many many abusive protestations i must add! My last words before i went under were 'id rather you cut my f***ing throat than my f-ing wires, if you cut my wires dont bother bringing me back!' so u can imagine i was quite stressed!

something went wrong somewhere and i ended up in intensive care unconscious for 6 days under very strong sedation. There were times when i had a 5% chance of making recovery so you can imagine it was quite harrowing for my family and friends. Something had gone wrong and somehow water got into my lungs so one of the fantastic doctors treating me put loads of salt into my body to dry out my lungs which thankfully worked and i came back to life, what they discovered is that i have a faulty heart valve, which they are still not sure whether it has been caused by the operations themselves or if its an underlining problem i may have had for years that was seen as another condition. I am on replacement steroids and have hypothyroxidism and they think some of this might actually be caused by the valve problem!

Bringin me back to life wasnt easy and due to the amount of medication i was put on to keep my body safe and able to recover i had 4 days of the most horrible hallucinations and delirious thoughts before i began to get better. What i have found quite funny though is that even though my wires were cut my bottom jaw whether due to the place i was positioned the drugs or the pipe down my throat didnt grow back so i actually have made progress, being unconscious for 6 days with muscle relaxants and things must have helped it to stop moving. Last wednesday i got moved to an acute heart care ward who have been fantastic in helping my recovery. They let me home today which i was thrilled about as i havent had more than four hours sleep at a time for about 2 weeks now so hopefully ill feel much better after having a decent sleep. My concern was still that i might make more progress and today went to see my surgeon who was so thrilled that he hadnt killed me and agreed to try putting the chain wires on just for 24 hours to see if anymore progress can be made.

Personally dont think there will be if theres a chance then ill try anything. Unfortunately after having freedom i had forgotten what it was like being 'trapped' by elastics but i think 24 hours i can do that. At the moment tho my concern is obviously my heart valve, and ive been told to get better physically then sometime after christmas i will have a camera sent down to look at my heart and work out what sort of surgery will need to be done. The surgeons seem to think its something ive had a long time but its been masked by other problems ive had. the good thing is that i started off with an 11mm underbite, now it is only about 3mm, so its a vast improvement from before. Obviously my surgeon and any other surgeons are reluctant to do any other surgery until my heart valve problem is sorted. I will update in a couple of days xxx hope everyone elses experiences werent as dramatic as mine! Funny thing is the last bit of numbness i had on my chin came back today as well funny old world! xxx

Jo

[gothpenguin]

Jo, That sounds horrible I couldn't imagine going through what you've done. I'll be praying for a speedy recovery.


Marian,

From what I understand my elastics are meant to keep the bite from opening, and pull the lower jaw forward a little bit. I think my mid-lines are aligned fine. My ortho has been quite happy with my progress as has my on tight elastics holding my very back teeth together, boxes beside them, and a diagonal pair for night time wear.

Feeling in my lips is actually almost back to normal, oddly enough only one side of my lips were numb after the surgery, so the remaining side has caught up I'm still numb underneath the lips however and along the chin, although its a tingly numb and not a numb-numb(if that makes sense) I can feel myself drool for example, but I don't have particularly fine-grained sensation.

I'm very happy with my smile, (i've beenalthough its still quite gummy(but thats because of my narrow pallate and not my overbite. Since I don't have any elastics on my front teeth I don't scare children when I smile anymore LOL.

Every now and again I think I have no pain anymore, then one of my kids will smack my chin

[Minerva]

Underbiter,

What a nightmare that must have been

Take good care of yourself now.

[coffeecupcakes]

Hi jo,

Just read your post, sounded horrific! I'm glad you're safe now. Hope you recover smoothly!

[DRG]

Underbiter - Such an amazing tale of how you fought through your recovery. Kudos to the medical staff that managed your care. Please continue to get (all the way) better soon!

DRG

[underbiter]

Well as i suspected the elastics didnt do anything so it was so lovely being back on normal meals yesterday had a lovely chicken curry and poppadoms which ive missed so much! the good thing is my jaw at least has stayed in position and its about 90% better than it was before i started. Im thinking that once ive had my heart valve problem sorted im going to concentrate on my teeth and then my cleft and nose (thats if anyone will dare operate on me!) and i think ill be happy with it then im starting to love my chin shape and my swelling hasnt gone all the way down yet! Me being me, im already bored and ive only been home 3 days haha! My mum has took some time off work so at least ive got her company as well as the puppy Frank who is has doubled in size since ive been away and hes only 12 weeks, and my cat who comes to check on me a couple of times a day its like having 3 nurses! Im still very much lacking in energy and am extremely slow but im sure my energy will come back eventually. Im sleeping about 11 hours a day which im sure will be helping my recovery perhaps not so much the chocolates and naughty things im eating that ive not been able to eat in 8 weeks! Ive decided once i get them out of my system i will be going on a heart friendly diet with plenty of wholegrain. Oh one thing i discovered is that because ive not had much caffiene in weeks is ive developed a bit of an intolerance to it, and had a tiny bit in hospital of diet coke and it went straight to my head and made me giddy! So i have got caffiene free coke instead and lemonade. I dread to think what my usual double vodka and redbull drink of a night out would do to me if thats what diet coke does!
By the way i hope i havent put anyone off jaw surgery, my problems were completely unrelated to the jaw surgery itself, and part of an underlying problem i seem to have had possibly since childhood which was just made worse by 4 general anaesthetics in 3 months. My surgeon yesterday made me laugh because apparently when they were trying to get tubes down my throat and that the heart surgeons were worried that theyd manage to break my bottom jaw clean off! My surgeon said if only it had been that easy i wouldnt have been in this position in the first place! Im feeling positive but a bit stuck in the house at the moment. Im trying to think of a hobby that would keep me busy but is also not too active to keep me going.
Hope everyone else is ok! xxxx

[Marian]

Hi Jo

It's good to hear you back to your old self

If you need something to do I have a suggestion. Before I left work for my operation my boss gave me a cross stitch to do. It might sound a bit old ladyish, but it's very time consuming and you have to concentrate to do it so it keeps your mind busy.

Plan B - do your christmas shopping online. I've done about half of mine in the last couple of weeks. With the postman knocking on the door every day it makes you feel very smug and organised.

Marian

xx