January 2012 Buddies!

[workingmomma]

Hi!

I'm a January Bracer too! Glad to meet some other January peeps. I hope your surgeries go well.

WorkingMomma

[catsteeth]

Rivvie, good luck today!!!

I had my appointment yesterday. It was pretty boring. I sat with a group of people and watched a generic video that all surgery patients have to watch. I had blood drawn, an EKG and talked about pain control. The nurse could only answer very general questions. She told me that my OS likes to give out all the specific information. I have to wait until Feb 9 for that.

[Rivvie]

Just a short post to let you guys know I am ok. I am home, the surgery went well. I was warned for nausea, but luckily I had none of that.
The surgery almost got cancelled on the spot, since I developed a slight fever prior to surgery. But after a lot of hassle and discussion, drawing blood and waiting for those results, they decided to continue.

Right now I am having a lot of difficulty with speaking and eating, also due to the additional hardware in my mouth, but I hope that will get better with time. Now I am off to bed, hope to get some sleep since I did not get much in the hospital.

[keeponsmiling]

Wow - didn't expect you to be home so soon! Glad it all went well and you didn't have to suffer a cancellation or get any nausea. Hope you can get plenty of rest now. Take care.

[AWSeibert]

Welcome workingmomma! Are you having the surgery or just getting braced this month?

Rivvie, YAAAAAY!! So glad the surgery went well for you! I look forward to your updates! For some reason your brace story won't let me see any of the pictures, (says somthing about me not having the permissions) but still so excited for you! Glad you have not had any nausea and certainly glad that the surgery wasn't cancelled! Did you just have the SARPE done this time or what surgery did you have? Hope you got some rest!

I am getting kind of excited that my surgery is coming up quickly! My husband has been deployed in Afghanistan for the last 10 months and its looking like he will get to come home a little earlier than expected so he won't be here for my surgery but should be here at some point during my 30 days of recovery which makes me feel alot more at ease knowing that he may get to come help take care of me!

Hope you are all well!

Ashleigh

[keeponsmiling]

In case I don't get to my email over the w/e - good luck Olive!!!

How's the recovery Rivvie? Hope you don't have any pain.

[Rivvie]

Hi guys, I am starting to feel a bit better today. The last two days I had quite a bit of pain unfortunately, I think due to the swelling and because the SARPE appliance was tightened already for the first time during surgery. I feel a constant pressure already. I took ibuprofen+tylenol, but nothing seemed to help. Today is better though and I hope it will continue to improve from now on.

I am getting tired from the difficulty speaking, it's mostly mumbling now, also because of the huge thing that they placed behing my lower lip for the MSDO expansion. Eating is also a huge undertaking, I will be eating liquid/pureed for at least 5 weeks, sigh.
Oh well, at least the pain is going down. Looking forward to a good night sleep tonight.
I have to visit the surgeon on wednesday to start turning both devices.

[Olive]

Good luck to you too, keeponsmiling! Somehow it doesn't feel real yet...

[keeponsmiling]

Hey Rivvie. Hope today's been a little easier for you. It sounds as though you may have passed the worst of it. Hang on in there.

Olive - I got rescheduled for 5 March due to the hospital being overcrowded and my surgeon taking an emergency cancer case. Think I croed for a day and a half when I got the news but now I'm just hoping the next date doesn't cancel too... The NHS get fined if they don't treat 95% of patients within 18 weeks and coincidentally (or not...) my 18 weeks is up on 6 March. Guess you can't schedule for emergencies though, so who knows? Will be thinking of you. Good luck!

[Rivvie]

Hey Olive, hope your surgery went ok, I am thinking about you. Love to hear from you soon!

[AWSeibert]

I met with my team of surgeons today for my final preop appointment. They have decided on a three piece lefort rather than a lefort I as well as a BSSO. They are going to be bringing my lower jaw forward 7mm, bringing my upperjaw forward 4mm and impacting my upperjaw 4mm. Some new information that came out of today's appointment, they will most likely do some septoplasty to attempt to correct my deviated septum as well as possibly doing some surgery on my nasal conchae or turbinates to minimize their size which will in turn help me breathe better! I think I was a little overwhelmed with all the information and additions today but I am looking forward to getting the surgery underway. I call on Friday to find out what time my surgery is on Monday!

Rivvie - I hope your recovery is progressing smoothly and you don't have much pain!

Olive - Good luck this week!

[catsteeth]

Ashleigh, that sounds like a lot of stuff to take in. All I could think from reading your post is how much better you are going to breathe when this is done.

Any word from Olive?

Rivvie, hope you have a pain free day soon.

I still have 3 weeks before mine but it is going quickly. All 3 of my kids have their birthdays right away. I'm trying to get my kids to hockey tournaments and I'm preparing things for my co-workers. I wonder how my husband is going to deal with being in my shoes for a few weeks? Maybe it will make him appreciate all the things I do

Speedy recovery, January people!

[Rivvie]

Wow Ashleigh, that sounds like some major major surgery. "just" the jaw surgery is major enough, but you are getting additional surgeries as a bonus... I am sure that in the end you will be glad that you had it all done though!

catsteeth, good luck with your future surgery as well! Those three weeks will fly by.

I am having little pain at the moment, so I am happy about that. I started turning the devices in the top and lower jaw 2 days ago. While turning the top jaw one, I have just a little pressure, uncomfortable but that's it. However the lower jaw one causes me (a lot of) pain when I turn it. Fortunately my husband turns them for me, otherwise I don't think I could complete a complete cycle... Yesterday I heard a crunching sound with the final turn (gross, I know), but I hope that this means that the fracture has loosened a bit and that it will hurt less from now on.

[keeponsmiling]

That sounds like a lot to take on board Ashleigh, but at least you can be sure the surgeon is keen to give you the best possible outcome. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.

Olive and Rivvie - hope all is well with you. Take care.

[AWSeibert]

Today is the day!! I am getting ready to head into the hospital! Hope you are all hanging in there. Thank you for all the well wishes, I will check in as soon as I feel up to it!