May 2010 Buddies

[chicago29]

marycotter...sorry I'm late to the thread but congratulations!! It sounds like, all things considered, you're doing quite well. Certainly par for the course so far!

Keep us posted and I'm glad to hear your surgery went well!

Take Care!
Chicago29

[matthut]

Hi there, Sounds like you are doing just fine, keep thinking positive thoughts ok.

[charlsie142]

Mary- so glad your surgery went well and that you're home and seem to be in really good spirits, which I'm sure will only help your recovery! Keep us posted on how you're doing, and I hope you can get some good rest.

I have a question for you about the cheek drains. Is that the reason I'll have a stitch in each cheek? My surgeon kinda mentioned it in passing and I knew I had read about others having them on here, but I don't know exactly why I'll have the stitch.

[Noam]

Hey guys. I just got home like 2 hours ago. My surgery started at 8am yesterday and lasted 4 hours. Everything went well according to the doctors. I woke up around 12:30, feeling no pain and overall much better than I expected. Although my arm was killing me, probably from the position it was layin gin during surgery. I was taken to recovery and stayed there until 8pm! Mostly because they didnt have a room available. I was in a good mood yesterday with no pain and some congestion. I was making jokes and trying to laugh and everyon ethought I was doing great. When I was taken to my room for the night however, I started getting more swollen and my congestion got really bad - I felt like I couldnt breathe so the nurse did all sorts of things to make it better but I still didnt get any sleep at all. In the morning they took x-rays, took off my bandages and took out the cheek blood drains. They also cleaned me out a little bit which made me feel better. I left the hospital between 12-1pm. Right now, I am not having pain but am really swollen and congested and it is difficult to swallow. Yesterday I didnt eat anything. Today I had broth in the morning and a protein water drink just now. I am hoping to get some sleep since I havent got any but I am not really sleepy so dont know if I will fall asleep. My lips and corners of mouth are very irritated with little bumps on them and they hurt. I am numb in my chin and bottom lip but everywhere else I have feeling.
Inside my mouth, I have a splint which is extremelly annoying and probably the worst part about this besides the congestion. It makes it really hard to swallow and my tongue keeps getting stuck to it. Its supposed to come out in 3-4 weeks!
Anyway, just wanted to post a quick update. All in all, I expected worse.
I will post pictures at a later date.

Wow, those first days after surgery seem like pure hell. No sleep, no food, pain, discomfort...

[marycotter5678]

Charlsie142, i dont have any stitches from the cheek drains. I am not sure what your surgeon is talking about.

Anyway, didnt sleep well last night -- maybe i got like an hour or 2 of sleep total. Congestion and being upright was preventing me from getting sleep. I had blood come gush out of my right nostril yesterday after using the nasal spray (perhaps too much..). It scared me but it stopped after a few minutes and dried up. I started getting some pain mostly in my teeth and pressure type pain in my bones so I take Codeine which doesnt do much =/ so i am just dealing with it. The congestion got better today after i repeatedly cleaned my nostrils with wet q-tips gently and took a shower/bath. So at least i am breathing a little better although still a little hard. The swelling is really bad now - I went to get acupuncture to see if it would help but it didnt and being in the hot sun made my face feel horrible - like it was on fire. I am now just icing and hoping it doesnt get any more swollen.. i actually dont think its possible its that bad. Does anyone know what day swelling starts to go down? Being swollen on my neck is making it extremelly hard to swallow. It took me an hour to get down 1 cup of protein drink.
I am really worried about losing alot of weight because i went into this only weighing 98lbs at 5'2 and now i am down to about 95lbs. Today all i had is 2 protein shakes (350 cal each) and some juice (about 150 cal). I plan on eating chicken broth later.
How is everyone else eating? Any tips to make swallowing easier?

I really hope to get some sleep tonight since i can breathe a bit better but we will see i suppose...

Tomorrow i am going to see my surgeon for a post op.

All in all, feelin really crappy today... =/

[matthut]

Mary, it will start to go down now, I felt pretty down for the first couple of days and questioned what have I done! But it really does improve, and just being able to clean your nose improves things, just be grateful you dont have to shave.

Yes I found my neck was sore, but again it will be getting better right now, keep up the protein drinks, and I also made very runny porridge which I drank from a cup. This was an improvement on the protein drinks. Oh and plenty of fluids, also yogurts, lots of.

[charlsie142]

Mary,

I hope you are feeling better by now! Please let us know how you're progressing.

I have just one more full day before surgery, so I'm just keeping myself as busy as possible, which isn't too hard right now. The reality hasn't truly set in yet, but we'll see how I feel tomorrow night.

[marycotter5678]

I'm doing a lot better. Day 4 was the last day I felt crappy. Yesterday and today were pretty normal.. swelling is slowly starting to go down. I'm swallowing and eating much better. Haven't lost anymore weight. I finally pooped for the first time since Monday last nigth lol (nobody talked about this!!). I didn't take pain meds today because I don't see the need. So pretty much just taking the anti-biotic. Tomorrow morning I have another post-op appointment.
The only thing bothering me now is sleeping up right because I am used to sleeping on my stomach/face. And also, the drooling. I find that I have energy but do get tired easier than before.

Charlsie142, I want to wish you lots of luck for the surgery. Stay positive and remember that the first 3 days are the worst. It passes by fast and then you feel so much better. Also, in my experience, it wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined it would be. Good luck and report back!!!

[rizomona]

To begin, thanks for all your info... it really helped me get through this crazy process. A little regret when I look in the mirror (huge gap). My name is Angela and I had the expander and braces put on wed, then I had SARPE on Thurs April 29, 2010 (almost May (-: I met with my ortho five days later who expanded 12 turns=3mm during first office visit. It felt tight. He wanted to be aggressive with the turning as I am on a timeline and need the gap to close by Sept when I am in a wedding. He suggested to turn 4 times a day=1mm a day. I felt it was too much, but if it was ok then why not. I expanded 4 turns for the next two days, by the third day my palate was blood red. I felt we were expanding too much and I took the red palate as a sign to slow down, but of course by then it was Friday when all orthos are off and I could not call them. So I made an executive decision and only expanded 2 turns a day for 2 more days and by Sunday i felt a sharp point at the roof of my mouth. I had felt it after surgery, I just assumed it was a staple or stitch or something. Well I took a pic and realized it was bone sticking out of my palate. I kinda freaked so on Sunday we only expanded 1 turn. Then Monday I called the surgeon and he told me we were expanding too fast and it causes the bone to die and come out. AHHHHHHHHH so tomorrow I go see the surgeon and he said he will cut it off and sand it down and hopefully that will take care of it. Has anyone had this happened?
My face is numb on the right side and my upper lip appears paralyzed and does not move. The good thing about that is that it covers the gigantic gap that is as big as a giant tooth. The expansion has created such a huge gap that one of the front teeth is climbing over another one. It is crazy!!!! Also did you guys experience fluid like/ air filling in their sinuses? I can feel this horrible pressure on my right sinus area and the cheek is swollen some and you can feel it moving when you touch it. Weird feeling!!!! I don't know how to get it to go away. I am sick of liquids.. and I am always hungry. I have lost 8 lbs and can't afford to lose more. Please I would appreciate any info on my questions. I am kinda regreting things right now just because I am so worried and I look horrible!!
Thanks again for sharing.
Angela

[charlsie142]

I'm home! My surgery started at 7:30 yesterday morning and I checked out of the hospital at 10am today. I went straight to my oral surgeon's office where thy cleaned my mouth/nose and took some xrays. Things went really well, and everyone's super impressed with how well I'm handling everything. I pretty much sleep most of the day away, but I have no problems getting up and moving about. I have some numbness, but mostly around my nose. No splint, and only one small rubberband on each side that can be removed for eating/brushing teeth.

The sore throat was definitely the worst part, especially before they cleared out my nose, as I felt like I couldn't breathe too well. There's still a tad bit of a sore throat present right now, but it has improved so much throughout the day.

I've started a blog about this, and there are a few pictures up from yesterday and today, so check it out if you want. Here's the link:
http://orthognathicadventure.blogspot.c ... chive.html

Mary--so glad to hear you're doing so much better...I can't wait until this weekend so I'll be over the roughest parts. Hope you're taking care of yourself!

I'll update more soon...I'm starting to feel a little sleep since I just took some pain meds (which means there are probably a ton of typos in this post!).

-Charlsie

[marycotter5678]

Charlsie, welcome to the other side! So glad that your surgery went well and that your recovery is going so well. The toughest part is done
Keep us updated.

[marycotter5678]

BTW, I have a blog too that I post daily pictures on. You can click the www on the bottom of my posts. Otherwise, here is a direct link:

http://myunderbiteadventure.blogspot.com/

[charlsie142]

Mary,

How are you doing these days? I haven't had the chance to go through your blog very much, but you looked great from the pictures I saw!!

I haven't been posting much as I was either sleeping or just had people over and it would wear me out and I wouldn't feel like blogging much. I did update my blog with pictures from Thursday/Friday yesterday, and I posted some of what I remember of the last 4 days this morning.

I'm pretty much off the Lortab right now and taking 800mg ibuprofen. I think that is going to help with the constipation issue that you also mentioned, Mary! I did finally go for the first time since Monday last night (sorry if that's TMI--it was a great moment for me and I feel the need to share my excitement!).

Overall, my recovery has been very mild, and I have absolutely no regrets. I'm definitely waiting for the swelling to go down more, as I would love to get out of the house a little without scaring anyone.

[marycotter5678]

Well today is day 12 and I feel pretty normal. Swelling is down a lot but still have some in my top lip area and around the nose, possibly under the chin. Chin/lower lip are numb and feel heavy/stiff which is annoying. Good news, I got my splint out on day 10! I could not believe it.. I hated that thing. Now I just have doubled elastics on each side. Going for my 4th post-op on Monday - they ask me to come in a lot for the first couple weeks.

As far as meds go, I finished my anti-biotic a few days ago and since then I have not been on any meds.

Sounds like your recovery is going pretty well too.

Is anyone else having surgery this month or are we the only ones?

[BracketRacket]

I'm coming up (way too) soon...