February 2011 Buddies!!!

[DRG]

Congrats canthandlethetooth, I wish you a speedy and easy recovery.

I love my teeth - thanks for the pointer to the November thread. I just spent much of the past few days reading through all 12 pages of that one. The whole time I read it I was in disbelief that beowulf68 was wired for that long (10+ weeks). The more I read, the more I am realizing that (1) each recovery has it's ups and downs, and, (2) some are much better/easier than others. I hope that is not directly related to age, for my own sake.

DRG

[canthandlethetooth]

@suzanna - thanks, Only in the hospital for one night and glad to be out.

Yesterday and today are tough days (3rd and 4th day from my surgery date) - the inside of my mouth is very sore but as far as I can make out just sore not infected. I've tried to be as consistent as possible with oral hygeniene ie the swilling with hot salty water and with the mouthwash they gave me plus cleaning after every "meal". Also I had a bit of an attack of nausea and can longer face rice which was going to be my main source of carbs. Just writing about rice makes me want to hurl! At the moment it is milkshakes, smoothies and I had two thirds of a McDonalds Double Cheeseburger yesterday.
The NHS are these days very reluctant to hand out painkillers on the way out of hospital and gave me paracetamol and some anti inflammatories. Luckily I have a store of co-codemol and thank the lord for that because there is no way on earth paracetamol on it's own is going to numb the discomfort. Swelling has abated a bit and I don't look quite as much like a bulldog today.

[suzyscientist]

Hey canthandlethetooth,

Congrats on your surgery! I had to laugh at your Churchill dog comparison!! I thought looked like Monica from Friends when they did the flashbacks to when she was fat... But the Churchill dog is a better one!

I am NHS as well - where are you? I had my surgery at St John's in Livingston, and they gave me LOADS of painkillers (paracetamol, dihydrocodeine and diclofenac/voltarol) and sleeping tablets, it's been great That said, I didn't take them for long (think I quit on day 6) because they totally messed up my stomach, and actually the pain really disappeared quickly.

Wishing you the best for your recovery

Good luck to all February candidates!

Suzy

[suzanna]

Suzy,

What kid of sleeping pills did your doctor prescribe for you? I've been having a hard time sleeping over the last few weeks which is new for me. I'm guessing I won't be getting much sleep after surgery either. I think my OS writes a script for Lorazepam (or at least he used to) so I might ask for that for a few days at least.

[Nathaniel]

Hi everyone, just popping in Ahh!!! My SARPE is coming soon... I got the palette expander put in, it's not that bad at all really. Hopefully the recovery of the SARPE and the expansion isn't too too bad! We'll see.

Good luck everyone I'm probably going to start a blog to write about everything, this forum and other peoples' blogs helped me so far, so I hope mine will help someone a few years down the road when my overall program is complete

good luck Nathaniel!

Thanks arieswithbraces, going to bed now, waking up early to be at the hospital for 8:30am admit, then 10:30 start time Woooo!! The journey begins

[suzanna]

Thanks arieswithbraces, going to bed now, waking up early to be at the hospital for 8:30am admit, then 10:30 start time Woooo!! The journey begins

Good luck! We'll be thinking about you!

[suzyscientist]

Hi Suzanna,

I had loprazolam - it was fine to take with most of the painkillers but check with your OS, they should know what works with it. I did try another type of sleeping pill that I got from a pharmacy (diphenhydramine hydrochloride) but I had a weird reaction to those...

Good luck to Nathaniel!

Suzy

[canthandlethetooth]

Hey canthandlethetooth,

Congrats on your surgery! I had to laugh at your Churchill dog comparison!! I thought looked like Monica from Friends when they did the flashbacks to when she was fat... But the Churchill dog is a better one!

I am NHS as well - where are you? I had my surgery at St John's in Livingston

Orrh Yessh I went to Queen Victoria East Grinstead. Glad you got all the pain killers you needed Suzy and your pain has subsided pretty quickly. Luckily I haven't needed any sleeping tablets as I've been quite active during the day - bit of walking and quite of lot of guitar playing (it's a flying V so I have to play it standing) so I'm quite tired by bedtime.
Last night was a bad night, but that is mainly because on Monday an elastic snapped and I didn't immediately replace it I instead took the opportunity to shove as much food down my throat as was possible before replacing it in the evening having been so nauseous before and I was weak with hunger. What I think the elastics are doing, which I hadn't really thought about before, is actually pulling the lower jaw up so the back teeth meet but of course moving it through the break and against all the metal. Which is probably why I had just about the worst pain filled night so far and I was literally counting down the seconds before the time I worked out I could safely take another dose. However a lot better this morning and I can feel that my teeth are starting to meet corrrectly at the back.

Good luck and best wishes to everyone due for the surgery

[DRG]

Best of luck Nathaniel! I look forward to hearing from you after your surgery.

DRG

[suzanna]

I had my pre-op appointment today. Nothing really new to report. My OS told me that I'll have a splint in for 1 week and be closed shut with elastics for 2 weeks. He said he *may* need to leave the splint in for 4 weeks depending on how stable my bite is but he won't know for sure until he's in the OR and has moved my jaws into their new positions. I'll be on clear fluids for 5 days, then full fluids for the next 5 days, then pureed after that. I started packing my bag tonight for the hospital, I really hope I get a private room. I have to work 7-7 tomorrow, I hope the day goes by really quickly. My friend is bringing me Olive Garden from Buffalo (we don't have one in Canada and she's going shopping there tomorrow) which will be my last real meal for a few weeks. Can't wait!

[canthandlethetooth]

Good luck with the surgery suzanna

I had a real problem with the mouthwash the hospital gave me. It disagreed with me and made swallowing excruatingly painful, and it took me a couple of days to work out the source of the problem and why I could eat in the morning but by lunchtime, after dutifully following mouth cleaning instructions, eating or drinking anything later on in the day was such torture. To quote the side of the bottle Chlorhexidine Gluconate "very occasionally may cause swelling of the salivary glands". I think this is precisely what has happened and this mixed with the other swelling of my face has led to this painful eating experience. So for now I'm just going to clean my teeth as best I can but leave the mouthwash on the side.

[sauerkraut]

Just popping in with well-wishes for all you February folks

Canthandlethetooth: the hospital I was in had all the patients rinsing with herbal tea. Apparently sage tea is best but some pple used camomile instead. We had to rinse at least 6 times a day, always after eating (drinking!) anything. Patients were only given chlorhexamed if they looked like developing an infection. Maybe sage tea would be an option for you?

[canthandlethetooth]

Thanks sauerkraut that's interesting and I'll give that a go. Since I have cut out the mouthwash I have been able to eat by swallowing on one side of my mouth/throat. Hopefully the other side will start to get less inflammed (that's a nasty chemical methinks)

[suzanna]

Just about 13 hours to go!!! It's going to be so weird being a patient for a few days. I was giving one of my post-op patients a clear fluids tray before I left work tonight and was just laughing to myself about how that's exactly what a nurse will be giving me for support tomorrow night..... oh boy...... I don't think it's all really even hit me yet.

[I love my teeth]

Suzanna-

good luck----it's hard when we are the patients---I found that out after my surgery.....it's funny how you just "know stuff" when you work/worked at a hospital....I also found out, sometimes ignorance is bliss!! I also have a much better appreciation for my postop patients--when they describe their pain, and how crappy they really feel, ect.

Best of luck,
Christine