August crew!!!

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#31 Post by **AF104** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:55 pm

Google the term: zip n squeeze bags and you'll find plenty of information about them. You don't necessarily "need" them. I didn't use them and I was ok. Since your movements are fairly small I'd think that you would be ok too. Then again surgery can be unpredictable. If you want them though then here's another link: http://www.zip-n-squeeze.com/purchase.html

#32 Post by **changes09** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 1:59 pm

I heard latley that they are on back order though. I'm not sure if you'll get them in time.But you can also order them from another site www.dinnerthroughastraw.com

#33 Post by **eveningninja** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:36 pm

I see, thanks. So should I try ordering you think? What are the other "necessities" that I need to order in advance? I've read through the sticky but I thought they were mostly just things I could get my hands on immediately.

#34 Post by **AF104** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:42 pm

It's a great idea to have a blender. I suggest the magic bullet.

#35 Post by **changes09** » Fri Jul 31, 2009 2:50 pm

Yeah a blender is a good idea! Maybe even two if you are like me and hate doing dishes. you can use one while the other is dirty lol!

Let's see, soups, veggies, i have whey protein powder. I'm thinking about buying one of those reading pillows. You know the pollows that have a head and arms.

#36 Post by **Tribal** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:36 pm

Yay... I survived! Justs got home from the hospital today. Surgery went well, but had some bleeding issues in the recovery room that had my surgeon a little concerned. Other than that it has been pretty smooth sailing and hopefully willl continue to be so. Good luck to every one else going through this soon!

#37 Post by **eveningninja** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:05 pm

I got my surgical hooks in today! I go in tomorrow at 5:30 in the morning, which is in 9 and a half hours. Wow I can't believe this is finally happening. Hopefully all goes well. See you guys on the other side.

#38 Post by **Tribal** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:48 am

Good luck enveningninja! hope you made out ok!

#39 Post by **changes09** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:06 am

I hope everything went well in surgery!!!!!

#40 Post by **eveningninja** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 7:52 am

So I'm on Day 6 now. The swelling I think peaked around Day 3 like expected. I am able to sleep a bit better now, although still sitting upright keeping my head elevated. I frequently drool a massive amount of saliva through my lips every day due to numbness and the fact that my top lip is so swollen right now that it comes too far out past my bottom lip. So that always sucks. Hm... I go see my surgeon for the first follow-up appointment tomorrow. Hopefully he says all has gone well and he takes the dang bite spacer out of my mouth so I have a bit of an easier time talking. I had both upper and lower surgery, and right now my bottom lip has like no swelling, so it makes it look like I have an overbite. Kind of weird when all my life I've had an underbite.

Anyway, yeah... for me Day 4 and 5 was sort of the turn-around point where things started to get better. Slowly but surely. Good luck to both of you.

P.S. Here's a cool little story. My nurse was suuuuuch an idiot. Every time I'd hit my button to call in the nurse, she'd talk through a speaker and ask: "Can I help you? ... Can I help you?" I'd sure love to answer her and say "YES I need so-and-so" or "I can barely breathe!" but she doesn't realize the fact that I've just had jaw surgery (even though she's my nurse and assigned to me) and cannot speak. All I can make are grunting noises, which didn't really communicate much across a speaker. So half the time she just wouldn't come in and the other half someone would eventually come around and be like whats up.

She also brought me a chicken sandwich as my first meal post-op. Cool! I'd love to eat that, but my jaw is broken! Then for lunch the next day I never even got any food brought to me. The nurse kept insisting that I had received food, but all there was in my room was a little packet of powdered soup broth stuff that was brought in for my "breakfast." That tasted horrible by the way.

So yeah... this experience can definitely be made a lot worse if your nurse sucks. I was pretty pissed, but luckily my dad stayed around pretty much the entire time to help me out.

#41 Post by **changes09** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:24 am

I'm pissed reading that story! That stupid nurse! I am definetly going to have my husband with me the whole time. He will be my voice. But other then that I'm glad your surgery went well. Let me know how your oral surgery appointment goes!

#42 Post by **jordan82** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:55 pm

i go in the morning. Surgery at 8AM for BSSO. Advancing the lower jaw 7mm. I cant wait to get this over with. I have had my braces on for over 3 years now and waiting for this surgery for over 1 year. I hope all goes well.

#43 Post by **eveningninja** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:53 pm

changes09 wrote:I'm pissed reading that story! That stupid nurse! I am definetly going to have my husband with me the whole time. He will be my voice. But other then that I'm glad your surgery went well. Let me know how your oral surgery appointment goes!

Yeah having your husband there will be a huge help, both of moral and physical support. My dad was there most of the time when he could be, but the times when he was gone were definitely noticeable! At least for me, because I was hardly able to sleep due to my nasal congestion. But it seems like most people who go through this say they sleep a lot of the time after surgery. Hopefully it'll be that way for you. Oh and definitely don't forget to ice on and off throughout the whole day for like the first 5 days I'd say. I wasn't that committed with my icing, I only really did it 3-4 times a day for maybe 10-15 minutes. And I swelled up pretty huge, especially my upper lip. But I'm pretty certain had I been more consistent with it I wouldn't have swelled so huge. Put on some good movies or something and just ice ice ice haha.

My appointment today went pretty well. I got my bite spacer out today, so I am able to open my mouth to the width of like one finger now, which is barely wide enough to brush teeth now and eat/swallow some mashed potatoes and stuff. My teeth were so gross after one week of not really being able to brush them, and not to mention the food that I ate (or managed to suck down through my teeth I guess) every night was still there. So yeah, I may have sounded somewhat discouraging in my previous posts, and there are honestly a few things I left out but I'm quite certain they won't apply to you so I didn't want to put more worrying thoughts into your mind. Just go into surgery with an optimistic attitude, follow your surgeon's instructions, ice a lot, and you'll do great. Good luck.

I'm gonna post some pics later, but for now I don't even have good pre-op ones (I know it was dumb to not take any beforehand), and I generally avoided/deleted all my profile shots in the past because I hated them. My surgeon took a few though pre-op so if I can get my hands on those I'll post some pre/post pics.

#44 Post by **Tribal** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:20 am

Ice for the first 48 to 72 hours after surgery, the surgeon or someone will probably go over this the day of. In my case I was recommended to do it a day longer because of prolonged bleeding after the surgery. After that (basically after the swelling is peaked and you're back at home) it is recommended to switch to heat to reduce the swelling.