May 2010 Buddies

Message

#31 Post by **BracketRacket** » Thu May 20, 2010 12:19 pm

One week from now, I'll be in recovery, maybe even on my way home if I'm lucky.

#32 Post by **BracketRacket** » Sat May 22, 2010 9:55 pm

Anyone else getting close? I keep buying things I think I'll need, and have started to do some of the "I know I need to do it ahead of time, but I have time, left, right?" things...

#33 Post by **charlsie142** » Mon May 24, 2010 5:55 am

Good luck tomorrow, BracketRacket! I'm sorry no one's been around on here to keep you company. And I'm really shocked there aren't more May surgeries. I quit posting on here because I felt like my blog covered most everything I was experiencing.

One thing that helped me with pre-surgery anxiety was to stay as busy as possible and that really helped keep my mind off of what was happening.

Good luck during surgery and please post to let us know how you are as soon as possible!

#34 Post by **BracketRacket** » Mon May 24, 2010 7:09 pm

Thanks charlsie -- not quite tomorrow, but getting too close for comfort. I've been OK so far, really started getting nervous today. I want to put on a brave face, but inside I've started freaking out a bit, I must say.

#35 Post by **charlsie142** » Mon May 24, 2010 7:20 pm

Oops...don't know why I had it in my head that it is tomorrow...this is why you should re-read posts when you have been on pain meds!

Regardless, I wish you all the best! While our surgeries are different, I really think the waiting before surgery was worse than most of the recovery (there are a few rough spots, but you'll sleep a lot and that really helps).

Take care!

#36 Post by **BracketRacket** » Mon May 24, 2010 7:22 pm

Thanks -- I hope you're feeling better and better every day!

#37 Post by **geordie999** » Tue May 25, 2010 1:22 pm

Saw the thread and thought that I would also share my May surgery for anybody out there undergoing a similar procedure (long time reader first time poster). It all started about a year ago when i visited the dentist after a long absence and was told in no ucertain terms that my back molars would fall out sooner rather than later due to class III malloclusion - which they'd tried to fix by removing my premolars. Orthodontist recommend an oral surgeon here in socal and he recommended a LeFort 1 2-piece maxillary osteotomy to open my upper jaw and move it forward a little, then followed by a BSSM in a year to align the bottom jaw. The put in the RPE 7 days agao and I had the Lefort 5 days ago and everything went very well. I was told that the surgery only lasted 1 hour and I was up and to the bathroom a couple of hours after being transferred to my room. The first few days I was thinking of getting a t-shirt that just said I got into a fight with an oral surgeon and lost because of all the swelling - but the ice and heat packs really helped so after about the third day the swelling went way down - though i still have quite the black eye. I'm now in day 5 and looking much more like myself. I have feeling everywhere except in my upper teeth. So all in all not bad. Just started on the RPE and will have a huge gap by the end of the week. Hope this is helpful to anybody out there undergoing a similar procedure.

#38 Post by **BracketRacket** » Wed May 26, 2010 2:10 pm

Thanks geordie999...sound like I'll be right behind you. I hope you keep feeling better every day!

Getting skeered...

#39 Post by **charlsie142** » Wed May 26, 2010 4:08 pm

BracketRacket- I am definitely feeling better as each day goes by! Good luck tomorrow--I will be thinking of you! Report back in when you can!

Welcome, geordie! Sounds like you've been through a lot lately, but you definitely sound like you're doing really well! Glad to have another May surgery survivor join us. We're a small group for some reason.

Marycotter- haven't heard from you in a while. I hope this means life is getting back to normal for you.

I am just over 2 weeks out and things are still going well. It's a little frustrating that my swelling hasn't really gone down in a while, so I guess what I have, I'm stuck with for a bit longer. Everyone says that people who don't know what happened would never know there's anything wrong, but I just can't seem to believe them because I can't look at myself objectively and not just see the swelling. My diet is getting back to normal, as my surgeon now wants me eating things like flaky fish (mahi mahi for dinner tonight! yum!). So now the only things I can't eat are tough meats, pizza, thick breads, etc. I have some popping in my left side when I chew, so that deters me from eating anything that I have to chew much.

A friend of mine just had a 3 piece Lefort a week ago, so I've actually been helping to take care of her this week. It's helped me to get out and about and not be so focused on myself. Pretty soon it'll be back to school for me.

I am no longer updating my blog daily, but I will continue to take daily pictures to track my progress with swelling. That's it for now.

#40 Post by **BracketRacket** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 3:52 pm

I'm alive!

Everything seens te be going well, lotsa blood and gore , but saw the doctor today and started expanding (aaaaahhh, when am I done? Not cool!). I'll get into the details soon (cause I know you all love gore -- actually because I know how helpful it was to me hear real-life experiences, not sugar-coacted), but just wanted to pop in and say hi. The last few days haven't been fun, but hopefully everything is going well, and I hope to start feeling more "human-y" soon. I ventured out of the house today (OK it was to the doctor, but still counts!)

Hope everything is going well for everyone.

#41 Post by **charlsie142** » Tue Jun 01, 2010 4:01 pm

So glad to hear you're alive and well, BracketRacket! And you'll definitely start feeling more human the more you get out...it was day 10 before I ventured out into public (and it was also for a post-op appointment). Hope you continue to have a good recovery--you should be through the worst by now, so it can only get better!

Definitely post more details when you feel up to it!

#42 Post by **BracketRacket** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:33 am

Daddy and I just survived turning the expander at home for the first time. Only 10 more until I go back to the OS!

He said mine is a 1/2 mm each turn, and that they will take a look and decide if I need to expand more at my next visit. I have a feeling it will be yes (they do want to overexpand a bit), but I'll be so happy if it turns out I'm done!

#43 Post by **geordie999** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 8:06 am

Glad to hear you're doing well BrackRacket and in recovery - the worst is definitely over. It's been nearly two weeks since my surgery and I'm basically back to normal although I still have a small hint of a black eye - though its disappearing fast! It was about 5 days after surgery that I started turning my expander - although I know the OS turned the RPE during surgery since I woke up with a small gap. I was told 4 half turns a day by the OS - so i did 2 in the morning and 2 at night for a week. Went to my ortho yesterday and i still have a bit more to go so now I'm 2 half turns a day. I also found out a bit more about the timeline. Right now I have this beautiful tooth size gap in my teeth but my ortho said he'll put braces on in a couple of weeks and start closing the gap (if it doesn't close by itself - which many do). Gap should be closed by August at which time he'll remove the RPE so it can be replaced with a trans-palatal arch - which means my speech will be back to normal. Hope that helps.

#44 Post by **BracketRacket** » Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:39 pm

I brushed my teeth (mostly, kinda!) Wahoo!
Randomly, my mouth will start to feel tight. It was weird, literally I was eating dinner, feeling "normal", by the time I was done with my pudding (magic?), I think I was drooling less, so I could feel what was going on in my mouth more, maybe? But it felt tighter, and just different. It's kinda weird, but hopefully just cause I'm less slobbery? I'm just worried that the tight feeling will make expanding feel worse...or of course, the back of my mind worry that something's wrong.

I keep telling myself that things are going to feel weird and different at different times for a long time (hopefully once I'm done expanding, they'll stabilize and feeling will come back) and not to be paranoid over every feeling or change, but I'm a worrier!

#45 Post by **charlsie142** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 6:32 am

So glad to hear you are doing so well, BracketRacket and geordie!

So here's a little bit of an update about me..

I had another post-op appointment yesterday, and my surgeon gave me my pre- and post-op x-rays and told me to make an appointment with my orthodontist to start getting adjustments again. While I'm not looking forward to having adjustments, it does mean I'm that much closer to getting these braces off! So I'm pretty excited about that. Also, my surgeon said I don't have to come back to him until the end of summer! Evidently, I'm an abnormal patient in how smoothly and quickly my recovery has gone.

However, I'm still not feeling 100% mentally or physically (we'll say more like , and the residual swelling and numbness can be extremely frustrating at times. I updated my blog earlier after a huge crying spell because I feel people don't really understand how much your stamina is affected by having double jaw surgery. I still am figuring out what's too much activity, and when I do too much, I end up paying for it for the next few days.

Anyway, glad to hear all us May surgeries are doing well!