Metal Mouth Message Board

Woohoo! I'm back home now, just got nice & cozy in my own bed with my trusty ol' laptop.

I had a maxillary osteotomy (jaw moved forward and expanded) on Friday, May 19th for my class III underbite. My cheeks are pretty swollen now and I still have these annoying little mini nosebleeds but otherwise I feel great. Nosebleeds have always been an issue for me so I don't think this is typical of everyone's experience.

When I came to in the recovery room, my only complaint was a moderately heavy nosebleed running down my throat, forcing me to swallow as I was laying in a flat position and too groggy to sit up on my own. I told the nurse about it and she just said I should "bring it all up, don't swallow it" but didn't bother to help me in that endeavour. The other complaint is that my pain meds (IV morphine) weren't set up quick enough when I arrived in my room, leading to a bit of a sinus headache. Once they kicked in though, I was doing great and have been ever since.

I was crazy nervous before the surgery and now I look back and think I would go through it again in a heartbeat, it's no biggie at all!

Does anybody have any questions? If so, I'd be very happy to answer them, just ask away.

I feel so elated to be on the other side!

Congratulations on getting this milestone behind you! It's amazing how many of us are post-surgery or just about to have it!

How are you feeling pain-wise? How are you doing nutritionally speaking?

Congrats on your surgery! I experienced the nosebleeds as well, but they went away after three or four days.

I found that the nurses in the hospital didn't quite know what to do with me, as they don't often see this type of surgery, and can't really understand the pain. I even had a nurse try to take my temp orally, and couldn't understand why I wouldn't let her near my mouth!

Pain is minimal to none at this point. I'm taking my codeine preventatively right now, but I'll probably taper off tomorrow or the next day to see how I feel without.

Nutritionally speaking, Ensure tastes pretty good right now. I was so hungry/thirsty after the surgery as I had to fast pre-op that I was ready to down whatever I could. I'm drinking as much water as I can tolerate through my syringe at a time and drinking Ensure when I feel hungry, about 5-6 cans per day.

The nurse in recovery had no clue but the ones up on the unit were very knowledgeable, thank goodness. There is a special 'observation room' for ortho surgeries on the unit, which is good in that the nurses assigned are specially trained (one of them even replaced an elastic for me with a special gadget). The only bad part was that it was a four-bed room with no TV (I'm such a baby, I wanted a private room with all the comforts of home). There were two other orthognathic patients in there with me, both guys, and one was actually wired. It was kind of nice that we were in the same boat together.

hey,
yea congrats on your surgery,
i am in about the same situation as you right now, i got my jaw surgery on monday the 15th, upper moved forward and lower moved back.
i am also taking lots of ensure.
i have since eased off a lot on the codeine as it seemed to be causing stomack pain.

Hope you heal well!!

Congrats on being post-surgery

I had nosebleeds also and I was lower only. I am not prone to them but my only explanation (in my case, at least) was the tube in my nose. The stuffiness and runny nose went away after a week & a half though my nose still runs sometimes.

It sounds like you are doing great though!!!

I know what you mean about being nervous beforehand. And you are so right, after it's all done you realize it wasn't THAT huge of a thing!

Jane

Well, it's now Tuesday and I'm doing quite well. My husband is making various movie rental runs as I'm getting a little bored.

I don't have any bruising yet and my swelling is definitely down - I can easily manage a smile

I'm decreasing my codeine today as I'm not even sure it's doing anything for me. But you're right, Saabdel - I notice stomach pain from it too! By the way, Saabdel, good idea with the healing diary - I'm sure others will find it very helpful to see you progress through the various stages of healing. I'm giving a verbal account, my husband doesn't know how to download pics from the digicam and I couldn't be bothered to.

I'm still trying to take in as much fluid as possible - I think this is really helping. I'm also keeping on top of my antibiotics as I don't want to take any chances there.

I'm trying to take as much focus away from my recovery as possible. I'm focusing instead on enjoyable things like planning my garden and spending time with my kids/family. I think it's an important time to focus on psychological health and then physical healing will follow (as long as we keep up our fluid intake!)