Do you like yourselves again right away?

[brok3nwings]

Hello everyone!
im new here this is my first post but i already had my surgery!
Im from Portugal and had my surgery in Lisbon, my insurance payed almost everything which was great!

Short story...
since little i had some respiratory problems and also my family from my dad's has a bit of a "strange" profile features but with my illness i developed them more, so after years and years of braces i went to a dentist once and they told me "that would only be fixed with a surgery and you will look beautiful!" ..i think the beautiful part sold me off ahaha (yes i liked my face but had a bit of complex with my mouth..)

So my lower jaw was too short and my uper jaw was also too short and long so i had a gummy smille .. my dentist is suposed to be one of the best and he was the one that indicated the surgeon ( i think he works with that specific one..) . The pre-op consultation was pretty quick i didnt know what to ask.. i knew it was going to change my face, i knew i would swollen a lot, and the risks i dint want to think about them...

The surgery went well, it took 5 hours and i only stayed one night at the hospital. This is my 9th day post op and i can eat almost normally since day 4 but of course...im still swollen and have a bit of pain sometimes. i already go out and do my stuff.

So this is my question after all ... :

Do you all look at yourselves and think you look BETTER? i mean..does it happen almost instantly? its because i think i look ugly, honestly... i think i looked better before. My nose is wider and my chin is "big", im not used to it that is true but anyway...im scared, really scared...

is there anyone that after all the post op STILL dont like how they look? How do you deal with these issues?

i am TOTALLY different...

[trish222]

hi brok3nwings,
I, too, found this site after my surgery and it has been a blessing. I want to assure you that everything you explained is exactly how I felt post-op. I had upper, lower and genio 10 months ago and I had a host of post-op difficulties that slowed down my progress. I had read on this thread as well as my doctor telling me it takes one year to fully recover. I am still undergoing physical therapy as I have limited jaw mobility and my lips and chin feel like they have rubber bands in them. I remained so still after my surgery thinking it would heal better but I think the contrary happened. All my muscles and joints atrophied-definately my fault. I, do wish, my OS had gone over post-op issues a little more thoroughly but it is water under bridge. Anyway, yes I loved my smile immediately but the cheeks and chin took a while to get used to. I will say I don't like how my nose turns up just a hint. I have a best friend that is sooo observant and she noticed the difference in my nose at 3 months post-op, as well as my top lip looks smaller now. My lips, however, do close. I mention to my OS that I still have some dimpling in my chin when I close my lips-something I could never do before. He said at the one year mark if the muscles in chin have not relaxed more he would put some botox in for me. Great luck and continued success on your recovery and soon you will see the difference and hopefully love the results. My head was huge for 3 months so it was difficult to imagine fully what the final results would be. FYI, most people don't really even notice as the changes are so subtle. You are in my prayers!

[OzzysMom]

Congrats. Wow, at nine days post-op I was on a liquid diet. Yes, I was very happy but the results but quite honestly it took me a long time to get used to them. When I started eating again(or trying to) I had a hand mirror next to me so my food did not go all over the place. I ended up keeping that mirror next to me for months and trying to get used to looking at the new me. And, because of the tingles, etc...I was always reminded that I had had surgery so it only made me want to look into the mirror more.

All the best on a great recovery!

[OzzysMom]

Forgot to mention...Don't be scared. You are going to be the most swollen for the first 2 weeks after surgery.
After that, the swelling that remains will slowly decrease. When I look at photos of me that were taken 3 months post-op, although people say they look good.......then fast forward to pics taken a year after that and wow, big, big, changes took place.
Post surgery teaches us a big lesson in patience!

[brok3nwings]

Oh one year?! that is a LOT to handle i must say... im young and impatient ;P i want to look good right away eheh, my surgeon told me that i would look almost 100 percent one month from now, so i am relying on what he said... i know that it would be such a luck to be that way but hopes are keeping me smiling during all this process...

the numbness on my face also keeps me aware that i had surgery all the time.. its pretty annoying! but at least i can already do my normal life, i talk, i eat and i try to keep myself busy...

i can feel my bones under my chin where my under jaw was "broken" ..i told this to my surgeon he told me it was normal, did you feel the same?

Anyway.. i will start manual lymphatic drainage tomorrow to see if it helps, i asked my surgeon if there was anything i could do to fasten the process and he told me that. Im hopping it can work ;P

Did your friends and family told you right away you looked better? its because my family evidently they say i will look beautiful after the swollen is gone..but my friends just give me that notion of .. "you are not the same..i dont recognize you.. what happened?! " and im insecure cause noone told me until now that i will look better then before the surgery

[OzzysMom]

After a couple more weeks, probably only you will notice any swelling.
Yes, everything you mentioned is entirely normal.

Some people have drastic changes, other people it's hard to notice they even had surgery.
Just hang in there and give it time. When I was recently out of surgery, someone on here wrote that healing is a "process" rather than an event and I've always reminded myself of that.
Sounds like you are healing very well!

[qwertz1]

i can eat almost normally since day 4

sure about that? asked your doctor?
normally you should be on a liquid diet the first few weeks and only soft food for up to 2 months after surgery I think.
not complying with that can have severe consequences, like a loose upper jaw, and more surgery.

maybe your doctor has discovered a miracle that allows you to eat right away, but make sure that he did, and didn't just forget to tell you about the diet.

[brok3nwings]

qwertz1
my surgeon told me to start eating normally yes. the first two days it had to be liquid and cold food but thats it. he gave me a flyer that had all the topics about what i could or coudnt do and it was written the food part.. so i can eat normally. I dont know if its because now titanium is what is used to fix your jaw...

[crumble]

normally you should be on a liquid diet the first few weeks and only soft food for up to 2 months after surgery I think.
not complying with that can have severe consequences, like a loose upper jaw, and more surgery.

maybe your doctor has discovered a miracle that allows you to eat right away, but make sure that he did, and didn't just forget to tell you about the diet.

Qwertz, you seem to make a habit of dictating what you feel should be the case from what you have read on the internet. Liquid or soft food diet are only required in some surgery, no case is the same.

I'm a month after double jaw surgery and my diet is back to normal. I did not have a splint or get banded shut and was encouraged by my doctors to eat whatever I could as soon as I was ready. I believe this has helped with my recovery as my swelling is virtually non-existant and numbness is quickly recovering and I'm struggling to think of a food I would not be able to eat now. Maybe tough meat or a particularly crunchy pizza crust but everything else I can chew, and much better than I could before surgery (my waistline isn't too happy though). I could eat most foods within 2 weeks of surgery. In fact I was never subjected to a liquid diet as was able to eat soft food the day after surgery

[qwertz1]

Qwertz, you seem to make a habit of dictating what you feel should be the case from what you have read on the internet. Liquid or soft food diet are only required in some surgery, no case is the same.

I don't know what other cases you are referring to, but in this case I felt it was better to mention it than not to mention it, since noone else has reacted to it.
I did not say "don't eat normally", I said "check with your doctor if you haven't, because it's unusual".

it is unusual.