June/July 2015 Surgery Buddies

[Nozzelnut]

My surgeon's office called and I have a June 18th surgery date. Having upper jaw, lower jaw, and a sliding genio.

I'll be in braces for a year plus a couple weeks and in treatment for about 18 months total, when surgery happens. Primarily for enlarging my airways; nasal and throat areas but fixing my bite issues too. I've never been able to breathe through my nose well and have obstructive sleep apnea. Maybe because of my extraction orthodontics while growing up; maybe not, but it didn't help my current situation at all. The braces have done a good job realigning things, but my clenching and grinding before, left me with a few mm cant in my upper jaw. My surgeon said he might be able to widen my upper some too; he said he'd have to do some fine tuning with the molds.

I've only seen him for the initial consult and will have at least two more visits with him before surgery.


So if you're having surgery in June or July this thread is for you!

Trials, tribulations, ups, downs, and whatever in between... Post it here and help get it off your chest and calm your nerves.

[jaime]

Yay!

We are having the same surgery and I'm definitely looking forward to a larger airway. I suffer from exercise asthma so I am hoping the surgery will end up helping me breathe easier.

Have you started buying any supplies yet? Any idea what you're going to buy?

[Nozzelnut]

I've picked up a few things. Sports squeeze type water bottle with the long squirt straw. A blender and strainer. Some protein drink powders. Baby food spoons.

I have a ice pack wrap for my jaw from tonsil surgery last year.

I started buying stuff a couple months ago so I didn't feel like I had to buy everything in the week before my surgery. Lynn just started selling most of the things I've already purchased. Maybe she could rent vitamix blenders... Buy the container part and rent the mixer for a couple weeks...

From what I've been reading; double jaw surgery isn't anywhere near the pain levels of tonsil surgery.

[jaime]

Sounds like you're well on your way to being ready for the big day. Are you going to get feeding syringes? Syringes seem confusing to me, I don't know why. I guess I don't know if it's really necessary and if they are, what exactly I should buy.

I never had my tonsils out so I won't have that to compare to. I had SARPE in 2013, which I have been regarding as probably the baby version of double jaw surgery.

This is my shopping list:
-A better blender
-Jaw bra
-sports squeeze bottle
-syringes?

I've also been looking at maybe buying this: http://www.hammacher.com/Product/Defaul ... catid=1702

[Nozzelnut]

Amazon has a bed wedge made of memory foam and I think it was about $70. They had a couple different sizes when I was looking at them. A little less expensive. They had some other styles that were less.

[jaime]

That's good to know! I got to thinking that I might not buy that electric one as I might be in 2 different houses during my recovery.

[adorkable8605]

I'm hoping for a July surgery... I've been talking to my ortho about it and he thinks it will work. We'll see in May when I meet with my surgeon again.

I want to fix my overjet/overbite and the surgeon suggests upper and lower jaw surgery with a genioplastly, but things always change. I'm excited and so nervous!

How long are you guys taking off from work/school? I'm hoping two weeks is truly enough time...

[jaime]

I would think 2 weeks would be the minimum. I'm taking 6 weeks off with the possibility of more. I don't want to be at work while my mouth is still banded shut. I'm very fortunate to have generous sick leave allowances and a supportive boss.

Adorkable, do you have a strenuous job, or if you're in school, is that strenuous?

[KaylaChristine]

Congrats to those of you who have a surgery date!

I see my surgeon on the 23rd for a followup appointment. Hopefully he'll give me a date then. I'm hoping for June!!

I plan on buying supplies as soon as I get a date!

[twigandbone]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this so I hope I'm posting this correctly

My surgery is scheduled for July 6, 2015, and I have had braces for 6 months so far. I will have double jaw surgery to fix an underbite/open bite. Although I have been doing a ton of research, I am still quite scared!

I've known since I was 16 that I needed the surgery, (I'm 33 now) after the orthodontist took my braces off because they were not going to fix anything. After putting off doing anything about it for so long, I am finally getting it over with and wish I had done it a looming time ago! Back then, my parents insurance would not cover it and it was going to be incredibly expensive ... and now my insurance company has already denied it twice!


Looking forward to getting to know all of you

[adorkable8605]

I'm starting nursing school this summer... I'll be on a break at the end of July and that's when I want to do the surgery. It's exactly two weeks. I'll have to see how I feel about it once I actually start the program... If I have to I'll just wait until the winter break... But I'd much rather do it sooner rather than later...

What I've seen in blogs is that most people are looking decent and feeling good by 2 to 3 weeks... Truthfully as long as the swelling is down and I can talk I think I'll be fine...

[KaylaChristine]

Still no official surgery date yet....BUT I do have an approximate time frame. The surgeon expects me to have the surgery in the second half of June! So I'm looking at about 2 months from now. Looks like I'm joining this topic

The surgeon needs to discuss a few things with my orthodontist...so hopefully by next Thursday I'll have a surgery date scheduled! The surgeon's assistant said I'll have several appointments in the near future getting ready for the surgery. More x-rays, measurements, molds, etc. Initially the surgeon told me he'd be moving the upper jaw forward 3-4 mm and the bottom one back 3-4 mm. Now he's thinking moving the upper 5-6 mm forward and the bottom one back 1-2 mm. He'll also be expanding the upper by 2-4 mm. He'll do that by basically cutting the upper in two pieces so it's not a SARPE.

I guess I better start buying my post-op supplies

[Nozzelnut]

Not too much new for me on the surgical side of things other than my regular ortho doing some adjustments prior to the surgery. I have a decent gap forming on my lower left side.....

I've been meaning to call my surgeon to see if it would be beneficial to find where my lower jaw should be advanced to... (maybe be a short term herbst or something) to not have any flow limits with my OSA...

I should get on that.

[jaime]

I can't believe I only have one more adjustment left until surgery!!!

I asked my orthodontist when I'd have to come back and get surgical hooks put on my braces. They said my oral surgeon doesn't really band people shut and if he wants to, we'll just use the hooks on my canine brackets. I'm hoping this means it'll be slightly easier to eat post-surgery.

Can anyone recommend some feeding syringes?

[snapdresser]

Hey everybody!

My date is JUNE 10TH! I see that's the day before yours, Jaime! I'm getting Lefort I, BSSO, and sliding genio to treat sleep apnea/recessed chin. Top is coming forward ~10mm and up about 2mm. Bottom is coming forward to match (tho my final consult is in 2 weeks and at that point me and the surgeon will come to the final plan). My bite is good from 2 years in braces as a teen, so I'll just be doing surgical arch bars instead of braces. Planning 3-4 weeks out of work and my boss is cool with that. I'm 30 years old and SUPER excited about this! Still nervous about seeing a different face in the mirror, but I suspect that face will resemble the one I remember looking at when I was 10 years old, before my allergies and subsequent mouth-breathing really started to affect my appearance. That or resemble my dad/brother/son, which is a nice thing too Getting pictures done this weekend. They'll be the last official ones with my "old face" lol. I don't have any fun food info or anything like that. I figure I'll just tough it out with a ton of Ensure for 3 weeks or whatever. WOOOO ready to get this thing underway!!!

What country/state y'all in? I'm in NY.

snapdresser