December surgery buddies

[surgerybound]

I am having double jaw surgery this December and wanted to connect with anyone else on the same timeline

[EWUgal15]

I just scheduled surgery for November! Not December, but pretty close!

[morgana529]

I just scheduled lower jaw surgery for the end of December!!!

[Valozz]

Hey I had my surgery in December too, how are you guys doing in terms of swelling ?

[missesfood]

Surgery was in early December - swelling is still huge for me. Tons around/behind my nose and jawline. My upper lip is probably the worst offender, and of course every morning it all blows up again. It's nearly impossible for me to see any improvement each day, but people assure me it's going down. For this sort of op progress is measured by weeks not days.

[Class2geo]

R u doing regular activities yet?

[Mart]

Hello fellow December surgery buddies,

I had double jaw surgery on December 15th and I was just wondering how everyone else is getting on? Like missesfood my swelling has weirdly focused its attention on my upper lip as well as my mid-lower cheeks, I imagine that is where all the swelling from the upper surgery drains down to due to gravity. At the moment I'm doing lip/face exercises to try and help, which consists of pursing my lips and then pulling a full face smile, and repeating for half an hour at a time. I think it's helping a little.

How is everyone else's numbness coming along? My numbness recovery seems to be moving from the left side of my lower chin to the right, but very very slowly. My lower left chin and lip is at around 60% sensation, whereas my right lower lip and chin is still totally numb.

Mart

[missesfood]

Hi Mart!

My numbness sounds worse than yours. My entire chin, gums/teeth, about 75% of my lips, and parts of my cheeks near my nose are still numb. I had one tiny patch to the left of my chin come back kinda, but so far nothing else has even though it tingles and zings every night.

Swelling is still bad, maybe in another month I might look kinda like a normal human. I'm also still on a liquid/blended diet for minimum 5 more weeks, and I'm getting pretty sick of it and disheartened now. My speech is also not great and my huge upper lip isn't helping at all. And the cherry on the cake is that my skin is freaking out from all of the ensure and dairy.

Class2geo - Day-to-day is pretty normal now with the exception of having to talk through my elastics all of the time. My face and lips are still swollen so passerbys tend to glance and some people give me a weird look when I try to talk to them. Energy levels are fine, but I don't feel like doing anything too intense until I can at least have some solid food again...

[EWUgal15]

Hi Mart!

My numbness sounds worse than yours. My entire chin, gums/teeth, about 75% of my lips, and parts of my cheeks near my nose are still numb. I had one tiny patch to the left of my chin come back kinda, but so far nothing else has even though it tingles and zings every night.

Swelling is still bad, maybe in another month I might look kinda like a normal human. I'm also still on a liquid/blended diet for minimum 5 more weeks, and I'm getting pretty sick of it and disheartened now. My speech is also not great and my huge upper lip isn't helping at all. And the cherry on the cake is that my skin is freaking out from all of the ensure and dairy.

Class2geo - Day-to-day is pretty normal now with the exception of having to talk through my elastics all of the time. My face and lips are still swollen so passerbys tend to glance and some people give me a weird look when I try to talk to them. Energy levels are fine, but I don't feel like doing anything too intense until I can at least have some solid food again...

I had lower jaw only in November. I'm just shy of 9 weeks post op and I still have numbness, most of my lower lip/chin. I was given permission to change elastics at 3 weeks post op but I was wearing 6 at a time until I hit 7 weeks post op. Chewing came back at 6 weeks. I still have some residual swelling but it's not noticeable to anyone but me. Hang in there, things will get easier. Especially once you get back into your normal groove. I say take it easy but still try to do the easier things around the house and not be bed ridden all day!

[Mart]

Hey guys, how's everyones recovery coming along?

missesfood- How's your numbness and swelling going? To help with my swelling I've been drinking 2 litres of water a day, in addition to taking vitamin c with zinc, bromelain, and turmeric supplements for the past 4 weeks (a little overkill perhaps but I like to feel like I'm doing all I can), which I think have helped, but whose to know? My swelling is pretty much 95% gone now, and is limited to very small amounts surrounding the surgery sites. Numbness wise I'm still numb on the right side of my chin and lower lip, but if I poke this area with something pointy I can feel tiny sensations, which is great news.

As I'm now in my 7th week post op my diet has pretty much returned to normal, and I'm experiencing no pain or aching due to eating, which I'm very pleased with. The motions of eating still feel a little weird, but I think I'll just get used to it as time goes on.

Below is a picture taken just after my first solid meal in 6 weeks..

[missesfood]

Glad to hear everything's going well, Mart! You look amazing!

My numbness hasn't changed much, I had a big movement so I don't think much is expected to start coming back for at least another month or more. Swelling is down a lot for me I think, especially my upper lip which isn't colossal in the mornings anymore. There's still lots of swelling in the upper jaw region and around the breaks in the lower jaw though (plus the bone callus type thing that forms). My speech is getting a little better but still a ways to go to get really proper pronunciation again. I'm also hoping to get back into the gym next week for some cardio!

I'm still on liquids/blended diet for a few more weeks but I'm super excited to eat soft foods eventually. I made sure to stock up on top ramen and pasta noodles and muffins and cookie dough and all sorts of horrible junk my poor body has been deprived of for so long haha.

What was the first solid thing you decided to eat?!

[Mart]

What was the first solid thing you decided to eat?!

I wanted it to be kind of special so I cooked myself a chilli con carne from scratch and let it simmer in the pot for a really long time so that the beef would be really tender, and then I made some spicy potato wedges to eat with it because they're so easy to make. When I plated it up I dolloped on lots of creme fraiche for extra calories. As you can probably tell I didn't go too crazy on the chewing side of things as I just wanted to eat soft food that would allow me to get back into the motions of chewing without putting too much pressure on the teeth.

Have you worked out what you're first solid (ish) meal will be?

[missesfood]

I have no idea! I'm keeping an open mind to eat the first thing that I get a craving for once I get cleared for soft food! To be honest, I'll probably just eat every soft chew thing in the house in the very first day. Then starts the count down to normal foods. I miss potato chips... ):

[missesfood]

Figured I'd drop by to post an update.

I've been on soft foods for a few days now, and it's been absolutely heavenly. I've had (soft, fresh) cookies, pasta, soup noodles, rice, french fries~ at this point my liquid diet may have been healthier than my soft foods diets... Chewing is pretty weird (and messy) but not completely unwieldy. Swelling is still on it's way down and is pretty persistent around the upper jaw. Nothing much to speak of in terms of improvements on numbness unfortunately. The sides of my top lip are still completely numb without even any tingling.

Right now my focus is on trying to loosen up all the tissue around my mouth and my lips. I can kind of use a straw but it takes a few tries, and my speech is still not 100%. I've been doing lip exercises, but I don't know how much it's helping. It feels like it loosens up my lips for all of like an hour then it goes back to being tight.

[Mart]

Hey Missesfood,

Great to hear you're making progress with your soft food diet! I wouldn't worry too much about the quality of food you're eating, the more the merrier at this stage I think. Keep us posted on your progress!