July 2011 Buddies?

[annafaith]

Day 12 update... Home from hospital, second genio went great so I finally have my chin back. NO swelling and NO brusing, in fact my swelling has continued to reduce even with the second surgery!

Surgeon said my chin bone had fractured itself, hence why it slipped back, and said he took a photo because he'd never seen it happen before! Aren't I the lucky one(!). That's about it. I feel pretty good apart from the nausea from the anaesthetic, and still on track for a good recovery.

Hope everyone elses is going well, keep updating guys x

[Lucia07]

Hey annafaith, great to hear you're doing well and on your way to continuing your recovery.

My day 9 update is good. My swelling has gone considerably down and the pain is under control. I never had any excessive bruising showing. I only have to take my pain med every 6 hrs now. New thing I found today, though that I think I've had since at least Tuesday, is that my wire is broken on the upper teeth on the left side. Completely broken! But since the splint is underneath the wire I hadn't noticed. The reason I finally noticed it was that my upper lip kept getting caught and got annoyed and looked in the mirror to investigate. Turns out my husband called to find out for me since my speech cannot be really understood right now and the OS told him that my wire had been cut during surgery to allow for expansion.

Well I hope my days keep getting better and I hope everyone is doing good

[w0nnie]

Hi all, glad to hear that everyone is powering on. im up to day 8 now so i thought id post a little update.

As with everyone here, days 1 through 4 were the worst with swelling and general discomfort, i found that once i was able to be rid of the ice packs (end day 4) that my general outlook improved a lot. I have been using bands since day 2 and my surgeon wants them on 24/7 for 6 weeks, only taken off to clean and eat, the good news is that i can fit a straw through them to drink and the better news is that m&ms fit through the right hand side!

The biggest ongoing issue i find is with eating, i have accepted that i wont be able to chew for 6 weeks but having to think out all meals becomes very draining. Saying that, i got out yesterday and picked up fresh ingredients for a 'no chew' meal that we could all eat and eating 'normal' for once and finishing with a full belly was a huge pick up for me, today i think im feeling the benefits of the extra energy from a complete meal. (the links below are the two recipes i used)

herb crusted salmon (this flakes away when baked so it does not require chewing)
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9113/he ... ted+salmon

Gratin dauphinois (essentially a fancy potato bake but very creamy and with nice soft potato)
http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/12821 ... earch/true

Bruising wise, i found a got a nice yellow hue travelling down my neck, being a guy it was easier for me to get out and about early as i just trimmed my facial hair to a tight '3 day growth', which hid the colour, i can understand why the ladies would be more reticent to venture out early, i think ill stick with this look for a few more weeks as it hides the swelling a bit as well and im not comfortable with a razor on my numb chin just yet.

So now im at day 8 and the improvment in the past few days has been exponential, my lip and chin are still quite foreign to me and the cold air freaks me out a little as im sure the nerves are messing up the signals and my lip bounces between cold, sore, needles and marching ants. My daily treat now is to venture out to a cafe with my notebook and enjoy a milkshake with a shot of espresso, im sure people think im a little wierd but the weather here at the moment is brilliant considering its mid winter so im making the most of the two weeks off work.

I try to get in a good walk each day as i think this helps with the general recovery. I have been out each day since day 5 when i was forced out for xrays and my first post op visit with the surgeon, I really dont think i could have got out earlier as i would have had to ditch the ice pack and i kept this on as much as possible in those early days(or take it with me outside, no thanks), and my energy levels were not really up to it, i still find now that when i get home from a walk i need to rest for a little while to recover.

Given the improvment now, i think the key is to settle in for the long haul as im sure things wont move so fast in the next week so i want to keep positive and just tick off the weeks one at a time, the hardest part is behind us all now.

So thats me at day 8, this weekend might be a little more tiring as i slip back into society, i guess i'll find out

[IamSam12345]

I'm so happy everyone's doing well.

annafaith- it's so good to hear that your chin is doing better. I can't believe you don't have more swelling from it. That's lucky!!

I have to be at the hospital in 5 hours!! ahhhh! wish me luck

[w0nnie]

I have to be at the hospital in 5 hours!! ahhhh! wish me luck

Im guessing you are there now, good luck with it.

If i found anything its to try to keep the ice up as much as possible in the first 3 days.

[Lucia07]

Good luck Samantha!! All will go well and you'll be on your way to recovery

[ramirezmu8]

Hey everyone just thought i could show you guys some pictures of my progress so far.

Before surgery (sorry couldnt find a better pictures of me and my underbite)


30 days post op double jaw surgery. Still some swelling, more on my left side.



My bottom lip seems to be sticking out a little too much but im assuming its because of the splint, swelling, and all the hardware in my mouth. Thoughts?

[leeann001]

Day 5 post op here, IVRO. IVRO seems like such a more barbaric way to correct and underbite, but, I chose this way. My concern was permanent paresthesia. So far, I'm still numb on the lower left side. Like w0nnie, it feels as if ants are marching across my lips. My surgeon says it's due to the swelling and once that goes away, the compression on my nerve will be relieved.

I look like a bobble head. My pain is under control with just ibuprofen. It's really not too terrible, just very very sore. I'm still icing on and off and wearing my compression jaw bra that they gave me at the hospital.

Ramirez— I think that once the splint is out, it'll let your lip relax. How long is your splint on for? Is it a full mouth splint? I have to wear mine the full time. Speaking is ridiculous with my full mouth splint.

[ramirezmu8]

@ leeann001: the splint will be removed this tuesday so that makes it about 33 days with it. Yes it is a full mouth split goes from molar to molar. I also wear mine full time and i agree with speaking, its ridiculous! cant wait till i get the splint removed to begin regaining normal function.

[IamSam12345]

I'm back from the hospital and I'm so happy! I'm so excited about my new bite and that it hasn't been too rough so far. Everyone at the hospital was so nice and I just can't believe I'm post op. It's unreal!!


wow, I wrote this a few hours ago and just saw that I forgot to send it... oops these meds!

but I'm not feeling as great now. I did a video entry for my youtube page which was about 20 mins long bc there was so much to tell and it made my swelling worse and gave me a lot of pain, but I'm glad I documented it. I hope everyone's still doing well and I'll update you all tomorrow.

[Lucia07]

Hi everyone! I'm post op day 13 and although i'm feeling better my trouble now is sleeping well. I don't know how much longer I can sleep on my back. Last night I tried sleeping on the recliner with little success. Is anyone else having this problem too or is it just me?

@ramirez: your new profile looks good. I agree with wonnie (i think that is who posted) that your bottom lip may be a little more forward because of the splint. I have the problem that I can't close my lips very well bc of the splint I have, which looks just like yours. My OS said it should come out next week. Hopefully it does.

@samantha: hang in there, try to get as much rest these first few days. That will help a lot with swelling and any pain you may have.

[annafaith]

@lucia - It really does suck having to sleep upright doesn't it? For me, after the bulk of the swelling went by about the 10 day mark, I was good to sleep on my side and recline a bit more, although still try to prop myself up on pillows. So hang in there, shouldn't be too long now till you can get a decent nights sleep.

@Iamsam - time seems to fly by afterwards. And I completely agree, it does seem so unreal afterwards, you can't quite believe it's happened and you're on the other side after so long spent thinking about that moment. Hope your recovery is going well x

It's day 16 for me. Wasted trip to the ortho as he didn't have my surgery notes yet, so going back again on Friday. Blah. I still feel exhausted, but taking it day by day. The swelling has mostly subsided and is not noticeable anymore I definately notice it, but others wouldn't. My numb patch is still sending me crazy signals, it is so confused! Sometimes it feels cold and other times it feels like it's being tickled, and today it's felt kind of sore. My inside lower lip has now decided to also reak havoc on things by rubbing on my brackets big time. Because there's so little space between my lip and teeth now, they are pushed against each other really tightly, and I'm getting very painful sores, in addition to the stitches which are still healing there. Ouch.

Ate out for the first time today, another milestone down!

How is everyone else doing? I love reading your updates, please keep them coming!

[IamSam12345]

owwwwww!! so swollen and my lips are enormousssss!!! it isn't too bad though. I've been able to sleep pretty decently. I wake up a lot to take more meds or unclog my nose w 1000 q-tips but I'm typically able to get back to sleep alright. I think my swelling has gone down the tiniest bit today so yay! But it's better than nothing.

[Lucia07]

Hi all! Today is day 15 for me. I can't believe how far i've come recovery wise. I am no longer on any pain meds only occasional advil but that has been for some slight headaches i've had for not sleeping well. But for the past two nights i have gotten more sleep in. I've never been one to be sleep deprived so that's why it's been hard for me. I went to another follow up appt with OS and he said the splint will come out on aug. 15th. Yay! I think it got delayed because my OS is going to be out of the office next week. Sometimes I think i'm better and try to do more things, like laundry, and just to realize that was a bad idea because I feel very tired afterwards.

Well I hope everyone on here is recovery smoothly.

[ramirezmu8]

Day 35 post op. I had an appointment with my surgeon today and as promised, he removed the splint!! Feels amazing to not have that thing in my mouth anymore. There was a lot of pressure in my mouth when he was taking it out, some pushing and pulling. I was scared that my jaw was going to come out of place! I can talk better now that I no longer have a splint. I found out that they moved my lower jaw 5mm back and moved my top jaw 4mm forward. He said that everything looks very good and that everything is healing properly. He said gave me the OK to eat soft foods like rice, beans, pastas, noodles, fish, etc. Definitely good news!
After my appointment with the surgeon, i took the elevator downstairs to see my orthodontist. I had a 3 piece archwire on my top jaw since they did a 3 piece Lefort, but my ortho replaced it with a normal solid archwire. I now have 2 elastics, 1 on each side. I will be seeing my ortho again in 2 weeks.