Summer 2016 Surgery Buds

[glennstanzalone]

My surgeon just suggested a IVRO instead of a BSSO, one of the reasons being no screws. It seems like lots of people have an issue with the metal.

[Branwillaws]

It's just weird in my case it was only 1 plate out of 6 total. It can happen i guess most likely I did something to cause the Healing process to mess up. I just saw he new xray and now there is a big long plate in there. And he cleaned out all the infected junk so should heal properly now. I'm also wired shut so now there is almost no chance I can mess it up.

[HiKitty]

got my spacers last Wednesday and I still have some pain, but nothing like the first few days. Teeth are sensitive and I can't eat anything crunchy or hard.
Spacers come out this Wednesday and the metal brackets for the expander go in.
Expander goes in 8/10 and surgery is tentatively scheduled for the 16th.

Kicker is I took a half a Vicodin after the initial pain and it made me irritable ( I punched my husband in the face), sick feeling, and I got a weird pulsating tinnitis. Anyone else have adverse reactions to Vicodin?

[glennstanzalone]

Yeah I get hella pissy on all opiates, they also can make you feel nauseated. Tinnitus could have just been from the pressure on your jaw? Are you on any psychiatric medications that could give you crazy effects with Vicodin. Like adderall/Ritalin?

[HiKitty]

Not on any other meds. At first I thought it was just blood pressure, so I looked it up and it matched up pretty well. I also didn't get it until I took the Vicodin. I'm hoping the pain relief will greatly outweigh any adverse reactions.
Also, my family is planning a scalloping trip two weeks after my surgery. Any thoughts to whether I'll be in any shape for it?

[glennstanzalone]

Depends what you are getting done. I would suggest not flying anywhere or changing elevation as the air pressure with swelling can cause permanent damage to your hearing. I have a flight a month and a half after surgery and I'm considering not going.

[HiKitty]

No flying, it's only about an hour away (I'm in Florida). I guess the best course of action is to see how recovery goes.

[snapdresser]

Scalloping involves diving, right? That doesn't seem like a super good idea 2 weeks post-op. If you stay on land, you'll probably just be kinda tired and annoyed at still having to bother with your meds, but I'd say it's possible.

glennstanzalone - I flew about 1.5 hours each way at 4.5 weeks post-op and flew 7.5 hours each way at 10 weeks post-op, no issues at all.

[glennstanzalone]

Scalloping involves diving, right? That doesn't seem like a super good idea 2 weeks post-op. If you stay on land, you'll probably just be kinda tired and annoyed at still having to bother with your meds, but I'd say it's possible.

glennstanzalone - I flew about 1.5 hours each way at 4.5 weeks post-op and flew 7.5 hours each way at 10 weeks post-op, no issues at all.

Good to know! I definitely want to go on this trip that's 6 weeks after my surgery. It's only a 1.5 hour flight.

[glennstanzalone]

Wow I'm 36 hrs into recovery and the muscle spasms are the worst. Everything else is tender but ok.

[uneunsae]

Hi everyone,

I had BSSO and genio on July 15th. It was rough and I went into acute respiratory failure and they almost didn't intubate on time due to congenital issues on my palate so I had a breathing tube for a couple of days and they kept me under anesthesia. Thank goodness I didn't need a trach! So after being under for 2 days, I've felt miserable over the past few weeks. However, I'm just starting to feel like myself again. My surgeon unwired my jaw so I'm eating anything soft I can swallow whole. It feels so amazing to have solid food since I was only 105lbs going into surgery and have lost quite a bit more after.

The thing that really worries me is that I have horrible pain on my left side. I think it might just be the incision rubbing on my bracket, but the pain seems to radiate quite deeply so I'm scared that my body is rejecting the plate or screws. So scared! There is no sign of infection so I don't that that's the issue. I did manage to get some ortho wax on some of the brackets on top and that enabled me to talk, but omg the pain is horrible! Hopefully my surgeon will get to the bottom of it on Tuesday.

[glennstanzalone]

I'm only 3 days in but I have similar pain on my right side. Like extremely deep, feels like someone is sitting on my bone. My surgeon said its from being wired and the muscles are spasming. Which makes sense because my right side is significantly underdeveloped. I feel like I'm constantly clenched which I'm sure will balance the muscle and bite for later. Let us know more updates!

[uneunsae]

Today my surgeon removed a tiny piece of flesh that was hanging around, getting chewed on and rubbing on my sharp braces. That should help a little. It was barely hanging on for dear life. lol My pain must be spasms, too because there's nothing wrong with my recovery. He took new xrays to be sure. Unfortunately, he put stronger elastics in so I don't the think the spasms are going to end soon! My teeth feel like they are clenching together. Not a pleasant sensation.

[glennstanzalone]

Oh god that sounds brutal! Actually everything we are experiencing is far from normal. I keep getting more frequent chin spasms like vibrations and tickling. Maybe a heating pad could help? I'm seeing my doc tomorrow morning and I'm expecting X-Rays too. I hope I'm healing well and he can get me out of these wires soon lol it's only been like 4 days.

[glennstanzalone]

So I went in for a LeFort I and BSSO on Friday. While they were cutting the left side of my jaw, I guess it split or cracked upwards so my surgeon did an IVRO on that side with rigid fixation for the BSSO cut. So now I have 2 cuts on that side of my jaw. I have a total of 26 screws and 6 plates in my face. I'm going to be wired for a total of 2.5 weeks, due to the impromptu IVRO. I guess he thinks that's long enough to heal since I'm going to have plates in there anyways.

Today I went to see him and it looks like my right side TMJ is flat and isn't in a great position in the joint even though my bite worked during surgery. My surgeon said he might need to go and readjust the plates and screws so the joint is in a better spot. I've seen doctors before who suggested arthroscopy to push the cartilage back in place so maybe that will need to be done as well instead of just wearing that joint down. I can't adjust the screws or anything until I'm unwired so now it's just a waiting game.

With these two complications, I'm getting frustrated with this procedure. I wish I was lucky and born with a good set of jaws with healthy cartilage. I'm worried that I'm going to continue having problems now that I had this surgery, like I disturbed the equilibrium of sesame bone structure. Just venting.