3 Week Post-Op Update

I can't believe it's already been 3 whole weeks since my surgery. I was convinced that these past weeks would have dragged like never before, but here I am, 21 days later and doing fine!

I anticipate this will be a long post, so strap yourself in and prepare for a ramble.  The first few days are a total blur because I hardly slept, so the days merge into one and I just found myself making very brief notes on my phone. So I just decided to copy these notes to keep this post as succinct as possible.

(I also apologize for the state of these photos. Obviously, I don't look my best and a couple of them are quite bloody and unpleasant)

3 Hours after Surgery
2/6/16

Hard but no pain. very numb. Swelling starts. No bruising yet. Didn't manage to eat anything besides a spoonful of soup. No appetite. No energy but couldn't sleep sat up. Not wired together so could talk but keep drooling. Used the morphine drip 3-4 times overnight. Antibiotics through IV was unpleasant but couldn't swallow pills. Salt rinses were revolting and made me throw up each time.
Was visited by the surgeon who informed me of the surgery's success. I got the usual spiel about how the swelling and numbness will get worse and may last for several months and in the case of numbness, some may never come back at all. Apparently the nerves in my chin were in awkward places but the surgeon managed to push them out the way without damaging them, so he is optimistic that the feeling will eventually come back.

Swelling 5/10

Pain 2/10

Day 1
3/6/16

Hardest day. Threw up a lot of blood at visiting and felt so ill. Couldn't stop crying which made the congestion worse. Couldn't breathe or sleep. Unhooked from morphine because was making me sick. Pain was manageable but starting to get quite bad. Swelling getting worse and still no bruising. Surgeon happy with how everything looks. Tried to get toothbrush around mouth - regular toothbrush too big to fit around my teeth. Only managed to wash legs. Managed a bowl of soup for tea with the assistance of my Dad and 4 boxes of tissues.

Swelling 6/10

Pain 4/10

Day 2
4/6/16

Antibiotics really kicking in and pain getting less intense. Surgeon was very happy for me to go home as long as I ate, so felt a lot better immediately. Managed to eat a yogurt for breakfast and got a smaller toothbrush around my mouth. Mum came before lunchtime and I was home with my plethora of antibiotics and painkillers. Felt ill at home but my friend visited which cheered me up. So far, visitors are more emotional than I expected. Managed a small amount of soup for tea. Eating with baby spoon and drinking from baby tippy cup.
Swelling 5/10
Pain 3/10

Day 3
5/6/16

Felt horrible today. Had no sleep at home and kept waking up at the hospital ward round hours. Finding I'm swollen more in morning but when start I talking and moving my mouth and jaw, it gets better. First real food of mashed potato and mashed fish finger, which was heavenly!
Swelling 5/10
Pain 4/10

Day 4
6/6/16

First post-op appointment with surgeon today. Took the stitch between my eyebrows out. Very happy with my progress and don't need any elastics yet, so a few more days of freedom. Swelling mostly in cheeks and upper lip and pain coming to the back of my jaws. Bruising starting to show under my chin.
Swelling 6/10
Pain 3/10

Day 5
7/6/16

Easiest day so far. Very sunny so sat outside all day. Pills getting easier to swallow. Swelling keeps fluctuating but hopefully at it's peak. Pain is minimal and mostly upper lip and gums which hurt. Smiling and laughing getting easier the more movement I have in my face, but still painful.
Swelling 6/10
Pain 3/10

Day 6
8/6/16

Still managing to keep up with my mouthwash and rinses. Keeping my stitches as clean as possible. Managed to eat very sloppy scrambled egg for tea which was a very welcome change to my usual diet. Already seeing a difference in my weight. Managed a short walk around my estate to get some exercise. Starting to sleep on less pillows than before. Swelling mostly in cheeks and under my chin. Bruising getting worse down my neck.
Swelling 4/10
Pain 3/10


Day 7
9/6/16

Washed my hair for the first time today. Quite difficult and needed Mum to help. Feel a lot fresher for it and have more motivation to move around the house. Starting to break out in spots around my chin, probably because I can't stop drooling. Swelling settling down and bruising is starting to fade. Still very numb around chin and bottom lip. Finished my course of antibiotics!
Swelling 4/10
Pain 2/10

Week 2
10-17/6/16

 Elastics on at my second post-op appointment on day 8: 1 across my front teeth and 2 at the sides. In the same appointment, I had my first set of post-op x-rays taken and got to see where the plates were and the alignment of my jaw.  I have 4 plates in the top jaw and 2 in the bottom.  Starting to feel discomfort from my braces and teeth moving again. Most of my swelling has settled and I finally look human again, just a chubby one at that... Left the house properly for the first time for a day out. Eating without chewing getting easier as I'm getting used to it. Am able to slurp down macaroni pasta and overcooked rice with the blessing of my surgeon. Managing to drink through a straw which makes drooling less of an issue. Able to sleep pretty much flat again.
Had my lowest moment this week too. Felt very run down and had a couple of days where I felt like crying. Felt very lonely and hoped more people would have been to see me over the week but most of my friends home from university next week.
Swelling 4/10
Pain 4/10

Week 3
18-24/6/16

Feel a lot more like myself this week. Much happier in myself and how my face is looking. Swelling has gone down significantly and the pain is reduced to mere annoyance from my elastics pulling at my braces. Eating is pretty much normal as long as it's all mushed to within an inch of it's life. Smaller appetite so eating much smaller portions. Craving all types of crunchy foods which makes the mushy food so much harder to stomach. All my stitches have fallen out now and brushing my teeth is a lot easier. I can open my mouth to a fingers width so a lot more freedom when speaking and not so much mumbling, which is very satisfying! I get the odd spasm in my jaw when I take my elastics off to do some jaw exercises, which is uncomfortable but reassuring me that the feeling is coming back. My lower lip has sensation coming back but my chin is still pretty numb and oddly the area under my right eye is beginning to go slightly numb. My jawline is becoming more defined and I'm finally able to see my new smile as it will be when the swelling has fully gone. I have to say, I'm not one to be vain but I just can't stop looking at my new jaw in any reflective surface... I'm still in disbelief that I've actually done it and my new profile is just what I hoped for.
Swelling 3/10
Pain 3/10

So that's me for now. I will update next after my one month post-op appointment on July 4th.
Until next time.

Final Tweaks and Final Results

It's been a week of mixed emotions. Although I'm beyond excited for my surgery on Thursday, I've had a hell of a week. I've just found out that I got a first in my dissertation, so that set me on a really positive path about everything.

On Wednesday, my uni experience really started to come to a close with my graduation ball. It was an amazing night overall, but one thing that really baffled me about it was that the next time I will see the majority of these people, I will have a new face.

Then I was an idiot and wore the most uncomfortable pair of shoes ever, which led to my foot been tore up and resulted in a pretty nasty toe infection a WEEK before my surgery...

Obviously, this isn't ideal and I'm still taking antibiotics to get rid of it before Thursday rolls around. The positive thing about it was that the doctor was pretty adamant that it won't affect my surgery or lead it to being postponed. However, I'm over the worst of it now and should be fighting fit when I go in.

In other - more relevant news - I had my final ortho appointment before surgery today and had my surgical hooks attached.

 

Please ignore the blurriness of the photo. I put red circles around the new hooks to make them a bit clearer.

I don't know yet how long I will be wearing the elastics that these will be used to hold, but I won't find that out until after the surgery.

So for now, that's all we have to do. I'm completely ready to go with my surgery and the next time I post will be a post-surgery update. EEEEEK! It's so bizarre to type these words, as it's what I've been waiting for, for over a decade! 

I don't know when I'll next be feeling up to posting here, but I promise it will be soon!

Until next time.

Before Photos and Recovery Worries

It's now less than 3 weeks till my surgery and the closer it gets, the more antsy I'm becoming. I find myself at silly hours in the morning, searching for jaw surgery blogs and YouTube channels to make sure I'm super-duper prepared for what's waiting for me.

As this past month since getting my date has gone so fast, I don't really know how to grasp the fact that in 19 days, I will have a different face. Even just typing it now and telling my friends about it in person, the meaning of those words really haven't sunk in.

Obviously I'm absolutely bricking it, although it's not the surgery itself that scares me. After having two operations previous to this one, I like to think of myself as quite the surgery connoisseur by now... I've heard a lot of horror stories about the first four days after the surgery. The not eating, not sleeping and not talking is only a handful of the things that worry me about the recovery process.

I guess my worries are quite trivial. For example, I find myself wondering how I'll be able to sneeze, cough and yawn... The pain of swallowing and breathing also plays on my mind a lot. Although the bruising and swelling is different for everyone, I worry that I will still look battered and bruised for my University Graduation in July...

Nevertheless, after seeing everyone's results, I really believe that it'll do for me what it seems to have done for other people.

All this being said, I realise that I am yet to share any photos of my bite as it stands before the surgery. It was quite challenging finding photos where my underbite is visible as after so long, I've managed to find various angles where I can disguise or hide it.

So here is a selection of random photos and specific bite photos to give you more of an idea of what I'm aiming to get rid of. In nearly all of these, you can see how my underbite not only impacts my smile, but my side profile, cheek bones, lips and nose...

**Please excuse the state of my skin here. I'm having a very bad face day...**

And here's some random ones where I haven't really tried to hide it...

Although there's an attempt to minimise my jaw in this photo, it's still really visible and you can see how I can't seem to smile without it showing.

This is the only photo of me I've ever found with a side profile. I was clearly caught off guard...

This isn't so much about my underbite, but more my cross-bite. Although it's a pretty minimal problem in my bite, it hugely alters the way my chin and lips look most of the time.

Oddly, clicking Publish on this is a lot harder than I anticipated. It's different to posting photos to Facebook or Snapchat. Here I'm drawing attention to the thing that I try at most times to disguise or hide completely. I suppose it's just further proof that my surgery is really what I need to do to regain a degree of self-confidence...