10 weeks

Okay, I've been MIA...sorry about that. I have been SO BUSY and happily not thinking about my jaw every 2 and a half seconds.
Let's seeeeeee...it's hard to think about what's been going on in the past two weeks since my last post, because I'm always doing something.
I'm still LOVING the benefit of not being totally exhausted every day of my life. So awesome! This is what normal feels like!
I've looked at a few old pictures lately, and I still think I look like me...just a little more improved. This is what I was supposed to look like all along, but my jaw was too dumb to know that and sucked at growing. I always had a little bit of what looks like a double chin in 90% of my pictures cause everything was just not in the right place. Not anymore!
Chewing food is a little different sometimes, but I'm used to it for the most part. Now that all my teeth fit together, I think I chew things much less just because all my teeth are working together...not just four. I still don't bite into food because I'm not positive I'm supposed to (I never asked, but my surgeon never said anything about not doing it). Either way it isn't necessary, and honestly I'm not sure that I could open wide enough to do so. I can nly open enough to fit two fingers in still because I suck at remembering to do exercises and my surgeon is probably going to be pissed when I go back, so I really need to make an effort to work on it.
I have some news! Aid and I went to Fogo De Chao for our third anniversary, and I got to eat STEAK!!! Fogo de Chao is a Churrascaria restaurant. They have a HUGE salad, sides, cheeses, meats and vegetables bar. Then when you are ready for your meal, you flip a little green card over and all these men run over with huge skewers of 14 kinds of meat and cut it practically off the cow right there at your table. It was SO GOOD. We absolutely loved it! I was a little slow at eating the steak, but it was easily manageable. Oh I also just remembered...on Valentine's Day, I chose a lobster and pasta dish, since I knew I could eat that. But I had a bite of Aid's steak and could eat it then too!
I guess now the only thing I can't eat is really hard stuff like peanuts or walnuts. Not like I'm dying to eat that anyway haha. I can't really think of anything else that I know I can't eat.
My chin and lip numbness is much better! The feeling isn't totally back, but it's nothing like it was. I noticed a week or so ago that I could feel temperature there again, and now a little bit of feeling. I love when I feel electric shocks in there..I think it's so cool how nerves regenerate like that. When I feel that pinch it makes me happy it's working to try to get the feeling back! But my upper jaw is still totally numb...which I don't like at all. I really hope that comes back soon! But at least the roof of my mouth has feeling...I've heard some people don't even have that.
I think I have swallowed about 10 rubber bands now haha. My ortho told me to leave them in when I eat, and they don't bother me, so I do...but they ALWAYS break while I'm eating. If I'm in public, I don't think it'd be very lady like to dig out that rubber band and all the food that gets stuck everywhere, while at the table. So I just leave it until I can take care of it. Most of the time they stay stuck around the back of my braces, but sometimes when I go to put new ones in....the broken one has disappeared. There is only one place for it to go. Oh well.
My left side kind of pops or something every now and then, or sometimes I feel the muscle do something weird. I think it's just that muscle being stubborn and trying to resist a new position. l only feel it if I have been a really really bad girl and had no rubber bands in for a couple of hours. So it seems like the muscle works it's way back into it's old habits and then gets pissed when I put rubber bands on again.

I've gained back the 8 lbs I lost, but that's okay. I don't know why anyone would expect to leave most of that off after not eating hardly anything and then eating your normal diet again.

I always manage to write a short story with my posts, but I want to be really detailed about what's going on for those of you going through surgery and wondering how things progress and change.

I have really been slacking on taking pictures of my face/jaw specifically, so the pictures from Valentine's Day and our anniversary will have to do this time.

 

8 Weeks!

I haven't posted much lately, because there hasn't been any new events and it's really nice to not constantly obsess and think about jaw related things!

I've been trying to adjust back into my regular diet, which has been a little weird. I don't destroy steak or anything, but I can eat most stuff. Although it has to be in little bites. But I just love food!
I have some excccccellent news! I BIT INTO A PIECE OF LETTUCE TODAY. I think I heard angels sing when it happened! What an awesome feeling! I still don't feel comfortable with biting into things yet, but soon I'm going to bite into a sandwich and tear that lettuce apart.

My bite feels awesome! And looks pretty close to perfect (although in my Orthodontist's eyes, it's probably not). But I adore it!

I discovered this middle rubber band is making it a lot harder to talk again and I sound a little lisp-y if I'm feeling lazy, but I really don't care to be honest with you!

I was looking at my itemized bill from the hospital today, and it is soooo ridiculous. I'll share some of the highlights...My grand total JUST for supplies/hospital surgery expenses (not including the bill for the surgery itself from the surgeon) is a grand total of $41,846.00!!
A tube of Vaseline for my lips that were falling off....$15.00
7 Drill bits. Hahah DRILL BITS? I could have brought him some of those from my dad's toolbox. $4,193.00
41 screws... $5084.00
7 Plates.... $3403.00
Water for irrigation. Yes, you read that right. WATER.....$56.00
Anesthesia is charged at 15 minute intervals haha. I needed it for 4 hours...that's a total of $3,007.00
And hospitals charge for the amount of time you are in the recovery room!! That's charged at 15 minute intervals as well. I was there for 2.5 hours so that's a total of $1,345.00
They gave me 10 (total) "servings" post surgery of Dilaudid, Morphine, and Toradol. No wonder I was flying high and feeling great those first 14 hours. And said some bizarre stuff and remember infomercials at 4AM being SO interesting...
I see on here they ordered a size large compression sleeve for my thigh. A large? :( Miss Thunder Thighs here.
There's a huuuuge list of all the drugs given to me before, during and after surgery. It's so weird that many substances were in my body. And one of them is labeled as "Meth" haha Hmmmm.
It also says "blade stryker tips" and I don't know what that is so I google image searched it. This is what came up. Damn. Haha I don't think that's right.
Anyway, I am very thankful for great insurance!

I'm pretty sure I don't really have any swelling anymore. If I do, it's not much I notice and it's only in the morning. No pain at all anymore. Yay!
I am used to the subtle changes in my face now. Just a couple of weeks ago, when I would look in the mirror I would be happy one minute, then later when I would look I would think "Umm.. you probabllllyyy shouldn't have done this!" or sometimes "WTF HAVE I DONE?" haha But now I look in the mirror and see Me! And it's not some surreal or scary experience. It's just Whitney!
But I have a hard time remembering exercises lately! I gotta work on that!
My only complaint is I am SICK of my numb spots and want the feeling back so bad!

Here's a couple of pictures from Wednesday when we went to the Bosnia vs. Mexico game. It was SO AWESOME. Wow. I truly wish I could go every single day of my life haha. But that was a big day for my jaw...basically 16 hours straight of laughing, talking, screaming, cheering, eating, drinking madness. But it seemed to be just fine. Oh, and it was SO cold that day, which usually bothers my jaw...but I guess it doesn't anymore.

  

And I took this just now:

 

See you in a week!

Day 51: First Post-Op Orthodontist Appointment

My orthodontist appointment was actually scheduled for tomorrow, but they called and said they had an opening today if I would like to come in, so I did!
I was a little nervous because I didn't want them to do anything crazy like change a wire or move brackets around. All my orthodontist and the assistant did was look in my mouth several times and ask me to bite down.
My orthodontist seemed really happy with everything, but we still have lots of work to do. He put me back in rubber bands...which I don't mind because it makes me feel much less paranoid about my bite shifting. They're pretty tricky to put in though. There's one on each side from my "canine" on the top running diagonally allllll the way to the very back tooth on the bottom. It's hard to get back there though, so it took me a while to put them on. Then the third is like a box around my front teeth on the top and bottom. I still have my surgical hooks there, so they said I can just hook it on those.
My orthodontist said I can take the front rubber band out sometimes if I want, because he knows it's not so cute. But unless I have some kind of special event going on, that baby is staying right where it belongs. I really don't give a shit about how anyone thinks my rubberbands look when I am at school or work, or some other random place :)
He said I need to wear everything for a minimum of 12 hours, but the longer, the better! He stressed several times that I control my fate now more than anyone, based on how I cooperate. Believe me, they WILL be in 23 hours of every day.
That pain to the right of my chin that I complained about a couple of weeks ago is back today, and in full force. It HURTS. Today I randomly felt a sharp pain, and then a dull pain every now and then. But while I was at the orthodontist, he used his little tools to pull my cheeks back and look in my mouth, and as they hit that spot it really hurt! I asked him about it and he said he thinks my nerves regenerating are just hypersensitive, so they misinterpret how stuff feels, and makes me feel pain. I will agree with that, because that is also where I am still numb. When I run my finger over it, it feels tingly. But when I use my nail lightly, or wipe that area with a towel, it gives me a painful sensation. So that makes sense that my dumb nerves are confused. But right now it is really hurting with a sharp pain every few minutes. He said my rubberbands may make it hurt more, so to take some ibuprofen. I guess it's a combo of that and getting messed with and moved around at my appointment. As long as I know it's nothing to worry about, I can deal with a little pain.
Of course I asked him about 38 questions haha so when we were finished, he went to the patient next to me and jokingly said "Okay, you can't have any questions, because Whitney took up all of your question time! Just kidding Whitney!" haha

I moved back to my big girl toothbrush today! My braces were so abrasive on the baby toothbrush that it's annihilated now and feels like I'm brushing with a brillo pad. Plus, my mouth opens wide enough now to get a regular sized toothbrush in. I'm kind of happy to no longer be using that gay monkeys and bananas toothbrush and using a more age appropriate one haha

I don't have to go back to the orthodontist until the first week of April. I guess that's all to update for now. I'm thrilled I didn't have one of those awful orthodontist days that every ortho patient has every once in a while!

6 weeks! Before/after pictures!

It’s been nearly seven weeks since I had surgery! I had my six week post op appointment yesterday, and once again my surgeon says everything looks great! What a relief! I worry so much some days, and the only thing that makes me feel better is going to my post op appointments and hearing from the man himself.

My surgeon said I can start progressing into my regular diet. I can already tell this is going to be much longer of a process than I expected. But everything about this is extremely sloooooooowww anyway. I ate Panda Express yesterday because I wanted some fried rice and that was a quick fix. Some of my chicken was hard to eat, and everything has to be in little teeny bites. And I was too scared to try to chew on any hard pieces, I just had to throw that away. Basically my jaw has lost all it’s strength, since the muscles were basically torn apart. My doctor just said to try to eat whatever I want, but if it hurts then to back off a little. I’m thankful to have the okay to do that!

Also while I was there, he took some “after” pictures and wants to put me in his book he shows patients at their consultation! I would say that means he is really proud of the results, and so am I!! I could never have found a better surgeon! He is amazing.

He gave me a wonderful gift while I was there….copies of my before pictures! Wow. WOW. WOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW! IT’S INSANE.

I must have looked at these pictures 20 times yesterday. In fact, I’ve been dying to make this post since yesterday afternoon but I had a lot of studying to do!

I would like to say once again, that I did not have plastic surgery. I’m certain nearly every other orthognathic patient has had at least one person that knows about their surgery assume it is plastic surgery. It is most certainly not. If you’re interested, you can go back to read in my first couple of posts about why this is a medical need and why I personally needed the surgery. Skeletal deformities cause a lot of problems, and greatly impact a person’s quality of life. If this is an experience you never have to go through, be thankful, because it has not been an easy road over the years.

I was perfectly fine with how I looked before, including with how my teeth looked. However, I was really unhappy with my bite (or lack thereof) and my sleep apnea, and just generally how I felt exhausted all the time. I don’t believe anyone has this surgery just because they don’t like how they look. There are always medical reasons that greatly impact their life, and the cosmetic benefits are just icing on the cake.

 

So here it is:

 

Here's some pictures I took at home before surgery:

Look at this dork..

Some recent pictures so you can compare:

Took this one at work when I was bored so you could see that 45 degree angle

I got no sleep last night and you can tell, but here's one from today:

 

Un-be-lievable.

Obviously I didn’t look like this in all my pictures I took for my personal life. Over the years, I learned how to pose, how to smile and which side was my “good side” haha so I didn’t look like Mr. Ed.

But, my doctor needed the “real me” pictures. So that’s what these are. This may not be that shocking to everyone that always saw me on a regular basis, because this is probably what they saw since I wasn’t in front of a mirror all the time to make sure I wasn’t looking like a retard. But I never saw myself to this extreme.

 

I’ll point out some things the doctor pointed out to me as well. Obviously you see my jaw just looks like someone came up and shoved it back into my skull. It just doesn’t look visually satisfying, if you know what I mean. My upper jaw, had a slight cant, which isn’t as obvious in the first picture, but it is obvious in one of the before pictures I took of myself. Also, I have a bump in my nose (it was broken apparently at some point in my life, I just never knew haha ) before surgery. My surgeon explained that when the upper jaw is moved, the nose looks different as well. As it is moved, it brings the tip up a little bit, which makes that bump no longer as prominent. Finally, in the side profile picture, I have one hell of a huge shnoz. I had no idea my nose looked that damn big! My surgeon said it looks like that because it is practically a 90 degree angle from my nose down to my chin, since my jaw and chin sit so far back. Now it looks like a nice nose since my chin is out where it is supposed to be. Not like a nose that is going to turn around and poke your eyes out. He said my lips are still open a lot because of my muscles being tight and that’s one reason I need to continue exercises. He also said my braces are catching them and pushing them out and that makes them stay open as well. Over time, that will change.

When he puts my after pictures up on his website, I’ll update with them!

In an older post, I went through the long story about how I had to find a new oral surgeon, and how I am thankful that happened. Well, I can say now I am even MORE thankful that happened. My original surgeon didn’t want to do upper jaw surgery on me. He said I didn’t need it, although even I knew I did. He told me if we did, I would look like an old lady because you wouldn’t see my upper teeth. Wtf. Obviously I wouldn’t want it moved up THAT much. And I can’t see how he ever planned on getting my teeth to fit together perfectly without doing upper jaw surgery. He was also obsessed with the bump in my nose. He talked about it more than my jaw surgery and how he couldn’t wait to work on it. That was a red flag to me because I wasn’t looking for rhinoplasty and he isn’t even supposed to be doing that anyway. I’m sharing all of this because I want the pre op people reading this to know that many surgeons have many different opinions and it is well worth consulting with a couple of doctors! I’m not sure what kind of Picasso painting face I would have ended up with, had I not had to switch for insurance reasons.

My numb spots in my lips definitely do not have anywhere close to their normal feeling back yet. But when I touch those spots, it feels tingly! Just a few days ago it was completely numb, so that is fabulous. My gums are still totally numb though, which feels so weird when I touch them.

I still feel like I have a little bit of swelling in my cheeks all the time. But I know I have swelling in my cheeks in the morning when I wake up, but as the day goes on, it goes down. But now that I do so much talking and I’m constantly on the go, my jaw starts to swell a little at night.

Oh yes! Correction. Those weren’t screws I felt in my face before. We looked on my xrays yesterday, and they are two little plates on each side! We also counted how many plates and screws were in my face, but I can’t remember now :( There was around 40 screws and 12 plates, I think? I have a small hardware store in my face.

I finally feel pretty much normal majority of the time. Sometimes I am a little weirded out when I look in the mirror, others I’m not. And sometimes things just feel funny. To the average person, six and a half weeks seems like a long time..and it is…for normal life. But when you’ve had your face sawed apart, and ripped open, and drilled on, and sewn up and everything else it went through…it’s a lot. And it’s a lot for your body to take on. My mom and my doctor had to remind me of this a couple of times. I guess I expected to feel normal in just a couple of weeks, but that just isn’t practical.

 

But I feel great! Not tired, great mood all the time, and just really happy!

Should I sayyy itttt?..............

 

I’m really glad I did this! :) It was well worth everything, just to feel like a normal person who gets a normal amount of sleep and has teeth that can BITE.

But, I am still not that person that says “Greatest decision I ever made and I’d definitely do it again.” I don’t know about that one. But we’ll see!

 

I don’t have to go to another post op appointment for four weeks. I’ll update next week when I go to the orthodontist for the first time since surgery and let ya know how that one goes….SCARY.