Day 3 post-op

Oh my god, I've been bad cause I havent posted any pictures yet.. I promise I will soon.

Today was..decent.. I seem to have mini panic attacks when I wake up, I can't breathe, Im too warm and just generally crusty. Today I managed to take my first shower by myself and wash my hair.. felt sooooo good. I went with my mom to drive my boyfriend to work, and that felt good too..getting some fresh air. Seeing Mike was really great too...even though he has the sniffles. :(

Dinner today was extremely frustrating. I don't think I can sit with my family while they eat, it irritates me. It especially irritated me when my mom made a comment about me burping today, and then another comment about taking a shower. Im not a baby, and I didn't appreciate the 'news bulletin' style comments whatsoever. Meh.

Tonight, my jaw is extra tired..I think I've been talking too much..I really just want to relax for the rest of the night and attempt to get a good sleep. Who knows what the weekend will bring.. my parents are off to Ottawa, my sister is off to St. Catherines, so its just Mike to take care of me :)

Ugh..

Its been about..2 days since my surgery.

I've gotta say..my swelling dropped a lot between yesterday and today (I credit that with booking it out of the hospital first chance), and my mood has improved a lot as well. Obviously, Im still pretty tired.. I had about 4 naps today (between 1hr and 2.5hrs each).

Yesterday, I could only manage water, juice (which I found hard cause it was sugary and would make my throat all sticky and clogged) and chicken and beef broths. Yum.

Today, I managed to get down a peach smoothie my mom made for me, as well as a strawberry ensure (gag). The peach smoothie was good, and I knew from the ice-creamy taste it was gonna be fattening, which is what I need considering I've lost EIGHT POUNDS since monday. That doesn't seem normal...

I think so far the most frustrating thing by far is the weird pain I'm feeling along the side of my face and in my ears. It feels SUPER tight.. I might have to ask for some muscle relaxants, we'll see. Another thing that bothers me is when I sit down at the dinner table to eat my 'meal' and my whole family has chicken, mashed potatoes, etc. Definitely depressing.

So far though, I think I've managed okay. I don't know what I'd do if my parents weren't around all day, esp. my mom to take care of me. Everyone has done a great job.. from my sister making me laugh through emails..to my boyfriend always being able to cheer me up. :)

Tomorrow, I'll post updated pics from tonight, as well as whatever fun things happen between now and then!

Im out!

Im home from the hospital! I had a lower jaw advancement + chin reduction

I was told to be at the hospital at 6 yesterday and by 720 they took me into the OR..things were quite fast, which was great-less time to get nervous. I was scared of the IV cause I've never had one before, but it wasn't as bad as I thought.. and the guy thought I was serious when I said "I loooove needles!"..too funny.

When I woke up in recovery, I was really irritated, because they told me the tubes going from my nose to my lungs, and from the collection bag to my stomach would be gone..and they werent. Which means I was awake and totally not under any anesthetic when they pulled them out. THAT was worse than anything so far. My sister came into to see me, which they gave her a hard time about..and she told me that no one came upto her and my mom after to let her know how things went.. which I found odd..

The rest of the day was me sleeping on and off with lots of visitors.. I couldn't figure out how to move my mouth for the first while, so I wrote lots of notes..then I figured the more I could talk or ATTEMPT to talk, the better for my nerves..so I talked like crazy!!

I ate the soup for dinner..but I didn't understand how they wanted me to eat the Jello? I drank a lot of water, and rinsed like mad cause I wanted to make sure stuff was clean. Luckily, I didn't have a ton of pain, and I still don't. I would say its slightly worse than when I had my wisdom teeth out. Just with a ridiculously swollen face.

Sleeping at night was by far THE WORST. I couldn't get comfortable at all, and I found there was a fine line between being boiling hot..and freezing cold. My nose was super super dry, and even though I greased it up with vaseline, it didn't make a difference and I found I couldnt breathe very well...so I kept having mini panic attacks cause I was suffocating. The night nurse told me that I was supposed to have nasal spray..but who knows where the hell it was!! I made it through the night trying to slow my breathing down and breathe through my lips. Im not sure about anyone else who has had the same surgery as I, but my teeth feel like they are GLUED together. I thought the bands would be much looser. :(

This morning, I was discharged by my surgeon, who told me I was doing REALLY well, given some strange needle in my hip which I was never given an explanation for what it was (even though I asked!), had my IV taken out, and then I booked it out with my mom. I can't even begin to describe the looks I got from people in the lobby!!! But feeling the -23 degree air outside was AMAZING. I think i'll take a walk tonight.

Here are three pictures... the first is my profile BEFORE the surgery... you can see the overbite/deep bite/dinosaur profile as I call it. And my pointy chin.

The next one was taken when I got a room in the hospital, and the last one is this morning at my house.

Ugh...I hate colds

Early this week I began getting quite nervous for my pre-op stuff that was on Wednesday to the point where I felt actually nauseous.. well the pre-op came and went, and thursday morning I woke up with the sniffles. My surgery is this coming Monday.

I immediately started taking ColdFX Extra Strength. The anesthesiologist said I didn't have to stop taking anything I was taking until 12 midnight Monday morning, and since I have 3 days until my surgery, the ColdFX will be gone out of my system with the amount of water Im drinking!!

This kinda scared me a tiny bit, because I was worried Id have to cancel the surgery.. I should be okay in time, Im pretty healthy!!

Pre-op

So today I had my pre-op visit with my surgeon and the hospital. Dr. T was great, I took some moulds, took some xrays (ugh, scary dinosaur face!) and he explained the whole process. The way he does surgery is to make a plastic bite plate, and when he sets the jaws in the right spot, he wires them shut with the bite plate to make sure they are in the best spot possible. He said it'll be gone by the time I wake up... so, NO SPLINT..YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! He also told me that Im the first surgery on the books for the day, so its a bright and early morning for me, beginning at 6 am.

The hospital didn't go as smooth.. they spelt my name wrong at admissions and I had to go to a bunch of different people to get it fixed. One lady was a real you know what! The anesthesiologist was nice.. he asked me if I was on "street drugs" haha..too funny.

All in all, a fun day.. even the dreaded blood test didn't go as bad as I thought. I had said to the woman taking my blood I was more nervous for the needle than my actual surgery!

so...5 days to go.

l

Surgical Hooks!

Today I went to my ortho and got my surgical hooks put on. Easy breezy, nothing too dramatic. My ortho told me that my teeth are in amazing shape going into this surgery and I should get really nice results out of it.. considering my teeth were never that crooked to begin with just a bit of crowding, I'm excited as it is my jaw thats really messed up!!

He told me that my surgeon is one of the best here in Toronto, and he even called him the Michelangelo of maxillofacial surgery! haha..

So here is a picture of my teeth with the hooks on em.

One week to go till pre-op, 11 days till surgery. Yikes!

Sorry!

I just realized I never posted that day I had my last adjustment!

My Ortho changed the wire on my bottom.. I havent been keeping up with what wires hes used, only that this one is rectangular, and HURTS! He had a rectangular one on there before but it wasn't as bad. Im not sure if this is my surgical wire or not... He also tied a few more of my teeth using that fun metal wire.. lovely!

I have a cleaning appointment tomorrow, surgical hooks on wednesday, then pre-op the following wednesday! Then the big day the monday after. It's gonna be a busy few weeks..

Here's a picture of my bite the way it is now from the front, and from the side. After seeing the side profile picture.. I really had a moment of "jeez, I hope that looks a whole lot better after the surgery". Sometimes I feel like my nose is gigantic, but Im pretty sure its just my small chin.

My OS said my case is really funny cause I have a deep bite, my lower jaw is set too far back, but I have a prominent chin. I'll probably end up having a BSSO with a chin reduction, I'd guess!

Three weeks to go!