The post-op check ups

I still slept for 12 hours but I woke up feeling pretty good on Monday. I didn't wake up still feeling tired and I took only Motrin for the first time yet.

I called Dr. Roger's office to ask about getting my rubber bands put on again. When I called Saturday, they said it would be fine until Monday. I made the appointment for 2:45pm since my Orthodontist appointment with Dr. Jim was at 1pm. Since I was supposed to go for my post-op checkup tomorrow, they just moved it and did it while I was there.

So I saw Dr. Jim first. Everyone at the office stopped to check out the results. I was smiling sorta but since I still can't feel half of my face, I'm still swollen and bruised and sore, a smile is hard to pull off. Still, it was nice to see them all after all the time leading up to this.

Dr. Jim was very pleased with the results. He said that it came out better than he'd even hoped for. This was great news. He also said that my recovery is doing better than usual which I'm happy for. Before he had pictures takes, he introduced me to another guy there who had had double jaw surgery. Top and bottom.

His mouth was wired shut for 6 weeks and he had all sorts of pain. It made me appreciate how lucky I've been.

So after that, I went home for a little while and then off to Dr. Roger's. He was also happy with the results and my progress. He took his hemostats and pinched my chin in a few places. He'd ask if I could feel it. I almost could but not really. Then he got to a spot I could feel. I winced a little because it actually hurt! It hurt where I could feel it and I couldn't even feel it where I couldn't.... that's strange. He did say it's a good sign that I have feeling in some spots now.

We had the x-rays taken that I posted. He told me about how my nerve was in the way of the one angled bracket and that's why there's a curve in my chin and in the bracket. I asked about how strong the brackets are and he said they'll hold up just fine.

He gave me some more rubber bands and then showed me how to put them on. It's a good thing, I already broke the new ones. Putting them on myself was pretty simple. The hospital gave me a pair of hemostats which made it all possible. I couldn't have done it without those.

I asked if I could eat anything soft yet and he said no tougher than pasta. Even chewy bread is too tough yet. I was thrilled because I was craving macaroni and cheese all day for some reason. I stopped at Sidetracks because theirs is delicious. I got it with the sausage and cut it into tiny bites. I got my dad a burger.

After about half way through, I couldn't do it anymore. I was eating dreadfully slow already. After a while, I was just sore and my jaw was aching. I put the rest in the refrigerator. I haven't really eaten all day besides that. I have bean soup warming up right now. I'm looking forward to that.

It's late but I slept 12 hours last night. I've slept more than I've been awake in the last few days. I may try to play more Halo. I've gotten better and not clenching my jaw. I'll probably play for half an hour. Maybe more. I'm going to try to be productive tomorrow. I haven't had the energy before. I think I will be in better shape tomorrow.

It's that time again. Pics.

The money shot

X-rays from my post-op check up with Dr. Roger. You can see the fixtures that hold my jaw to my face and how much of a gap was created. He said that the bone will grow back to where you wont be able to see those gaps after a few months.

The weekend

The weekend was strange. I slept until 1pm on Saturday and 2pm on Sunday. I didn't go to bed late really, 11pm maybe. I had these intense, stressfull dreams. They were long and seemed to last all night. I'd wake up sometimes just briefly and then fall back asleep into the dreams.

Saturday morning, I woke up with blood running from both corners of my mouth. There was a small pool of it on my pillow. There wasn't so much that I was worried. I knew what caused it.

I'd chewed on the corners of my lips all night. I think that's why I was having the dreams. Without the rubber bands, my mouth was opening more. It was enough that my big swollen lip would fit between my teeth and braces. Since I can't feel my bottom lip, I chewed on it for most of the night I think.

The wounds weren't that big or bad looking. It was just some of the skin and not much even. I was fine and so I took some of the liquid pain medicine.

I was groggy most of the day and didn't feel good. I had a headache and didn't eat much. I went to bed early but this time, I packed my braces that were near the corners of my lips with wax. I tried to make it so that my lips would be lifted up by it and not get in my mouth.

This helped a lot but I still had some blood on my mouth Sunday, less Monday.

Sunday was pretty much the same. I did play some Halo 4 over the weekend. I couldn't actually play for long. I seem to clench my jaw when I'm playing. I get real focused and don't breath and clench. It doesn't feel good after a while and I get sore and stop playing.

I watched Taken 2 on Sunday. That was pretty good. Spy movies are always great. I just remembered that Bond was the other one I watched. Go figure.

Pic time.

This is from Sunday. The bruising just gets worse every day. The swelling has come down a decent amount.

The day the band broke up

Friday was quiet for most of the day. I slept and ate more broccoli milkshakes.

Around 8pm, I watched the Bond Skyfall movie that I had rented the day before. For the first 40 minutes, I cycled on the exercise bike going very soft. I was basically just moving my legs. By the end of the movie, I was tiered and it was time for bed.

That's when my bands broke. I was taking my meds, antibiotics and a little of the good pain liquid. They gave me a plastic measuring cup that looks like a shot galss. All the meds are liquid except one very small pain pill. I call it the Super Motrin. It's a 'nonsteroidal antiinflammatory'. I looked them up. It turns out that the lip cream they gave me is steroidal and it has warning about using it on your mouth. Still, the stuff works. My lips would be cracked and chipping away by now. I can't lick them.

So I went to knock back my medicine cocktail and my elastic bands all snapped like a chain reaction after the first one went. I swallowed one by accident. Another one, I saw and got out. The other two, I didn't find until the next day and was able to pick them out with my fingernails.

I got worried that my whole surgery was in jeopardy now and started Googling. Finally I read a message board post on an old, inactive forum for adults with braces. They were talking about bands and he said that he's noticed that some surgeons aren't putting them on everybody anymore. Mixed with them telling me that breaking a rubber band isn't an emergency, I went to bed.

I was still a little about messing it all up while I sleep but I did go to sleep finally.

Here's the pics.

Here's me. I don't look so bad in this pic.

This is my ultra-awesome laser star projector. That's the ceiling with the lights off. I had it on during the movie.

The outside world

I left the house today. I was feeling a little stir crazy in the house so I went with my dad to the hardware store. I looked a little better but still bad. No one really knew what to think of me at the store. I tried to act as normal as I could because I didn't want people to think I was 'special'. They probably did anyway.

We stopped at an old fashioned video rental store. It's like Netflix only in a building and you have to pay per movie, and drive it back a few days later. My dad has a membership there so I rented a few. It turns out that the red and yellow label on the box meant that I got to pick a forth free. I only watched two.

I got a Tom Cruise movie called Oblivion that looked pretty bad but I rented it anyway. I meant to watch it but never did.

The drive home was a little bumpy. My pain meds were starting to wear off and every crappy piece of road made my jaw ache.

I was getting nervous about the air bags. I've found that every time I'm in the car now, I worry that something's going to happen to deploy the airbags. That would be epic fail for my face. I think it would break my jaw right off the titanium fixtures.

By the time we got home, I was getting tired again. I made a broccoli, carrot and strawberry milkshake and took a nap.

I took a shower for the first time before we left. That's when I really noticed that my face, neck and chest had turned yellow. I mean, crayon yellow. There's a purple outline around the entire bruise that spans my cheeks to my... nipples. The chin bruise is larger and more gross now. It looks like Gorbachev's spot migrated to my chin.

I still can't feel the bottom of my face. Everything from my cheeks down are numb. I can feel my top lip, but the bottom still feels swollen and numb.

So that's Thursday. Just like any other.

Here's some pics.

This is my profile with swelling.

You can see the bruise and almost see the yellow.

This is gross. That's the only face I can make and still show the rubber bands.

Knife and Fork

This is how I eat. This is what I eat. You get used to it.

Correction

The first day post, I wrote my surgeons name wrong! His name is Dr. Roger, not John. I don't know who Dr. John is, but if he's reading this blog, he might as well close the tab. I was on a lot of drugs when I wrote his name.

The first normal day

Wednesday was the first day that felt sorta normal. I didn't have surgery, I didn't wake up in a hospital. I didn't have anything big happening. The only thing I had to do was sit around or sleep. I did a lot of both.

I woke up feeling pretty good. I was still massively swollen but I had some energy. I noticed in the mirror that my face was getting bruised. I was starting to get a splotchy purple bruise on my chin and faint purple on my neck. With the swelling, I looked like an ogre. I joked with my dad that we should go see the Hobbit because people would think I was in costume.

I rediscovered ice cream today! I asked my dad to bring home some good vanilla, something like Breyers. I made a strawberry-banana protein milk shake that was so amazingly good that all I had to eat for the next two days were milk shakes of some variety. The great thing about them are the calories. It's not easy to get enough calories when you can only eat things that seem like they'be taste OK as a liquid. Carrots, broccoli, strawberries, bananas, apples, cauliflower... those have been my staples. I put green tea leaves in a most of my blender meals. I've read some nice things online about it about it's health benefits. I put protein and the seeds in every drink.

The rest of the day was just sleep. I woke up at a normal hour, but I fell asleep every few hours. Sometimes, just for 20 minutes, sometimes for an hour or more. I was just always tiered. Still, I felt like things were really going well.

They say that on the third day, people normally get sad and even teary eyed. It's a side effect of coming down off the anesthesia. I didn't really feel that too bad but by the night time, I was depleted and slept again.

I didn't take any pics. Like I said, I was worn out all day.

The next day

It's about 1:30am. I slept a good part of the day and I'm only now about to go back to bed.

I got out of the hospital fairly early. Dr. Roger came in to check on me first thing in the morning. He took out two of the rubber bands from up front and I can open my mouth a little more now. I can fit the rubbery tube from the syringe between my teeth when I couldn't yesterday.

Apparently I'm doing pretty good. One nurse said that most people have a hard time drinking the first day. If you read my last post, you'll remember that I was knocking back the apple juice and some soup. I am even able to drink water from a glass now.

Breakfast this morning was "very thin cream of wheat." It was very thin. They also brought real coffee today, another Ensure and orange juice. When I got home, I made a strawberry, banana, cauliflower smoothie. It was pretty good. I had the protein powder in there of course.

I'm staying with my dad for a week or so. (I have two weeks off work.) When we got back to his house, I had a lot of energy and I felt pretty good. I started doing a few things around the house but I wore out quickly. I took a knap for most of the day afterwords.

Today has really been like the next day after a great party. You had a great time but everyone's gone now. You're left with the mess, a headache and all you want to do is eat something and take a knap.

I'm looking forward to the swelling going down. I don't look much different than I did yesterday. It's uncomfortable and the ice wont help much after 48 hours, they said at the hospital. Dr. Roger did say that about 50% of it should be gone after a week and then 80% after two weeks.

Anyway, I just warmed some cream of chicken soup. I'm going to eat that from a syringe and it will be good. Then, I'm going to bed. Good night.

The die is cast

There's no turning back now. My face is forever changed. I came out of the anesthesia about 12 hours ago. I was confused and a little freaked out. I didn't get warning before they put me under. The last thing I remembered is talking to the nurse anastesiast and then the next thing I know, I woke up in a room with blood, gauze and ice packs all over me. I knew where I was but I didn't at the same time. It was very disorienting.

Now I look like a swollen fat man who ate another swollen fat man for lunch. My face is huge, gigantic. The swelling is astounding.

Even more astounding, this doesn't hurt much. I'm sore in my jaw by my ears but there's not much pain. Imagine clenching your jaw for a few hours, that's how it feels. It's uncomfortable and it does hurt but not as bad as it seems like it should. Maybe it's the morphine, maybe it's the numbness. There's a nerve that runs straight through the lower jaw and they have to move it to do the surgery. This causes temporary but long lasting numbness. I can't feel my chin, my lower lip, the whole bottom of my face feels like I took Novocaine. I may have slight numbness forever in my chin or lip but I'm guessing that it'll heal. I'm already feeling my lip more than this morning. Dr. John, my surgeon, warned me about the possible permanence of the tingles but said chances are that I'll fully recover.

He did a fantastic job. I can really tell how good he is. I'd heard that he's one of the best and now I know why people say that. I can feel the precision and the care he took. I can't explain how, but I can.

I can't open my mouth. I'm a little afraid to test how far these bands will stretch that hold me together. I'm not wired shut but the rubber bands are really stiff. I don't want to break anything lose so I'm just staying shut. I can talk fairly well believe it or not.

I've been through probably ten apple juices. I drank cream of mushroom soup through a syringe at dinner. Actually, it was really good. It was creamy, smooth and warm. It felt great. The flavor was good too, not great.

My friend just brought his young son up here. Little Danny didn't know what to think at first. We explained to him that I'm fine and that I did this on purpose. He was giggling about it after a while and then vanished onto this laptop. I'm glad they were here.

Side note, this laptop has Windows 8 and I hate it. I brought this one to finally try and like Windows 8. I don't think I every will. Totally unrelated, I know, but I'm a nerd. I'm downloading the 8.1 patch now but it'll probably suck too.

Anyway, I have plenty of selfies here are a few. Viewer discretion advised.


5:30am - heading to the hospital. This is the view from the car window.

7:00am - Just about to change into my gown for 7:30am surgery.

Noon - I'm awake now and feel like shit.

8pm - I took the head junk off and cleaned up a bit. See what I mean about swollen? Good God.

Snowpocalypse

It hasn't stopped snowing today. There's 8-16 inches predicted. My surgeon called to say that as long as we both can get to the hospital, we'll do the procedure. I'm hopeful that it will happen.

I've been nervous all day. I had a lot of errands to run last thing since I wont be able to for a couple of weeks. That helped but the snow didn't. Everything was moving so slow. Driving 30mph on the highway sucks.

I'm going to bed in a few minutes. When I wake up, it'll be time for the surgery. I'm still nervous.

It looks like my next post will be about how well everything went. Bionic face in T-minus 9 hours.

Acclaims from on high

I've wanted to get braces for a very long time, 15+ years. I'm in my mid-thirties. It's been a challenge having braces at this age. It's not as bad as I expected but it's not pleasant. In a way, I'm lucky to have waited.

I asked my old dentist for a recommendation for an orthodontist about two and a half years ago. That seems like forever ago now. I got two names and I called them both. The first number she gave me, they didn't answer the phone. I think they were at lunch. I called the second number and they answered. I got lucky because I really like my orthodontists. (Yes plural, I have two of them. Father and daughter.)

As it turns out, the father is a world-renown orthodontist. His daughter is on her way to being world-renown, I'm sure of it. I didn't know this, I didn't expect it. Today was just another reminder. In fact, today is where I heard him actually called "world renown". Dr. Ben told me this. He said that if you look at the literature, my orthodontist is all over it. I had an appliance that I can't remember what it's called now. It shoved my lower teeth down into my gums to level them. It turns out that Dr. Jim invented that appliance.

I was at a bar one night early in my braces. A dental hygienist grabbed and shook me. She said urgently, "Are you having the surgery?!" I still hadn't decided to yet. She insisted. In fact, she said, "Don't get a girlfriend until after you have it. The caliber of girl you'll get is so much more than you could get now!" OK, that was funny in many ways. I'm laughing thinking about it.

She asked who my orthodontist is. I told her and she said, "You're lucky. You're in really good hands! That's who we send our patients to."

My new dentist, Dr. Ben's sister, was looking at my x-rays on my first appointment at their practice. She was concerned about something or another and looked at me in that way. She asked, "Who's your orthodontist?" and waited on the edge of her seat with a concerned look in her eye. I told her who it was. All of a sudden, she relaxed and her body language turned very comfortable. She said, "Oh wow, OK. I'm not worried about you. You're in good hands."

I was once in his office. A Brazilian super-model orthodontists dressed like a Hollywood hottie in a lab coat was there. I asked why. It turns out that some Brazilian orthodontists came to his practice to learn from him.

I actually can't remember all the times I've heard how amazing my orthodontists are from dental pros. Every dental type I meet says the same thing. My father and daughter team is top notch, maybe the best in the world. Can you imagine? I feel rich!

My surgeon is very well respected too. I feel like I have the world leaders in medical mouth torture working my case. I couldn't be happier about that. Who wouldn't be?

The sniffles

My chest was tight yesterday but I didn't think much of it. Today, my nose is running like Niagara. I've been working a ton lately trying to not leave a bunch of work for the people who are filling in for me while I'm gone. I was working at a client's office today, it happens to be a dentists office. I asked Dr. Ben if a cold or flu would stop them from doing the procedure. Luckily he said that I'd have to be in pretty bad shape for them to not do it. That's good. I just got some Zicam Ultra Cold Remedy. I'm hoping the Ultra means business. Zicam is a wonder drug so I have high hopes. I'm going to NutriBlast a couple oranges and maybe some spinach.

The Friday before the Monday

Tonight, it's Friday, 10:41 pm. I have surgery at 7:30 am Monday morning. It's cold and it's been snowing like the North Pole. All I can think about is getting home from the hospital and slipping on ice, falling on my face and watching my lower jaw go flying off into the snow. That won't happen, right??

The truth is, this has been coming for a long time. I first was told about this surgery by an orthodontist when I was a teenager. He wanted me to have this done but I never went through with the whole process. Now it's time. I really do need to have it done. My jaw only gets tighter over the years and my teeth don't even meet. Biting through certain food isn't always easy. Sometimes I don't bite through at all.

It's going to be expensive but it's worth it. I'm mostly looking forward to it. I was once told that I'll look like Matt Damon when it's over. That's cool. Jason Borne kicked some ass. At least they didn't say Ben Affleck.

The procedure is called Maxillomandibular advancement. I think they made that word up.

I got a NutriBullet for Christmas. It's going to help a lot. I've been practicing making smoothies. Sometimes they're really good. Other times... I still try to drink it. I'm stocked up on ingredients. Flax seeds, chia seeds, almonds, broccoli, banannas, snap peas, spinach, vanilla extract, cinimon, ginger root... you name it. Then add some protein power, and I hope to be in good shape as far as food goes. I've read other blogs like this one and it looks like people have a hard time eating (drinking) enough calories durring recovory. It has something to do with eating from a syringe for a few days and then all liquids for a few weeks.

So below are some pics of what my teeth look like now. I had to contort my lips but my mouth is fully closed. I don't look pretty from this angle.