Here are some photos from those first puffy few days. Excuse the bloody nose! It was really stuffed up and it took me a while to get the guts to do something about it; I was afraid it was cause some serious bleeding! (It didn't, in the end :-) )
Monday 30 June 2014
Days 1-3
So! The first night in hospital was in recovery, then the first full day after the surgery was quite tough. I'd seen so many photos of swollen post-op people, but the pressure in my face was a bit of a shock! The best advice I can give is to have a sense of humour, don't take yourself too seriously, and remember it's temporary. And don't get frustrated if it's really hard to drink. Keep trying and be patient with yourself! I found it really hard to swallow, so on Day 1 I didn't do so well. However, people tried to keep me cheerful. Here is a photo my parents sent me with their sympathy! :-) Haha.
Here are some photos from those first puffy few days. Excuse the bloody nose! It was really stuffed up and it took me a while to get the guts to do something about it; I was afraid it was cause some serious bleeding! (It didn't, in the end :-) )
Here are some photos from those first puffy few days. Excuse the bloody nose! It was really stuffed up and it took me a while to get the guts to do something about it; I was afraid it was cause some serious bleeding! (It didn't, in the end :-) )
My overbite/open bite in action!
Predictive drawings 2012
So I'm very late uploading these - I'm kind of blogging in reverse! Here are the predictive drawings that Jaw God did for me initially. He did some 3D planning with plaster models much closer to the surgery, but it was so lovely to have these back in 2012 when I was at the start of this journey! They are dated my birthday, October 15th, which is kind of cool too. I hope that by that same date 2014 I will be pretty much sorted, bar some lingual braces on the backs of my teeth! That will be my 30th :-)
Annoyingly, I can't seem to get these the right way around, even though the original files are! Sorry! I'll try again later, or if anyone knows how that'd be great! :-)
So in the photo above you can see the weaker tracing of where my jaw is now, and the stronger line of where it will be moved to.
Annoyingly, I can't seem to get these the right way around, even though the original files are! Sorry! I'll try again later, or if anyone knows how that'd be great! :-)
This one above should be the finished result!
Sunday 29 June 2014
While you were sleeping...
Day 0 continued
So when I woke up I was strangely really bossy. "What time is it? Take this tube out! Get my friends! Call my mum! My arm hurts!" This must, unfortunately, be what I am like on drugs. The tube I was referring to was not the main intubation tube but a mini one that they insisted was helping me breathe, but I insisted harder that they take it out. My jaw didn't hurt at all, but my arm really hurt, I guess from some kind of drip, or the position it had been resting in for about 6 hours. My friends came soon, and I continued to boss them around, ordering them to put my glasses on, which they were understandably reluctant to do because of the bandages around my head from the pinnaplasty on my ears. I'm not sure what to make of this sudden assertiveness....some of my friends would argue that I'm a right bossy cow on a regular day, whereas others would be surprised because usually I'm a massive pushover and don't like upsetting people by demanding too much. Well, I guess we know which personality wins when uninhibited anyway!
I spent the night in the recovery ward, which wasn't particularly pleasant, but I loved it because I felt really well looked after. There were two other patients in there who were quite noisy. I'm sure they were distressed/drugged up/ in pain, but I did feel a bit miffed I couldn't get in on all the wailing with my jaws banded together. It was a tough night - my back really hurt and I felt really nauseous when they gave me some kind of drug through my drip, which resulted in me throwing up over myself. I'm sorry to say this was mainly blood! So when the nurse arrived to take me back to my room in the morning, I looked like an extra from a Saw movie. I spent the night sucking blood out of my mouth with the magic suction wand, and chatting to a few people on facebook with my phone, which I am eternally grateful to my friends for bringing down for me. It wasn't a fun night, but it wasn't painful. Jaw surgery really isn't. I felt achey and weird and sick at points, but that's pretty normal having been under for six hours or so. Here is a picture from that first night:
Me in the recovery ward! A little startled. The swelling has not kicked in yet...The bandages are not related to the jaw surgery - they're because I had my ears pinned back at the same time.
I had jaw surgery! Day 0 lowdown
Phew!
So I finally had double-flipping-jaw surgery! It was quite an adventure, and one that only people very interested in jaws will want to hear about in close detail. My friends have had whatever garbled version I could manage through very swollen lips, and I'm sure even that was TMI. Well, here comes a massive overshare! You only do this once and my surgeon (the affectionately known 'Jaw God') encouraged me to document my progress. Plus, when I figure out blogging and people actually known this blog exists, maybe just maybe it will be helpful for other brave souls embarking on their journey to a better bite.
Day 0
I had to get to the hospital for 7am, so my poor jaw supporters had to get up ridiculously early to get the cab from South West London to the hospital in Harrow. My family don't live in London, and I wasn't sure I could face any emotional outbursts (as much as I absolutely love my mum!) so three of my best friends came to hospital with me. Considering they were there for about 12 hours, this was no small ask and I'm extremely grateful!
So highlights of Day 0, before I was, you know....unconscious......
I was in the hospital, and the first they do is give you these compression socks to put on, and then they put your ID band around your wrist and ankle. The socks were prrrrretty sexy I tell you! I was feeling very nervous (obviously) but I've read so much about jaw surgery that it was really actually the anaesthetic that scared me, rather than Jaw God hacking away at my face. I've met him so many times, researched his work, spent a good while thinking about all this, and utterly trust him, so there were no doubts there. Jaw God came in to say hello and gave a brief run down of the surgery (we'd talked it over a million times by that point so there was no need for a the full brief), and took some pictures. These will be my official final before shots I guess! He was very reassuring, as ever, and told me "don't worry darling, I'm not going to sell your kidneys". Good to know! The only thing he said that freaked me out a little was the chance of needing to do a bone graft from one of my hips. He asked me to choose a hip! I chose my left one because I already have a small scar there from falling off my bike as a kid. Luckily, they didn't need to do this in the end...I remember the first thing I did when I woke up after surgery was pat each of my hips! Haha.
Then the anaesthetist came in (hereafter known as Sleepy). I'd spoken to him once on the phone and he'd been extremely nice and reassuring. He explained that anaesthetic is usually absolutely fine, and his total calm made me feel better. To be fair, I'd done that classic thing where you freak yourself out by googling medical information. Never do that. It told me that the risks of dying from anaesthetic with no other complications was 1 in 100,000. You might be surprised to know I did not find this a particularly reassuring statistic!!! This was helped slightly when my friend Alex played 'guess a number between one and 100,000' and not once did I guess his number, Good calming strategy huh! Anyway, Sleepy came in to say hello, and mentioned something about the tube they use to help you breathe during the surgery. He explained that you have to be semi-awake when they take it out, and that there is a risk of blood from the tube going into the lungs and then you can develop pneumonia! This was something I didn't know about and really frightened me, but in this poor lovely Consultant's defence, just about anything would have freaked me out at that point. He was just explaining the risks as he has to, and I'll save you the anguish and tell you now that I have no memory of them taking the tube out, and did not develop pneumonia!
There was a bit of a wait after that, so we watched TV, read magazines and generally chatted, until a nurse came in and told me it was time to get my gown on and go to theatre. It was all in quite a hurry at this point! My surgeon had had two other patients before me which he described as "minor" and "intermediate"....guess he was ready for whatever I was classed as! I got quite nervous, obviously, at this point, and my friends ended up coming down with me to the room just next to theatre. They said their fond farewells just before I went in to get my anaesthetic.
Sleepy was amazingly reassuring yet again, and in my mind took on the stature of a sort of Superhero. He said, quite proudly I thought, "and now I will give you a drug that is 100 times more powerful than morphine!!" In this went to a drip in my arm. "Ooooooh spinning" I remember saying. Then all I remember is the consultant and the nurse casually talking to me about my job for a few minutes while I awaited some kind of notorious countdown, but it never came, They did an excellent job of quite literally lulling me to sleep, and the next thing I remember is waking up!
So I finally had double-flipping-jaw surgery! It was quite an adventure, and one that only people very interested in jaws will want to hear about in close detail. My friends have had whatever garbled version I could manage through very swollen lips, and I'm sure even that was TMI. Well, here comes a massive overshare! You only do this once and my surgeon (the affectionately known 'Jaw God') encouraged me to document my progress. Plus, when I figure out blogging and people actually known this blog exists, maybe just maybe it will be helpful for other brave souls embarking on their journey to a better bite.
Day 0
I had to get to the hospital for 7am, so my poor jaw supporters had to get up ridiculously early to get the cab from South West London to the hospital in Harrow. My family don't live in London, and I wasn't sure I could face any emotional outbursts (as much as I absolutely love my mum!) so three of my best friends came to hospital with me. Considering they were there for about 12 hours, this was no small ask and I'm extremely grateful!
So highlights of Day 0, before I was, you know....unconscious......
I was in the hospital, and the first they do is give you these compression socks to put on, and then they put your ID band around your wrist and ankle. The socks were prrrrretty sexy I tell you! I was feeling very nervous (obviously) but I've read so much about jaw surgery that it was really actually the anaesthetic that scared me, rather than Jaw God hacking away at my face. I've met him so many times, researched his work, spent a good while thinking about all this, and utterly trust him, so there were no doubts there. Jaw God came in to say hello and gave a brief run down of the surgery (we'd talked it over a million times by that point so there was no need for a the full brief), and took some pictures. These will be my official final before shots I guess! He was very reassuring, as ever, and told me "don't worry darling, I'm not going to sell your kidneys". Good to know! The only thing he said that freaked me out a little was the chance of needing to do a bone graft from one of my hips. He asked me to choose a hip! I chose my left one because I already have a small scar there from falling off my bike as a kid. Luckily, they didn't need to do this in the end...I remember the first thing I did when I woke up after surgery was pat each of my hips! Haha.
Then the anaesthetist came in (hereafter known as Sleepy). I'd spoken to him once on the phone and he'd been extremely nice and reassuring. He explained that anaesthetic is usually absolutely fine, and his total calm made me feel better. To be fair, I'd done that classic thing where you freak yourself out by googling medical information. Never do that. It told me that the risks of dying from anaesthetic with no other complications was 1 in 100,000. You might be surprised to know I did not find this a particularly reassuring statistic!!! This was helped slightly when my friend Alex played 'guess a number between one and 100,000' and not once did I guess his number, Good calming strategy huh! Anyway, Sleepy came in to say hello, and mentioned something about the tube they use to help you breathe during the surgery. He explained that you have to be semi-awake when they take it out, and that there is a risk of blood from the tube going into the lungs and then you can develop pneumonia! This was something I didn't know about and really frightened me, but in this poor lovely Consultant's defence, just about anything would have freaked me out at that point. He was just explaining the risks as he has to, and I'll save you the anguish and tell you now that I have no memory of them taking the tube out, and did not develop pneumonia!
There was a bit of a wait after that, so we watched TV, read magazines and generally chatted, until a nurse came in and told me it was time to get my gown on and go to theatre. It was all in quite a hurry at this point! My surgeon had had two other patients before me which he described as "minor" and "intermediate"....guess he was ready for whatever I was classed as! I got quite nervous, obviously, at this point, and my friends ended up coming down with me to the room just next to theatre. They said their fond farewells just before I went in to get my anaesthetic.
Sleepy was amazingly reassuring yet again, and in my mind took on the stature of a sort of Superhero. He said, quite proudly I thought, "and now I will give you a drug that is 100 times more powerful than morphine!!" In this went to a drip in my arm. "Ooooooh spinning" I remember saying. Then all I remember is the consultant and the nurse casually talking to me about my job for a few minutes while I awaited some kind of notorious countdown, but it never came, They did an excellent job of quite literally lulling me to sleep, and the next thing I remember is waking up!
Sunday 1 June 2014
Surgery in 2 weeks!
Nearly jaw time! I'm having my surgery in two weeks. I had a meeting with the surgeon and the technician, who has made some plaster models of my jaw. They discussed how to make my bite meet together properly and have decided that as well as impacting the upper jaw and moving the lower jaw forward, they will also be expanding the upper jaw. At the moment it is too narrow and so my teeth will not fit together properly unless this is addressed. So that's another thing to add to the list! Always disconcerting when someone takes away a model of your jaw, cuts it into three pieces, then returns with a smile and a flourish: "voila! all better!" Slightly apprehensive now, but I have faith in the god of jaws :-)
I will post some more pics soon of what is happening and how my jaws are now. If anyone has any tips for recovery I'd love to hear them! My mum is getting quite scared and worried now. I'm starting to feel it myself a little bit, but that's only since they told me about the segmental osteotomy and having to have a wafer afterwards. Any tips on surviving this?? I read in everyone's blogs they are not very pleasant!
I will post some more pics soon of what is happening and how my jaws are now. If anyone has any tips for recovery I'd love to hear them! My mum is getting quite scared and worried now. I'm starting to feel it myself a little bit, but that's only since they told me about the segmental osteotomy and having to have a wafer afterwards. Any tips on surviving this?? I read in everyone's blogs they are not very pleasant!
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