Day 36: Look Ma, No Hooks!

This morning I went to the orthodontist. Another office where we might pay more than others but all the staff is so nice and genuinely concerned with my well-being. Anyway, Dr. Voorhees (oral surgeon) had given Dr. Ramsay (orthodontist) the go-ahead to start the orthodontics, but because of this stupid opening on the left side of my mouth (where my incision has opened to reveal my swanky new titanium jaw), he doesn't want to "push it". He said if he starts moving things around, it may affect the way I hold my jaw, etc., which could compromise the healing of that incision. I appreciate the style, and know it's the best thing to do, but I was hoping to get started sooner rather than later, because I'd really really really really really love to have my braces off by my 25th birthday (April 3). Even though I know that's probably not realistic.

But it's not his fault the stupid plate isn't cooperating. Or rather, the tissue around the plate. So, no new wire or bands today.

The exciting thing that did happen, however, was the removal of my surgery hooks! Now, you may say to yourself, braces are pretty bad, and it sucks to have all that metal all up in your mouth business. I agree, but you know what's worse than that? Wired hooks on top of the braces. They serve a function in surgery, for placing and holding, and then right after, for the bands, but it feels soooo good to have them off. Almost as good as when Dr. Voorhees took out the splint.

I really have had a very blessed recovery, though, current predicament aside. I was reading some other peoples' blogs, and some people had to keep their splints in for months instead of weeks. Or do the surgery more than once, or deal with all sorts of myriad problems that are too gross to recant. Makes it a lot easier to justify going with the expensive surgeon and orthodontist. :)

Day 35: Administrative Details

Good news! I now have to go to a "date calculator" website to find out how many days its been since my surgery. It seems like it was so long ago,  but really it's just almost 5 weeks.

The incision site is still open, and after some (careful) further inspection last night involving a chopstick and a flashlight, it is really open. Like, I can definitely see the plate with my inexperienced eye. Then it made me a little sick to my stomach, so I stopped looking, but it's good to know what I'm dealing with. I want to hope for the best, especially with my (heretofore) miraculous powers of healing, but practically, I can feel the plate in my jaw constantly on the left and I can't feel it at all on the right, so I'm thinking it's going to have to come out.

The good news is that I had previously believed that my health insurance plan, which is through a school district, ran September-September, and since my surgery was in August, I maxed out my deductible for that year, but then I started over in September. Imagine my surprise when my insurance copayment (usually around $40-$50 - I have a HDHP) was 0$! I emailed the BCBSTX people to make sure, and the year is January-January! Yay! So if Dr. Voorhees does have to go back in and fix something, hopefully a lot of it will be covered.

I've started receiving EOBs (explanations of benefits for those not in the very fortunate crowd of having to deal with health insurance on a sometimes daily basis...) for all the surgery stuff. At first, when they told me they'd be paying for only 1.7% of the surgeon's fees, I kind of threw a fit and said "I don't care, I'm sick of dealing with it, I'm not going to do it, I'm not. I'm just not." Jared, in his infinite patience, responded "You don't have to deal with it now, give yourself a week or two, but then you need to call, you know that, right?" Me: "Hmph"

So, I wrote it in my planner for today last week, and actually followed through, so today I called & got everything as fixed up as it can be, so now they're paying 11% of the fees, and he still has to correct the assistant surgeon's fees, which he'll do Wednesday (apparently, there's a 5 day waiting period), so there might even be a little bit more coming my way. Like I said, once everything is nice and settled in my banking account, I'll post a full disclosure of the fees, and a little commentary to go with, which I know everyone always loves. Right now, not including the braces, it's about half and half what the insurance paid and what we're paying. I'm pretty happy with that, considering we decided to go out of network.

No pics from 9/16, here's one from 9/29

I guess I'll go ahead and clear that up now, too. It's costing a significant amount more to go out of network with Dr. Voorhees (even though we got an in-network exception, we still have to pay the difference between the "allowable amount" from BCBS and what Dr. Voorhees charges), but Jared & I talked about it and we both came to the conclusion that we liked Dr. Voorhees and his staff so much that we would continue with him. When somebody is cutting open your face, it's important that you not only trust them, but that you are comfortable being around them. Especially for me. For sure there are different doctor styles, and these fit different patients differently, and Dr. Voorhees is just an excellent fit for me. Plus, he's been practicing at this office since Jared was born, so that's some good experience! And even the surgery techs and medical assistants are all super friendly and helpful, and even nice about helping to calm me down if I start to get a little freaked out.

Normally, Jared & I don't "upgrade" because we're usually fine with the bare bones option. We even have pay by the minute/text phone plans (old school). But, we decided to do go all out on this, and we did the same thing with Jared's LASIK - what could be important than your health and comfort?

So, moving right along with the progress. I see my orthodontist tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll have a small update after that.

1 month marker: Fun, fun, fun!

Today/tomorrow will be my 1-monthiversary from the surgery. I had a follow up appointment today with Dr. Voorhees. And to start off what would prove to be a pretty bad day, I showed up for my appointment at 8am, only to find out that my appointment was for 4:30. Whoops. All the appointments have made me a little lazy with actually checking my planner. But he was able to see me in the morning anyway. Everything looking good. A little adjustment of the bands, and the go-ahead to start back with the orthodontics. So that's exciting.

Then I had a bad day, and then around 2, I noticed hey, there's a cut in the crease of my left gum/cheek area, and it's dark red, and the area around it is a little inflammed, and the part of my jaw feels a little stiff in the same area. Crap.

So, I called Dr. Voorhees's office and asked if I could come in this afternoon to have him check on it, and in the meantime, worked myself into kind of a nice stress-frenzy about it. Well, thankfully I only had about an hour to do that, then I headed out for my appointment.

As it turns out, the incision was Dr. Voorhees's, so that's good, no new wounds, but the bad is that the titanium plate they put in my jaw is visible through the incision, and is the reason it's not closing up. The doctor has to "stretch" the tissues over the plate, and they don't always close up like they should. He re-prescribed the peridex rinse, to keep it from getting infected while it's still open. It should close. My question - "What if it doesn't?" Well, he would have to go in and remove the plate (as soon as the bone healed, of course) so the incision could close up. My face: ! How bad would that be? It's an out-patient procedure that they do in his office, nothing near as bad as the surgery.

*sigh* I'm just ready for it all to be over.

But, I did take another X-Ray at the appointment, and the nice medical assistant printed me out a copy. Here it is, compared to my one from January of this year. I can't see much of a difference from the front, except it does seem to be rotated up a little. I need to get copies of the profile x-rays...

Day 30: Moving Right Along

Day 30... sorry for the lack of updateness lately. Work has been really busy, and I've had like, at least 3 mouth appointments a week. I had my first appointment with my orthodontist on Tuesday. He sympathized about the front of my mouth (when they closed up the back the front got kinda janky), but said that it's way way easier to close up the front with orthodontics than the back, so that was comforting. And it's nice to be able to complain a little about the way I look to someone who understands! I mean, he fixes bites, yes, but part of what he does as well is make people pretty.

I'm still wearing the retainer and 2 bands during the day and one in the middle at night. (see diagram - it's pretty accurate, except I don't have 4/8 of my canine teeth, but you get the picture). It's nothing compared to the splint, but I definitely talk with a lisp while my retainer is in, and even a little with it out. Parts of my cheeks and a little of the left side of my lip are numb, so I'm sure that's effecting it a little. Hopefully once ALL the swelling goes away and I've regained feeling everywhere, I'll be able to talk normally again. It makes sense, though, because one of the biggest reason for my messed up bite was that the inside of my bite was too small for my tongue, so it pressed up against all the teeth and messed everything up. And the tongue has a lot to do with speech, so...

And, in theory, I will be able to start to "up" my diet in just 2 short weeks. Start phasing in some semi-solid foods. That will definitely be nice.

And we re-looked over the finances, and I think everything should work out a-okay, despite the fact that the insurance is (initially) saying it's going to pay for just a little bit over 1.5% of the surgeon's fees (which are not small). After everything's settled with that, I'll give a full breakdown of the costs, etc., for those who are curious. On the flip side, I'm only having to pay for 7% of the hospital costs, although St. David's gives a 60% discount if you don' t have insurance, so really we're paying for 17%, but still. Much better than 100%. But with the 18 months no-interest with the surgeon, we're making minimum payments to prevent interest, then we'll just have a really big 18th payment, but that's in 18 months, and hopefully I'll have received at least a couple raises by then. It's a solid plan, as far as plans go.

Hmmm... if TV is any indication, my mood has shifted greatly since the surgery. At first after the surgery, I watched The Office pretty much 24/7 - I think Jared was about to start wearing earplugs around the house - but now, I've shifted into Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Still funny, but a little more quippy and a little less L-O-L. Plus, it contains my doppelganger, Alyson Hannigan, who is tempting me to get a haircut...

I'll try to update when important stuff happens, but a lot of the important stuff is over now, and I know I said I wanted to update every day, but apparently it is not my destiny to become an orthognathic surgery bible blog...

Day 25: Jaw cramps

This process is turning out to be quite a long one. Especially at first, time moved at a snail's pace. Not only that, but it was very difficult and moving at a snail's pace. During the first few days, mainly Thursday-Sunday, I just kept thinking "Why did I do this? Why did I do this? This was so stupid." And really, at that point, it's not really a productive thing to be thinking. I had been watching a lot of the Office. Like, a lot a lot, and this one quote from season 5 kept me sane during this time. It's right after Pam and Michael left Dunder Mifflin to start the Michael Scott Paper Company, and Pam is upset and regretting her decision to leave the established company for Michael's. And Michael responds as such:  

Michael: I want you to listen to me. Because I want to tell you the situation that we are both in right now, 'kay? You quit your job. I quit my job. We both quit. Those are the facts. That's what happened. Now, what are our choices right now? Because you know, kiddo, you quit.
Pam: Yeah.
Michael: So what are our options? Well, we can start this paper company. We can try. Or... that's it. That's our only option. Because we quit.

And that was really helpful to me. Because I had the surgery. I can't take that back. I can't get off the roller coaster. I can only do what I can do now. I've been feeling that way a little recently, too, as the process unfolds and shows itself to be a long and difficult one. I often feel like I want to stay in a safe little comfort bubble where all my decisions are safe and reversible. But that's really not the way life works. So I just have to tell myself "You know what kiddo, you quit. So what are your options?" And usually, there's at least one thing I can do to make my situation a little more bearable, if I concentrate my energy on that instead of lamenting "Why me?"

Sorry to get all philosophical, I guess I just wanted to say, if you ever are in a difficult situation, which I consider this to me for me, sometimes it's helpful to have a mantra or a focus thought so you can remember where it's good to put your energy at that moment, and where it's really just not that helpful. Even if it is just a stupid quote from the Office.

I had enough energy today to ride my bike to Mike and Charles's (about 10 minutes each way), so I was encouraged by that. I think besides my face (obviously),and the eating stuff, which obviously leads to a limited caloric intake, my body is almost back to normal. The only other side effect I've been feeling is a little bit more trouble controlling my emotions, which I think is just a byproduct of being out of my comfort zone.

Also, the part of my cheeks right by my nose, the bottom left and upper right corners of my mouth, and a large part of the left side of my chin is still numb. Dr. Voorhees said not to worry, it sometimes takes 3 months for full feeling to come back, and the law of averages is on my side when it comes to all my feeling coming back.

And the reason for my blog title is that these stupid rubber bands are really making my jaws cramp, but I've been using the heating pad my mom got me and relaxing them as much as possible to allow them to shift over. I hope all this pays off!

p.s. Hook 'Em!

Days 23 & 24: Bands, retainers, and appointments, oh my!

Today (Friday), day 24, was my third appointment in a row with Dr. Voorhees. Wednesday to take off splint (yay!), Thursday to put in retainer & bands (boo!), and then Friday to check on progress. Here's a picture of my nifty new palate retainer. It's pretty much like a normal retainer except without the wire, because I already have braces.

I have another appointment Monday. It's nice that Dr. Voorhees is really keeping on top of my bite. The muscles are  being a little bit obstinate. We're having to keep pulling my bite right because it keeps wanting to pull left. Too bad you can't reason with specific body parts. Just gotta suck it up and wear my bands.

I've started sleeping a little better now that I've resumed more of my "regular activities". I'm still not allowed to chew, though, which leaves me grumpy about my diet. Jared and Dr. Voorhees were making fun of me today for being a baby about my diet. The only good way to get vegetables right now is in smoothie form, but I'm grumpy about putting them in there, because otherwise, it's not a sweet fun dessert, it's just a meal. BUT I know sooner or later I need to start eating better... probably later.

Days 21 & 22: The Last Day of the Splint & First Day of Freedom

Day 21 was pretty uneventful. Although, it was the 3rd week marker, so I treated myself to a slushie... and some tater tots... and a chocolate bar.

Day 22 was a bigger day. At 8am, Jared and I went to Dr. Voorhees's office to have my splint removed. I was actually really nervous because even though it was good, and I wasn't going to be as uncomfortable, and I was going to be able to talk better. But it was still a change. And also, after my appointment I went back to the office for the first time in 3 weeks. So, lots of changing and lots of commotion, after 3 weeks of basically sitting in a chair with my laptop.

But, the appointment went really well, I got all my questions answered, and I can brush my teeth again! With toothpaste! Yay! And then I headed into work, which also went well. Although, I had a lot lot lot to do. And after talking & working in the office (which is actually more tiring than working at home) I was pretty tired by 3, so I headed home, and then worked from home a couple of hours... that's going to be hard to wean myself off of.

And I haven't really been sleeping well lately either. At first, I slept well, because I was on pain pills all the time, but now, I'm not doing anything, and I'm not really taking any pain meds stronger than ibuprofen and tylenol, so I haven't been able to sleep more than like, 5-6 hours a night. SO, tonight, Jared & I decided to go to Bull Creek Greenbelt (a.k.a. the Wedding Waterfall) to hang out. The sad part is, there's no water there anymore! The good news? This turns the water swing into just a swing. So we did that for awhile. It was actually a really good workout, then we went and took a picture together of where we got married (awwww....)

Enjoy these pictures which have nothing to do with my surgery and are in no way gross!

Day 20: Blah blah blah

Sorry for the back-to-back posts, as I work more, the blog is getting harder to find time for. Especially since it takes me like, an hour to eat a meal.

Today was a weird day. I worked all day, which I obviously used to be accustomed to, but now it's kind of a lot, not physically, but mentally. It's hard to keep my spirits up if I'm concentrating on work stuff, and it has been a little overwhelming lately. I tell myself it'll be easier to get back on top of things when I'm actually in the office.

I also started a list of questions for Dr. Voorhees for my appointment on Wednesday. I always have this weird thing with doctors, like, I don't want to take up more of their time than absolutely necessary. But, I've decided that's ridiculous. Especially in this case. It was something my mom said after that disaster of a Friday appointment after my surgery. I was apologizing and feeling bad for making a little bit of a scene, and she said "Other people get paid a lot less to put up with a lot more." And that's really sat with me. We are paying him a lot (nearly 60% of my entire annual salary), so I'm going to take up time if I want to. Here's my list of questions so far - email me if you think of any other good ones!

1) Clarify what I should or should not be eating
2) One of my teeth has been hurting more than the others, is that normal?
3) What amount of "looseness" should I be feeling in the top jaw
4) Clicking of right lower jaw joint - just tightness of muscles as everything shifts?
5) Only 1/4 of my lip is still numb (lower left quadrant) - is that something to be concerned about? Same with numbness in bottom part of the eye, cause it still feels weird.
6) My recovery seemed faster than others I read about - is that because my surgery wasn't as dramatic, because he's just a super experienced surgery, or just because of my superb healing skillz?
7) How far did he move my lower jaw? (we received an estimate of 5mm, but I want to know exactly) Upper jaw?
8) Will the pain come back in the upper jaw as the numbness recedes or will it be healed enough to not hurt by then?

Day 19: Lazy Sunday

Day 19 was mostly uneventful. It's nice to have more of my energy back, but I'm still feeling a little bit bluesy about the splint and the numbness and swelling, so I'm not doing as much as I probably should. 

But tonight Jared went over to Chuck's to watch the Cowboys game (I have no idea why), so I had a bunch of evening hours to kill. I settled in with some more Office - I seriously think I could do a line by line reenactment of every episode at this point - and my scrapbook. I'm not doing the scrapbook day by day like the blog, so it's a little bit less of a commitment. 

The weirdest thing about going back through all this, and going through the pictures, and kind of reading some of what I wrote those first few days, is that it's pretty anxiety-producing. Like, I feel anxious for past Beth or something. But when I thought about that it kind of made me realize that I always make things worse in my head than they are in real life. Because I did that, I made it through with relatively little misery, but even thinking about it now, it's all blown up in my head. I guess that will be good to keep in mind when thinking about future events.

A very philosophical day, indeed.

p.s. no pictures lately because I pretty much look the same, but I'll post some soon along with pictures of my awesome scrapbook (even though I know nobody likes to look at them but me)

Day 18: Ouchie

Yesterday was a long-ish day, compared to what I've recently been used to. We drove up to Waco for my nephew's 3rd birthday party, and met a lot of new people. Also, something that I forgot you pretty much have to do in all social situations not involving some sort of outside entertainment (and sometimes even then) - talk all the time. I hadn't thought of it, I guess, but after the party and then dinner with my mom and Cliff, my left jaw was yelling at me pretty loudly. But I waited until I got home, and then took the first Tramadol I've taken in a week and a half. Even that didn't do it enough for me to sleep, so I took 2 ibuprofen as well. And then 2 more ibuprofen when I woke up at 3am. This morning, everything seems to be fine though.

The weirdest thing is happening with the numbness. It seems to be going away in (what seems to me at least) pieces. As in, non-connected pieces. The place where this is especially weird is in my lips. Feeling has returned to my entire top lip (although it still feels weird cause just above my lip is a bit swollen and numb), and the right side of my lower  lip, but the left side of my lower lip remains obstinately numb. Jared quipped it was because my left brain is so much more powerful than my right, which doesn't seem entirely correct, but I think it might have something to do with it. It's like, the brain can only handle so much at a time, so instead of doing pieces of each, it concentrated on one side first and is now moving to the other. AND in going through my "talking" notebook from the first bit, I did complain about the right side hurting a lot more than the left. So maybe that's why my left side is hurting more now. But of course it could be a bunch of other things, too, like the surgery was more drastic on the left side, or something about what my face does when I sleep, I don't know. 

Anyway, only 3 more days until the splint comes out, and my prodigal return to the office. In order to have the splint taken out and a mold made (for that special palate retainer), I need to be able to open my mouth the equivalent of two fingers stacked on one another. I've taken a poll of several people, and three seems to be the norm for people who haven't had their face bashed in with a scalpel, but for me, two is difficult. That's weird, right? I think I'll ask Dr. Voorhees why that is, if it's muscle tightness or the swelling or tendons or what. Who would've thought 6-8mm could have made such a difference?! That's another question I have - exactly how far did he move the lower jaw? Maybe I should be writing these down...

Day 17: The upper jaw comes alive

So, I'm starting to get more feeling back in my face. Initially, basically my whole face from my lower jaw up to my eyeballs was numb. The feeling came back first in my lower jaw, like what we would traditionally call a jaw line, and is slowly creeping back up my face. But from about nose level up my cheeks are still numb. But the feeling is starting to come back in my upper jaw, which was the much more traumatized jaw, and man oh man was it hurting this afternoon. But, I guess that's good. I'd rather have a week of pain over total numbness.

Today was the first day in a long time that I felt like putting in my contacts (although, they're a lot more comfortable when your eyes are half numb, so it was easier), and I even half-dried my hair! It's amazing how little you care about how you look when you're in so much pain and discomfort. The less pain you're in, the more conceited you feel like being. I guess that's why people get fat in relationships... oh wait, that's backwards. Well, it does apply to surgery, so...

I went back through some of the pictures Jared took in the hospital, and they are gross. 4 realz. I hesitate to even post some of them here, just because they're so gross. But I will, anyway, mostly because I don't have anything really left to say. So, enjoy!

 The awesome care package my bosses gave me. My coworkers gave me some really cool stuff too (including candy cigarettes to help with my stress!), but that photo is on my other camera & I'm too lazy to upload it...

Me the morning of the surgery - don't I look excited??

Me just before my surgery in the hospital room. I'm holding up a picture of Nately. He was my focus point to help with my anxiety about the surgery. I even took a stuffed bear into the surgery  because he was about the same size and shape as Nate. I know, I'm a weird cat-lady.

PG-13! Check out the racy hospital gown... Me at 9:30pm the day of my surgery, after I was done puking blood. But I still had my awesome  blood mustache.

My IV with my cool arm bands. The morning nurse was not amused after he put on my Ceclor allergy bracelet when I jokingly asked him what they did with the people who are allergic to everything. His response? "They have a lot of bracelets.

I honestly don't even remember this. Apparently, according to Jared, this is me blogging, but then it "hurt my head" so I had him take over.

Jared diligently blogging away. I think I wrote the entry down on paper and then he typed it up. I guess the bear was his assistant.

I filled up an entire notebook "talking" in just two days. Here are some of the gems: "Do I need to eat something or is it coming from my IV?" or "I'm making it look easy - I'm a model patient" and (responding to Jared during our discussion about Mercury in Retrograde v. Murphy's Law) "I believe ancient astrologers more than Murphy, who was a military man, not a scientist, so suck it."

Me with one of my first hospital meals - Cream of Wheat and grape juice... mmmm....

Day 16: Moving Right Along

Day 16... pretty uneventful. One thing that kind of sucks actually is that I'm starting to get some feeling back in the top of my mouth. That sucks because the upper jaw surgery is much much worse than the lower jaw. I think just because it's so much more connected to everything, it's way more invasive to cut into that bone than the lower jaw. I don't have much feeling back, but just a little in the roof of my mouth. If you've ever had braces, it feels like the day after the orthodontist, when you can feel the teeth moving and it feels good to kind of push them back with your other teeth. I don't know if that makes sense... I'm having to be very aware to not do that with my jaw though... don't want to undo the $80,000 surgery...

What else... I'm still eating mushy foods, but it's a little better I can sort of "gum" at the food now, so while it still has to be soft, I don't have to puree everything. I'm still super sick of sleeping in a recliner, and I cheated a little this morning and slept in bed with like, 4 pillows stacked under my face. I had no idea how much of a luxury sleeping in a bed with pillows is... Also, decided upon a date for my return to the office (I always kind of want to say this in a movie announcer voice, like it's some kind of big event). I'm headed back in on Wednesday, after they take off the splint. But they've been really great about everything, so I'm sure if I get in and it's a little too tiring they'd be flexible with some more working from home.

Oh, and I received a request to talk about why I had the surgery done. The short version first: I had pretty bad malocclusion, meaning my bite didn't line up, and that gave me really bad headaches.

Here is the more extended version:
I had braces when I was younger (for like, 7-8 years!) to correct a severe overbite that I had. My orthodontist recommended I had a couple of my top teeth pulled, and was then essentially pulling the top teeth back to meet the lower teeth. The problem with that approach is that it doesn't really fix the bite. So, fast forward 10 years, and I still have this really bad overbite (although my teeth are really straight), and it's giving me these awful headaches. Because when your jaw doesn't line up properly, the muscles around it have to work a lot harder and get grumpy. And those muscles just happen to be very intimately connected with all the muscles in your head, face and neck that give you headaches. The headaches were so bad that as a 22 year old, I was willing to get braces again. And I'm very vain, so that should tell you something...

Anyway, the headaches were the main impetus for getting the surgery. I read some studies where something like 80-90% of the people who got the surgery for headaches had a significant drop off in headaches after and were super happy that they had had the surgery done. So that was really encouraging.

As I talked with the doctors, there were some other reasons to do the surgery. It is pretty major surgery, and I will never heal faster than I do now, because I'll never be 18 again, so the longer I waited to do the surgery, the worse it was going to be. And the problems that I have would not have corrected themselves, and there's not another way to correct them.

A bad bite also makes eating more difficult (although it's the only thing I've ever known, so we'll see after I get the splint out how much better eating is - but from what I've read, everybody sees a dramatic improvement), and this could possibly be contributing to some of my stomach problems.

Also, because my lower jaw was set so far back, my airway was being constricted. You can see it in the xrays that they took, it's weird. I can't tell now, because it's been so long since I had the surgery, but I remember telling Jared in the first couple days after my surgery that I could breathe so much better than I could before, and that was with all the swelling and the splint and everything, so that's encouraging. If my breathing was compromised, that could have greatly contributed to my anxiety, so that's something that will probably improve.

And the last reason is that having a bad bite is just bad for your teeth and gums. It wears them down more quickly and just leads to all sorts of problems later.

Here are some other fun facts about the surgery: it's much more common for people with an underbite (lower teeth in front of upper teeth) to have the surgery than an overbite (what I had, front teeth dramatically over lower teeth), because having an underbite is much more disruptive to your daily life. Also, my orthodontist told me that a significantly larger number of women have symptoms that lead them to get the surgery than men. So, a man who had the same overbite as I used to have probably would not have suffered as bad (if any) of headaches, and therefore wouldn't have felt the need to have the surgery. The surgery is becoming much more common because of technological advances. A dozen or so years ago, if you had your jaw broken, you would have to be wired shut (and if it happens by accident, you still have to). But when they do the surgery, they use something called "internal rigid fixation" which means that there are screws and titanium plates in between the bones, so that's why I didn't have to be wired shut at all.

It's a really interesting surgery, check out the "The Surgery" tab at the top to read more about it. Here's a pretty descriptive photo of the lower jaw surgery, which is formally known as a bilateral sagittal split osteotomy, because they actually cut down, through the middle of the bone:

But don't look at the images if you do a Google search, cause it's really gross. I would actually recommend that advice for any medical procedure or condition...

Day 15: 2 week checkup

A profile shot while sitting normally (not pushing chin forward)

Wednesday...

I had my 2 week checkup with Dr. Voorhees. Everything looks great, and next Wednesday, he will remove the bite splint!! Of course, on Thursday I have to have some kind of palate retainer put in, but it won't be as bad as the splint. I'm still wearing all three rubber bands (1 on each side and 1 smack in the middle), but they're not awful now that I change them myself, so I can take them off to eat.

A gross picture with food in my teeth... but smiling :)

I went to visit some friends and work & get my access card that I had left on my desk (I do that a lot...) so that I can go in tonight to do some stuff without having to talk to everyone... and we chatted for awhile while I was wearing my bands, and wow, my jaw muscles were not happy about that. It feels almost on the verge of cramping, but not quite that bad. But they have to get used to it eventually, because that's the new bone structure. So, I try to move my mouth around a lot because I figure the faster the muscles acclimate, the faster I won't have to wear the bands anymore...

Jared has convinced me I need to get a little exercise today so we're going for a walk - bye!

Day 14: Groovin'

Day 14. Two weeks out! I made it! It's all downhill from here. Just as a warning: I will continue to update this blog for a long time, so if you signed up for e-mail updates and you're not really interested, I won't be offended if you unsubscribe. www.doublejawsurgery.com, this blog from a Canadian dude who had the same surgery, was like, my bible before the surgery. Jared and I are thinking about a trip to Colorado in November, and the first thing I did was go to the day we were thinking about (I think it was 74 days from my surgery) and read about how he felt and what he did that day. It was invaluable! So on the off chance that somebody who's having the surgery done comes to my blog to read about it, I want to provide thorough information.

Anyway, today I started feeling a little more like my normal self. I watered the baby trees, I set up the payments for the Care Credit (surgery financing), I worked for 8 hours (!), I wrote all my thank you notes, and I filled out the pharmacy reimbursement paperwork for all my surgery meds.

Little known fact: most insurance companies will not automatically register your prescriptions as part of your deductible. You usually have to send in the information to a third party for it to register. Normally, I don't bother because I'm usually on a high deductible plan with no hopes of reaching the out of pocket max, but this year's a little different, so I'm sending in every penny! I even sent in the one that was only like, $8. It's good to be proactive.

Anyway, here's a picture of me with some of the stuff I got done today. I would be smiling, but I'm trying to give everybody a sense of the swelling, which has gone down a whole lot. It's still pretty obvious to me (and probably people who see me all the time, like Jared), but it's not really that obvious in the picture. And it's sure a lot better than the picture from the hospital.

Day 13: Watching the News Makes You Paranoid

Tomorrow will be two weeks since the surgery... pretty crazy! I finished the amoxicillin last night, so I am finished with all the surgery medicine except the peridex rinse, which honestly, I'm glad to have because I can't brush my teeth, so the peridex rinse is my only method of cleaning my mouth. And, for the record, it's strong!

Today, because the weather was so beautiful (we had a "cold" front come in), Jared and I decided to take a walk outside. When Jared and I used to go for walks, we'd walk for 45 minutes to an hour, but I get tired so easily now, we just made a trip around the block. Nevertheless, it was still pretty tiring. And by the time we got back to the house, my face was hurting. Specifically one part of the left side of my face. It had kind of been bothering me all day, but it was hurting really badly. I guess that's how it works with swelling. From what I understand with my limited research, swelling is an accumulation of fluids, so I guess in order to bring swelling down, you have to get your blood flowing. Anyway, my face really hurt. I took some ibuprofen and lied down in my green chair with a wet washcloth, but it still wasn't going away. I was going to take a Trammadol, but I had to eat first, and after I ate it had mostly gone away. So, that's good.

Not a lot else is going on. I've been watching "The Office" for the past two weeks, and I'd already seen all of them at least a couple times, but they're pretty classic and easy to watch multiple times. But, after watching them twice more again, I thought today I'd take a little break. This morning, I watched "The Jane Austen Book Club", and then tonight "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Then I thought I'd flip to the tv and see if anything was on. Quickly vetoing "Everybody Love Raymond", I ended up landing on the news. Crazy! Apparently, there's all these big fires all around Austin, and all these homes are getting burnt down... It got me all paranoid about if there was a fire in our neighborhood what stuff we would want to get out of the house first. I actually started making a list of the most important stuff and where it is.

Then I realized that was crazy.

Day 12: Grocery Shopping

Day 12 was a lot of fun. I told myself it was time to start doing things again. So, we "scheduled" a day of errands. First, the bank, then Wheatsville, and then the tour de force, HEB. I figured it would be a pretty easy way to get out and do something without exposing myself to too much heat. Well, I made it through, but it was exhausting! By the end, I was pretty much just standing by, watching Jared do everything. We got home and I had to sit in my green chair the rest of the night. Jared & I camped out, playing gin and watching The Office. I guess energy comes back in pieces, it's just a weird feeling, because I feel now like the surgery didn't happen and I just had some hardcore orthodontics done or something. But I guess I just need to accept that that's not the case and adjust accordingly.

I was thinking about this stupid bite splint some more, and I think maybe it's not so horrible after all, as long as I get it off in three weeks, as promised. Here's my logic: before the surgery, I couldn't WAIT to get my braces off. They were awful, the bane of my existence. But I think that the splint probably bought be a few months of being okay with the braces - it's all relative, I guess...

Day 11: Socializing Without Spitting

Day 11 after the surgery... it feels like I had the surgery like, 2 months ago or something - crazy! I'm sure it does not feel that way for Jared, who has had to endure this entire experience as a bystander.  My biggest two complaints at this point are: 1) I am tired of the bite splint. It is annoying, and it makes talking extremely difficult. Think: retainer X at least 3 and 2) I am tired of sleeping in my lovely green recliner.

Last night was the first UT game of the year, and it was on something called "The Longhorn Network" whatever that is, but we went over to our friend Charles's and Mike's house to watch the game. It was against Rice, and I actually predicted we would lose, but they actually pulled out a victory. Maybe they won't be as awful as I anticipated this year. Super weird, too, about A&M getting into the SEC? So I guess there won't be any more of the Thanksgiving UT/A&M games. You can tell I'm really broken up about the whole thing...

Anyway, a bunch of our friends were there, and it's so exciting to see people after 10 days of mostly Jared, the cat, my mom, and my doctor. Not that I don't love all those people, but sometimes it's just fun to see friends! But, much to my chagrin, socializing involves a good deal of talking, even with boys, and my stupid bite splint makes me talk super funny. And something I didn't realize until last night, the bite splint also makes me spit while I talk if I'm not talking really slowly. So, that was fun. But it actually was, and I ended up staying for the whole game even though I was convinced I'd only make it through halftime.

The other biggest complaint is my sleeping arrangement. I love my green chair, and it's super comfortable, and I've had it forever, it's actually where I recovered from having my wisdom teeth removed, 8 years ago, so really, green chair is awesome. But, I have been seriously jonesing for sleeping in a bed again. It seems so nice and comfortable, with all the pillows and the horizontallness... I crawled in for about an hour this morning, but it's just not practical yet for all night sleeping, because I'd hate to prolong the swelling, and also sleeping on the sides of my face kind of hurts. So, something to look forward to, I guess...

But, everything else is going well. The pain isn't bad at all anymore, it just sort of feels like a worse version of the day after an orthodontist appointment. And, I'm trying to move around a little more. Yesterday I went to Target while Jared got the tires changed, to walk around in an AC environment a little. It felt good to move around, get the blood circulating. But, I still get really tired after physical activity. Hope everyone else is having a lovely Labor Day weekend... the low here tomorrow is 61 degrees so I'm super excited about that.

Day 10: Starting to get bored...

Day 10 after the surgery... I had a bunch of work today, so I started out doing that. The only meds I'm having to take now are my amoxicillin (3x a day), a peridex rinse (2x a day), and ibuprofen when I talk or eat too much.  I still have to wear the three rubber bands when I'm not eating or whatever, and I think any further reduction in swelling will be slow-coming.

At first, I was really liking working at home. I don't have to drive anywhere, I can wake up at 8:30 and roll right into work, I can watch TV while I'm doing stuff, eat whatever I want for lunch... but I think the biggest thing about working at home that sucks is there is no break in the day. It's just long and monotonous and boring. And then, when I'm finished with my work, or the time is done for me to work, it just sort of... rolls right into my home life. And Jared works on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights, so it's just me and Nately, hanging out. When I work at the office, that's a good thing -- it's time to unwind and relax and veg. Now, it drives me up the wall. I didn't notice when the pain meds were helping me to sleep 16 hours a day, but it's starting to wear on me. But Nately tries to keep me from working whenever he can (see the picture of this morning - I did not place him there, he was determined to keep me from the computer)

I still have my splint in - it's kind of like a bite guard that goes all the way around all my top teeth, it's wired in with my braces, and has slits where my bottom teeth go, to help my jaw muscles learn their new correct position. It's not so bad, but it makes me talk like, well, like I have a giant piece of plastic in my mouth. So I was hoping to work from home until I had that removed, because I know once I get back in the office people are going to be wanting to talk to me, and honestly, it's exhausting to talk with the splint in (I can't take it out), but we'll see if I actually make it. Maybe I'll just start doing half days in the office or something, I don't know.

Anyway, in other (good) news, the feeling is starting to come back into the inside of my mouth, my lips and cheeks and stuff. The only bad thing is all the hardware in my mouth right now is how I realized this was happening, cause it sometimes gets cut on the braces or the bands or the extra wiring. 

I'm just feeling crummy today I guess. It's like, when you first get out of the hospital, you feel so awful and you're so exhausted, that you get to have all these little things get to be victories - "Yay! I walked to the bathroom by myself!" "Yay! I slept for a consecutive 6 hours!" "Yay! I'm on pain pills!" But then as you start to get back to your normal life... everything sort of turns back into what it was before, except you have some extra annoyances to deal with. I guess it's sort of like going from elementary school to junior high. You know you're progressing normally, but it was so much more fun when you didn't really have to be independent, and the work wasn't especially challenging, and you got to go to recess every day...

Day 9: So fresh and so clean... clean

Today was pretty good, as far as days recovering from surgery go. Tonight was the first time I felt like I could shower without any in-house supervision (although I did text Jared "come help if I don't text back in 30m"). AND I even felt like shaving my legs... so I think that's good news about my gradual return to the land of the living.

The worst part about showering is that my cheeks are still numb from just above my jaw line to about the middle of my eyeballs. "The middle of my eyeballs?" you ask - that's weird of you to know BUT I know that because I can feel my top eyelids, but not the bottom ones. So, washing my face is difficult, because I don't want to press to hard and squish my eyeballs, but I also don't want to get soap in my eyes, like I did last time, so... it's a delicate balance. But so far, no squished eyeballs, so I think that's the most important part.

Also, I ate spaghetti today! And paid dearly, but that's besides the point. When you can't eat anything you want to eat, it is basically all you can think about. So since like, Saturday, I guess, when I started feeling better, I have been thinking non-stop about several food items that I cannot wait to eat again. After I get full use of my jaw again I'm probably going to gain, like, 15 pounds, and contrary to what I read, I don't think I've lost more than maybe 5 pounds since I've had the surgery.  So anyway, I've been missing chips, and sweet stuff, and the biggest one, spaghetti, because spaghetti is pretty much my favorite food.  Well, today, Jared was at work, and I caved. I called Mangia and had them deliver spaghetti, and then I cut it up into a billion little pieces and tried to eat it while chewing as little as possible. But in the end, it made my jaw hurt really bad, and I had to take 2 ibuprofen and pass out with the heating pad on my face as soon as I was done, but I had my spaghetti.

I didn't do very much work today, after yesterday I figured I should take it easy. My boss was really nice about it (and I don't think they have this blog address, so I'm not sucking up). She even offered to move some stuff to next week that's actually time-sensitive, but I had already set it up before I left, so that was good. They've been really nice about the whole thing, about me being out of the office for so long, so that's been a real blessing.

Day 8: Too Much, Too Soon

Day 8 was a lot better in terms of pain and sleeping. I'm only taking Ibuprofen now for a little bit of pain, the only thing that sucks is that I have to wear all these bands (I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I have 3 rubber bands across 10 of my teeth that holds my mouth together in the right position. Kind of like being wired shut, except not really), and they hold my mouth shut, but my nose is really stopped up (I'm not allowed to blow it so I don't burst a blood vessel), so breathing has turned into kind of a chore. There's a picture of me, working away at my little work station. (that's a tissue in my nose to keep it from running constantly, Jared thought that was just hilarious and had to take a picture)

Also, the pictures make the bruising look way worse than it does in person, just so the cyberland viewers are aware. You can see it if you look for it, but it's not as dominant as in these pictures. The bruising on my neck is a mystery, we haven't been able to figure out why that might be there.

Good news: I can take off almost all of the bands to eat, so I've gained a little more flexibility with that. I was starting to feel like The Beast in Beauty in the Beast - you know that scene where they eat oatmeal?


Warning: This rest of this entry has some pretty... personal stuff in it, although I've tried to make it the least amount of gross as possible.

Yesterday, I was really feeling good. It had been over a week, and I was eating pretty well. We had an AM appointment with Dr. Voorhees and he said everything looked perfect, and then gave me the authority to change my bands.

So, anyway, because I took so much time off of work from the surgery, and because it's not like my work is super stressful, as soon as I got home from my appointment I started in on some work. And actually worked until almost 5:30 just fine, everything was great.

Now, I'm going to give a warning to people to whom I'm not especially close with who may be reading this blog: this next part is probably more personal than we'd ever talk about in person, so if you don't want to hear about pretty intimate stuff, just stop now and enjoy the rest of your Thursday.

Okay, well, one of the side effects of a major surgery and anesthesia is a lag in... the last part of your digestive system. It's pretty normal and expected. Well, we thought I was okay because I had used the restroom on Friday, but then not again after that. But, chalk it up to not eating as much as I normally do, and the fact that I was peeing a lot, and we weren't worried.

Well, yesterday, my intestines started hurting a lot. Like, really bad. Okay, went to the bathroom, great, everything's fine. Well, 20 minutes later, they started cramping really badly again. I went into the bathroom and it just escalated so quickly. I called for Jared and to bring me something to throw up in because I thought I was going to be sick it hurt so bad, and then, I started experiencing what, to me (a classic hypochondriac), a seizure. I fell backwards, my eyes were all fluttery, I was really cold but sweaty, I couldn't move, and according to Jared at one point I lost consciousness and got really pale and stopped breathing. He says to him it felt like almost a minute, but it was probably less.

So, I wake up, and I have no idea what to do or think. Bear in mind that I am on all sorts of different medications, pain and otherwise, for this surgery, I have my anxiety, and I had also been taking Darvocet, which was recently banned by the FDA. So, all this is flashing through my mind when Jared asked if he should call 911. I said yes. [Lucky that this happened yesterday and not today because 8/31 just happened to be the last day of the fiscal year for my health plan, which was already maxed out, we realized later]

Well, the paramedics came and they were really nice, and they ran a bunch of tests. My CO2 level, which is normally supposed to be between 35 and 40 was at 21, which he said was probably just due to my anxiety and hyperventilating over the situation. In the meantime, Jared wanders back into the bathroom, and apparently I had gone again (I don't remember), and it's a lot. I ended up going to the bathroom one more time that night, so we're pretty sure about what happened - vasovagal syncope.

Basically, it had been so long since I had gone to the bathroom, and I was eating so well, that everything was just hanging out in there, until it couldn't any more. We talked to the on-call doctor on my case, Dr. Kern - he visited me twice in the hospital, too - and he concurred with the assessment that the EMS guys had made, that this was what had happened. Apparently, the pain medication that I had taken - because I won't take codine, hydrocodone, or valium - is an opiate derivative, which is notorious for that same side effect as anesthesia, which I mentioned earlier. The craziest part is that Dr. Kern said that sometimes older people can actually die when this happens, because it stops your heart.

But, all's well that ends well, so everybody's good now, and I'm taking it easy today, and drinking a lot of water.