DAY 5 POST OP

Today things continues to look up, I didn't really experience pain today, besides the of ache here and there. I decided to try opening my mouth a little more because the surgeon said that the elastics should stretch and loosen after a few days, although this resulted in a sharp pain in my lower jaw with every attempt so I've decided not to push it and just wait for my appointment on Wednesday, but I have been able to open my mouth about 1mm. I'm still having trouble taking medication, another capsule got stuck in my teeth today which causes me to freak out and try to pry my teeth open to get it in. My swelling has continued to go down but the bruising has definately come up and has become very obvious. My neck has become very sore but I don't think it has to do directly with the surgery, I'm not really sure why I have it but I think it could be due to muscles asjusting to the new jaw position and also because I can't open my mouth so when I cough (which has been often) I have to hold back which would be causing the muscles to sieze up. two things that I have found a bit annoying and a bit gross is the drooling that I don't notice untill too late, this has only really started today, and bieng unable to brush the back of my teeth and tounge, I feel so dirty because I usually spend a good 10 minutes brushing my teeth. So all up I am feeling pretty good, and feel a sense of normality returning :)

DAY 4 POST OP

Things are starting to look up, I'm in a far better mood today than yesterday. I woke up this morning feeling a bit groggy because of the pain killers, but the pain has decreased a little and paracetamol is enough to make it bareable. Food is still an issue for me, the types of foods that I can have is restricted to soup, milkshakes, fruit purée and yogurt and it is just soo boring, it's not that I no longer like it I'm just over it, let's just say that I'm never going to be picky again!!! My swelling has decreased quite a bit, there is still quite alot but compared to what I had I feel a little more normal now. I have started getting some bruising on my lower cheeks, and although it looks horrible it is meant to be a sign of healing. One other thing I didn't think of pre surgery is how dirty the back of my teeth will feel, not bieng able to brush certain places has left me feeling pretty grotty. So I feel now like I have gotten over the hard part of the recovery and it is starting to get easier, but we'll see how things go, but I'm definately don't feel the regret and depression I was feeling earlier this week,now I'm just excited to see the final results once this swelling finally goes

DAY 3 POST OP

The hunger has been setting in, and to make up harder my family had a barbecue while I enjoyed soup, alll I want is something solid, I have seriously dreamt about eating something solid. The obsticle that I have been facing lately is taking my medication, my antibiotics and anti-inflammatory are in capsule form, I can just manage to get the capsules through the gap between my wide teeth, but as that gap is closing the capsules are getting more difficult to get through, and they keep getting stuck between the elastics resulting in me freaking out and my jaw gets alot of pain. This led to a small breakdown in the night where I just felt like it was getting too hard, and I just wanted to give up, although that's not really an option, so I ended up going to bed and although I woke a few times having another sook because I was soo exhausted, I eventually got the sleep I needed. I have had a weird sensation in my right side whenever I swallow, it feels like a worm wriggling, it's the weirdest sensation, so my dad called up the surgeon, I felt kind of bad for bothering him on the weekend, but he got back to me and said that the feeling was because of the swelling occuring between the muscle and jaw bone, so when I swollow I'm feeling the movement of fluid, he said that this is very normal. I also weighed myself today and I've lost 3kg (6 pounds) already, although im not too worried as I tend to loose weight quickly but put it back on just as quickly. The last few days have been pretty hard, and although my teeth alignment looks amazing I have been wondering whether its worth it, but apparrntly that's normal, so I'll just have to give myself a little longer to deal with and adjust to my new face.

DAY 2 POST OP

I woke up today feeling much better then the day before and things were looking up, I had almost no pain beside a very small ache, and I was a little more mobile without getting dizzy. My swelling did increase this day particularly around my lip so this made eating an even greater challenge, and on top of that the want for solid chewy food kicked in and I was amazed at how much of what is on tv is food related. I took my pain killers later which double as a muscle relaxant, which made me feel better because I keep getting a wired sensation on my right side which I need to ask my surgeon about, this makes me go to sleep almost immediately. when I woke up about an hour later I was starting to develop a very chesty cough which Is making it a little difficult to breathe, I'm pretty sure that I have gotten a chest infection from someone, perfect timing right? this has kept me awake alot of the night I woke up about 5 times with coughing fits which causes pain in my jaw. It is now the morning on day 3 and I'm feeling pretty crappy with a lack of sleep so if I sound a little down its because of my lack of sleep, I'm so tierd! so anyone up for surgery make sure you keep away from sick people as it is the worst feeling in the world to be sick after jaw surgery

RECAP OF SURGERY DAY AND ONE DAY POST OP

so i'll etarts at the begining.... I arrived at the hospital at 12:30, only to wait an hour and a half to actually get the pre op prepeperation started and it was the longest hour and a half of my life. I was eventuallu called up and taken into a room where I was asked a bunch of questions and a nurse took my blood pressure and pulse rate, she then put numbing cream on the back of my hand and the inside of my arm. She then gave me a robe to change into and I was walked to the waiting room, eventually another nurse came and I said goodbye to my mum and I was taken to another room, which is when i really started freaking out, i was almost in tears and although i thought i held it together pretty well, i'm pretty sure the surgeon could tell because my eyes where a bit red. Then the anaesthesiologist came in and placed the iv needle in, and marked where he would put another needle I can't remember what it was called but he said that it would be placed when I was asleep as it can be quite uncomfortable. I was then left for about 5 minutes and wheeled into the operating room, where I jumped onto the operating table. I was given oxygen which made me feel like the room was spinning, and I then remeber the anaesthesiologist telling me that he would be giving me the anesthetisier to which I was then asleep within minutes. The next thing I know I'm in the recovery room, and there were a few nurses around me as my pulse was racing a bit, after a while It calmed down and although I was still a little out of it I remember my mum and family friend coming in to see me and then bieng wheeled into my own room, where I spent a while sleeping, after a bit I properly woke up and I got up to go to the bathroom. My mum left at about 8 and I went back to sleep and was woken about 10:30 to have my bloods pressure and heart rate to be checked, upon waking up I was in a bit of pain and they gave me some liquid paracetamol, and I went back to sleep i then woke up at around 2, where they checked on me again, this time I was in quite abit of pain and almost all of the numbness that I was had worn off, the only part that is still numb is my bottom lip and chin. the nurse that I had got me some stronger pain killers, morphine, and that allowed me to sleep to the morning.

At 6:30am I was woken up and checked on, he checked how much morphine I had used and after that my parents turned up and kept me company. The surgeon came in to check on me, and said that the surgery had gone well, that the jaw surgery had actually taken less time then the wisdom teeth removal, he told me to try to have something to eat and came back a few hours later, I'm pretty sure that he had another surgery in this time, he then came back at about 11 and checked how I was going, he loosened the elastics a little and was a little surprised at how much swelling I had on my right side. But he said that there shouldnt bee much more swelling then what I had, he got me sone ice to help bring it down and said that I could leave when I was ready. I left about 45 minutes later. Once I got home I went to bed and had a rest, this first day was definately quite hard, I was figuring out how to talk, drink, eat and take my medication with the swelling and elastics, I still experience a bit of pain when eating and taking medication. My medication is in pill form so I have to try and force my mouth open, to fit the pills in, that causes the most pain. I contintued to use constant ice while at home and that bought my swelling down a bit and helped with the pain I was experiencing.
just a quick tip for anyone who is about to go through with this remember lip balm as your lips become quite sore and dry from the constant rubbing and lack of moisture.

sorry for the really long post, I kind of Left everything after surgery, I have been very tierd and work out, it takes alot out of you but I'm now on day 2 post op and I'm feeling much better after a good nights rest.

and sorry for spelling mistakes I'm on my phone, I'll fix it up once I get the computer in working :)

DAY AFTER

ill do a more informative post once I'm feeling more up to, but just though I would let everyone know that it went well my surgeon said the jaw surgery went great, although my wisdom teeth were more difficult taking longer than the jaw surgery and I think that is what is causing the mpet pain. my right cheek is incredibly swollen although mug left cheek is no were near as bad. my surgeon predicted that the surgery would tal1 and a half hours to 2 hours but I was awake within 1 and half so it was shorter than expected. right know my biggest problem is eating as I am banded shut but he said they would loosen within 24 hours, and also I am in quite a bit of pain but bieng at hone now makes it a little easier

SURGERY TOMORROW!!

So the big day is tomorrow, and the nerves are definitely kicking in. which is really confusing since i have spent the last year counting down and being excited for the day and now i get super nervous, but i trust my surgeon so it should be all good.On Friday I got a call from the anesthetist and he told me that i actually need to be at the hospital at 12:30 and not 2, there is no eating after midnight tonight, and just gave a quick run through of everything that would happen. Today I had to go back to the orthodontist as one of the surgical hooks had become loose and he just tightened it, it was so short it kind of felt like a waste of an appointment haha. and this is the part that i have been dreading, the pre-op pictures, I really hate having m,y picture taken and i particularly hate my picture being on display. I considered not doing it but i figured that they are pretty important for caparison, so I'll do it for the sake of the blog ;)
Profile shot:

Profile shot forcing mouth closed:

gap:

X-Rays: (sorry, not the best quality)

More X-Rays, as you can see my wisdom teeth are near the surface, they are coming out tomorrow also:

So I'll update as soon as possible, although it may not be for a few days but we'll see. Wish me luck!!! and goodd luck to everyone else who is having their surgery! :)

6 DAYS PRE-SURGERY

So there is only 6 days left!! and i seriously cannot believe how quick it has come, I went on a holiday last week and that definitely helped get my mind off of it, although this week it is all i can think about, i feel like i need to know everything, and that i don't know enough. But i have less then a week to get on top of it ;). So this week so far has been jam packed with appointments, starting on Tuesday with X-rays which is pretty straight forward.

Then yesterday, Wednesday, and I got my surgical hooks put on. I must say they are incredibly annoying i feel like i have food in my braces and makes my mouth feel weird so i don't close my mouth properly causing me to drool quite a bit more than usual, its a bit embarrassing. My teeth are a little sore but my teeth are pretty sensitive, it just feels like they were tightened. I'm going to start using wax to hep that though.

Today i had my last pre-op appointment with my surgeon, and he just answered my questions, showed me the molds, what my bite looks like now and what it will look like after surgery. He also had a quick look at my x-rays and he said that that i would definately be getting just a lower advancement and that my chin was perfect the way it is, not needing anything done to it. these were my questions that i asked and his answered, shortened a little.

1. I grind my teeth when i sleep, will that be a problem?
   he said that after surgery my muscles will be pretty weak, therefore it is not going to affect anything post surgery, he also said that i could be grinding my teeth due to my bad bite, my jaw my be grinding my teeth in order to get a better fit, so the surgery could also help this.
2. what kind of diet will i have?
   I will be on a diet of liquid, puree, and mush, he suad eggs was really good for the first 2 weeks and then if all goes well i will be able to begin chewing soft things such as fish, and meats that have a lot of gravy, vegetable and so on, this is good because i may be able to eat some things on Christmas dayy :)
3. brushing my teeth after surgery?
   he said that i should brush like normal, he will give me a bag of stuff for after surgery, he did say that i wont be able to open my mouth much which would make it difficult to brush behind my teeth, although with the diet i will be on he said that it wouldn't be much of an issue.
4. how long will the surgery last?
   1.5 to 2 hours

FIRST PRE-OP APPOINTMENT

and it was a tad anticlimactic, although i don't know what i was expecting from a surgeons appointment, i guess i was just a little excited to get the ball rolling and head toward my surgery.
The day started off very stressful, as we got stuck in traffic for an hour, luckily we left a little early. but i had the appointment and my surgeon took us into his office and asked if we had any questions and went through everything that was going on, once that was done he did molds which as a majority of you would know is quite horrible. It was really embarrassing for 2 reasons,
 1. when he was doing the molds on my upper teeth i was so focused on breathing through my nose so i dont gag that i didn't realise that i was sort of biting his fingers a little, he didn't say anything so he is either used to it or hopefully it wasn't hard haha
2. after i had the molds done i had to walk though the main office to the bathroom, and it was not untill i got the the bathroom that i realized that my face was absolutely covered in bright yellow mold bits, which i had thought i had gotten rid of.
but other then that not alot happen, he had a look at my teeth and my bite and he said that my lower jaw was also off to the left, which he would also correct during surgery, but he didnt seem worried about it, so im sure its not too much of a problem. i have my next appointment in 2 weeks where he will show me my molds and go through what will happen, and what my bite will look like, and also look at the x-rays which i have to go get done. I am a little worried about finding out about some kind of complication durng this appointment, im not sure why, or what kind of problem, but my teeth have made a habit of not bieng easier.
I'll update in 2 weeks :)

AND THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

So there is just over a month to go until the big day, and it is just dooming on me how soon it is. 5 months ago I found out my surgery date, and posted being so excited. So in one month and 4 days, my surgery will have just finished and i will be in recovery, the day that i have been waiting for will be at an end, and now is the time that my posts will come more often. Although i don't have as many appointments as I though i would, my first appointment is on the 25th of November with my surgeon, which i have to get up at 6:30 to go to, then I have 2 other appointments on the 7th and 8th of December.
I have also found out what time I have to be at the hospital, 2pm! and i realise that it may not seem bad, some people have to be there at 5:30 in the morning, but i would must prefer that. How am i going to go without food for that long, since i have to be there at 2 i'd assume that the actual surgery wouldn't start for at least 1 or 2 hours after this, the most i can have is 2 slices toast before 7:30am, that's 8 hours without food! and right now you are probably thinking 'how the hell are you going to go with eating after surgery,'  and trust me this is a big concern for me haha But i guess i'll find some way to survive ;)
Anyway ill keep everyone updated, Exams finish next week so i can start actually preparing :D