Post Op & Braces Off!!

Well I am happy to report that my SARPE journey has finally come to an end! It has officially been 30 months since the very start of my journey and I cannot wait to show you the results! But first I need to update you all on what happened with my last jaw surgery back in July 2014.

The morning of my surgery was pretty good, I wasn't as nervous as I thought I was going to be although I can't say I wasn't completely calm. Just a few minutes before surgery my surgeon came to talk to me and said that he forgot to call me the night before and offer to me to have my chin spliced and moved out 2mm as with his measurements he felt that it would just round out my face a little better. He gave me a whopping 5 minutes to make the decision but when we asked if there would be an additional cost he said "yes, another $1200" on top of the $3100 that I already had to pay. We decided that 2mm of movement was not worth the extra pain and money so I declined doing my chin. They wheeled me into the operating room and I was out like a light in no time. Surgery took 6 hours and then I was in recovery for another 2 hours where the first thing I remember waking up to is the person in the bed beside me barfing. Luckily the anesthesia doesn't have that effect on me but just the sound of someone else yacking made me want to yack. However that was not much of an option for me as my jaw was wired shut.

Waiting for surgery

After surgery when my husband got there

 I finally got to my overnight room around 8:30pm and I was there for about 45 minutes just to find out that none of the nurses had called my husband to let him know that my surgery was done and that I was ok. I could not talk to communicate with the nurse so I motioned for a pen to ask her where my husband was. They had a shift change at 7 pm and of course no one thought it would be a good idea to let my loved ones know I was ok. I was in a lot of pain at this point and I could not talk and all I wanted was for my husband to be by my side. So finally they called him and he was able to make it to the hospital by around 9:45pm. At this point I already knew I hated the nurse that was assigned to me. She kicked out my husband at 11;30 claiming that he was not allowed to stay with me through the night and that their policy said he can come back at 7 the next morning however we learned the next day this was not the case. At this point, I was in a ton of pain, tears rolled down my eyes and I could not communicate without writing anything down. She kept scolding me to stop writing and to start talking to communicate. I absolutely could not no matter how hard I tried. My jaw was wired shut for one and secondly the swelling was getting worse every minute. At this point she refused to give me any pain medication. I did not have any pain control from 7 pm right before the nurse shift change to 7am the next morning. I obviously did not sleep at all and I had to keep begging for more meds and more ice packs . At one point in the night the nurse disappeared for over an hour and a half as I was pushing the button every 5 minutes needing help. She finally came back in told me I'm fine and then left again. All I could was sit and wait for the morning to come when shift change happened and my husband could battle for me. 

Shift change finally came and the nurse that took over was very apologetic and gave me some pain relief. Shortly after 8 my husband came in and not long after that my surgeon came by to check on me. I was able to write down what had happened and he was furious. He went out to find the nurse but of course she had already gone home for the day so he raised his concern to the head nurse. I was given a number to call to submit a complaint as soon as I got home. At this point my surgeon informed me that he had moved my top jaw up 5mm so that my gummy smile would not be as prominent and he also cut the two bottom bones on either side of my lower jaw and extended them out to help with better alignment of my teeth. In total, I had 7 plates and 29 screws between both up and lower jaws. I was able to go home later that afternoon to start my recovery.

Morning after in hospital

Going home

Being home was a huge relief however the look on my sons faces were priceless. They were extremely worried about me and I was so swollen it kind of scared my 3 year old. The worst part about recovery was not just having to be on a liquid diet but the worst part was not being able to breath very well. I literally felt like I was breathing through a straw for a few weeks. I am not normally an anxious person but not being able to breathe made me extremely anxious.I was not able to sleep very well as I would wake up and try to gasp for air and it wasn't possible. For the most part my lips were completely swollen shut so in order for me to eat/drink I had to put the syringe tube through my lips and slide along the side of my cheek to the back of my mouth and then slowly squeeze the water into my mouth to swallow. It was extremely difficult to get used to swallowing without being able to move your jaw. Not only was the swelling attractive, I also had no feeling in  my lips so my saliva literally would just fall out of my mouth. I had to keep a towel with me at all times and basically just let it wick up my spit for at least two weeks. I lost 6 pounds in 6 days and in total I was down 18 pounds in the 6 weeks of recovery. I had very frequent nose bleeds for the first 3 weeks and then they eventually stopped. I was told to use gentle nose sprays and keep a humidifier beside me while I slept. That was really the only way I was able to breath properly without feeling like I was going to suffocate.

Swelling Day 3

Swelling Day 4

After one week I had my surgical checkup and it was one that I will never forget. So I had been wired shut for that first week and at the surgical checkup they were trying to remove them so that I could get some looser elastics put in and to allow my jaw to have a little more movement and so that I could try to "brush" my teeth. The assistant that was taking these out had no problems on the left side of my face however when she got the the right side she was struggling and in the event she ended up stabbing my gum/cheek and hitting a nerve which put my chin muscles into spasms and it hurt so bad my reflex was to jump forward all I could do was cry in agony. I was hyperventilating which I've never done before, the doctor ran in and kicked the assistant out and tried to calm me down. Another assistant came in and put some ice on my jaw and eventually the muscles/nerves stopped spazzing and I was able to calm down and get my x-rays. The surgeon was successfully able to get the right side loosened without any extra pain and I was finally able to brush my teeth. He assured me it was normal and that all the pain sensors in my face were very raw and that it would get better over time. The top of my pallet was completely numb and I had a splint up there that actually had wires sticking through  my gums to hold my jaw in place. This was to be removed at my 6 week checkup.

Bruising

Elastics also from fang to back molars on both sides

Front teeth elastics to keep alignment

So after the second torture session I was able to go home to keep up my recovery. The nice thing was that I was allowed to remove these elastics whenever I ate lunch which consisted of mostly Boost and vitamin water for quite a few weeks. By week two I ended up with an infection in the bottom left side incision which was not fun. Swelling at this point had just started to go back down but with the infection the left cheek got huge again so I had to go back to the surgeons office for a checkup. He prescribed me some antibiotics and off I went.

Left side swelling started to come back

I have to say by week 4, the liquid diet only was getting extremely old and I remember standing in front of my pantry just wanting to eat everything that I couldn't. I could not wait to get my hands on a cookie or granola bar and for that matter even fruits and veggies!!  The recovery was very mentally and physically taxing. Not to mention that just 5 weeks before this jaw surgery I also had a laproscopic surgery to help remove some of the tissues that had grown in my lower abdomin which was confirmed to be Endometriosis. However that's a whole other story for another day but at this point I was just ready to be back to normal again.

These coiled wires are the splint wires through my gums (5 total)

Finally the 6 week mark came and I went back to the surgeons office to get my splint removed. Because the splint was wired through my gums, he had to temporarily freeze my mouth with a mouth wash that I had to swish around for a minute. The removal of the splint didn't necessarily hurt per-say, although it did not feel great either. I could feel the sensation of the wires sliding out of my gums but no real pain. Afterwards the gums were pretty swollen but it didn't last very long. I had to immediately go over to my orthodontists office next door to have a palatal retainer put in to replace the splint which was supposed to keep my jaw from moving and allow to heal over the next 6 months. After the retainer was put in I was given a new set of elastics which were a lot of more forgiving then the set I had been given at the 1 weeks post op and I had to wear those for 3 months. After the 4 1/2 month post op I was able to stop wearing the elastics and had to wait an extra 2 more months to get the upper palatal retainer out. January 16th I was able to get the retainer out and then FINALLY Feb.17th, 2015 my braces came off!

No more braces!!!

 The same day the braces came off, they put wires on the inner side behind my top two teeth and bottom 6 teeth to make sure there is no movement back to where things were before. I had to get some molds done of my teeth to get some clear retainers which I had to come back later that day to pick up. I wore the top retainer 24/7 except to eat and the bottom one only at bedtime for the first 8 weeks. As of April 14, 2015 I only need to wear these retainers to bed and go back in 4 months to make sure there hasn't been any changes. I'm officially free!

Stay tuned for my next post to see the final before and after results!