X-rays-Pre and Post Op

My orthodontist finally loaded the x-rays taken last week to my online account so now you can see the difference in my bite that the surgery created. On the top is my x-ray one week before surgery. You can really see my overbite on that one. On the bottom is the x-ray from a week after the surgery. A few things to note: obviously the pins in my jaw. When I blew up the photo it looked like there were 6 pins in my jaw and I believe there are 3 on each side of the jaw. Another thing is that my bite is now aligned and if you look at the curve of my chin (not the bones but the soft tissue) you will see that the curve/depression is much less severe in the post-op x-ray. It is a subtle change that is probably not detectable by anyone but my surgeon, but an improvement nonetheless.

Back to work

One positive thing about the surgeon's visit yesterday was that he said I could go back to work. I am very excited about this because even though I was only working from home for about 6 days, I was starting to really get sick of having no interaction with any other human beings everyday save for the contractors working on the bathroom (them and my cats, of course). I hated being inside and having to communicate everything over email and using the remote desktop system our work has set up because it is painfully slow and tends to go down quite frequently. I had taken to emailing all the documents I needed to my personal account so I could avoid working on the remote desktop but it was really tedious and I was constantly having to flip back and forth between my home desktop and the remote desktop in order to find documents and files. I know a good deal of people who work from home, but I honestly cannot see how they do it without going absolutely insane. In the same way you sometimes get sick of your office or you dread going into work, I was starting to get kind of sick of my own house. By the time Jonathan came home every night I was climbing the walls wanting to just get out of the house, even if it was only to go to the gym. This was actually kind of a good thing for us because we started doing things we usually don't do during weekday evenings, like going out to the movies. In the past 2 weeks we have gone out to see 4 movies (Inglorious Basterds, Time Travelers Wife, In the Loop, and the Hurt Locker) and it has been really great and I hope it is something that we can keep up even though I am returning to work.

Post-op surgeon visit #2

Actually it is my third appointment with the surgeon since my surgery because I had to go in when I had that infection, but it was my second scheduled visit. During me first visit the surgeon told me that during this appointment they would teach me how to take the bands that are holding my jaw/teeth together. I was super excited about this because that would mean I would get to use a spoon and my tongue and could eat some soft foods. Wednesday night is Jonathan and my wedding anniversary and I was excited that we would be able to go out to eat. I had it all planned out, we would go to Al Forno and I would order gnocchi and soup and I would feel full and satisfied.

At the appointment the surgeon said everything looked great, but that he did not want me taking the bands off just yet. So now I have to wait until Thursday until I will be able to put a spoon in my mouth and try eating soft foods. I am really bummed and disappointed but I guess it is only 3 more days. Looks like on our anniversary I will be eating cake blenderized into a milkshake.

Even more than the food, however, I was looking forward to being able to brush the insides of my teeth and my tongue for the first time in 2 weeks. I can only imagine how good it is going to feel when I can finally open my mouth and put a tooth brush inside and get my mouth and teeth super clean.

Post-op orthodontic appointment #1

Yesterday was my first post-op appointment with my orthodontist. They took some x-rays which I will post as soon as they are loaded into my online account, but other than that nothing really to report. My orthodontist (who actually had the same surgery herself 10 years ago) told me that the numbness in my lip and chin could take up to 6 months to subside and that she still has a tiny spot on her face that failed to regain feeling. She also told me that I should be eating solid food again in about 3 weeks. We took a look at the x-rays and did a side by side with the pre-surgery x-rays. My bite looks almost perfect and she showed me how repositioning the bones will end up giving me a much nicer shape to my chin in the long-term.

One thing I did not know is that there is actually more than 1 screw on each side of my jaw. There appear to be three on the right side and I can only imagine a similar number on the left. Someone asked me the other day what the actual surgery was and instead of trying to explain it I have put a picture above. (I had the mandibular saggital split only, not a lefort osteotomy or a genioplasty). They essentially split the lower jaw right near where your wisdom teeth are (or should be), advance the jaw and then fix the bone in the proper position with screws. The only cuts that are made are tiny incisions on the jawline.

Other than that, not much else. The infection seems to be clearing up and the swelling has gone way down. I have an appointment with the surgeon on Monday and am going to ask him if it will be okay for me to go back to work sometime this coming week.

Infection and a needle to the jaw--Make that 2 needles to the jaw

If you looked closely at yesterday's pics you could probably see that the left hand side of my face was much more swollen than the right. Or perhaps it isn't as noticeable as I think and since the profile pictures are of the right hand side of my face it may have appeared that most of my swelling was gone. Regardless, I woke up this morning and the left hand side of my face was very swollen and the right was not swollen at all. The doctor had told my that asymmetric swelling is typically a sign of infection and coupled with the fact that I had those fevers the other night and pain in my jaw and cheekbone two evenings ago I suspected I had an infection. Additionally, that side of my face felt very hard and the doctor has said that the jaw area should be fairly soft. I was thinking I might wait till tomorrow when I went to the orthodontist to see what she thought before I called the surgeon, but the shooting pain in that side of my face returned and they told me to come in and have it checked out.

When I got to the surgeon they took me right in to one of the exam rooms. Since I had my surgery that do not make me wait in the waiting area when I arrive because they said they did not want me to feel uncomfortable about other patients staring at my face, but I also imagine it is to prevent other patients from seeing me, freaking out and thinking poorly of the surgeon. I made a joke to Jonathan that I should go in to the waiting area and when a person stares at me I should point to my face and say 'Botched botox job' because there are many patients there simply to get their botox injections.

Anyway, the surgeon came in to see me and agreed that this looked like an infection. Then he turned to the nurse and said 'You know what, I think we should drain it". I am no doctor but I knew that meant only one thing, needles to the face. Since we all know what a great fan of needles I am (you know, almost passing out from getting my blood drawn and all) I instantly felt sick to my stomach but tried to play it cool and keep a positive attitude. They cleaned my face and the doctor stuck a needle right into my jaw. It was excruciatingly painful but I did not cry or pass out or even make a noise and the surgeon kept asking me if I was in pain and I said a little but not too bad. I was so relieved when he finally took the needle which was filled with pus and blood out (more pus than blood) and congratulated myself on being such a hard-ass. Then he said "I am going to do that one more time" and I thought I was going to pass out right there. The second needle hurt so much more than the first but I took really deep breathes and closed my eyes and was able to stop the tears from coming.

He gave me a prescription of another antibacterial drug and told me to get it filled and begin taking it immediately. I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but since I am allergic to penicillin, I was taking Cleocin after I had the surgery. Cleocin comes in liquid form, this is the one that smells and tastes like cat litter and that I had gotten so used to chasing with chocolate milkshakes. Apparently outside of cleocin and penicillin, there are not any other antibacterial medications that come in liquid form, so he wrote me a prescription for the drug Avelox and told me to crush the pills and mix them with my food. This sounded reasonable and a nice alternative to drinking that cat litter. Well, its not much better. Instead of cat litter, crushed Avelox, even in a milkshake tastes metallic but the worst part is that the taste stays in your mouth even after you eat and brush. 3 hours after I took the meds I could still taste them in my mouth. Luckily I only need to take it once a day so that is a plus.

The surgeon said to call over the weekend if the swelling got any worse, told me to come back on Monday and sent me on my way.

After I left the office I had pretty bad pain in my face, so bad that I started crying while driving home. I went and got my prescription filled, came home, crushed my pill and mixed it with milkshake, gave in and took some of the pain medication and got into bed. A little sleep (and the pain meds) helped a bit and now when I look in the mirror my face looks a little less swollen, but not much.

I was thinking that since I am now a week out, I would only do pictures on a weekly basis, but I think this warrants a picture so you can see what the swelling and infection look like.

I am in heaven

After a quick 2 mile walk on the treadmill this evening, Jonathan and I headed over to Gracies for dinner. I have been feeling bad about the fact that Jonathan hasn't been out to eat in over a week and knowing that is his favorite thing in the world to do, I suggested we have a little date night. When I was getting dressed I began to realize just how skinny I had gotten. We do not have a full length mirror in the house and since I have been wearing only running shorts or sweats around the house I had really been unable to really gauge what the weight loss had done to my body. I put my skinny jeans on and they were quite a bit baggy in the waist, the butt and in my thighs.

Luckily, this evening I really pigged out and should be regaining those pounds very shortly. I 'ate' cucumber soup, native corn soup and some strawberry lemonade. And the it was time for dessert. Joe sent out the most unreal and delicious liquid dessert. Essentially it looked like a huge milkshake and it had caramel on the bottom, a layer of creme brulee and was topped off by this chocolate milkshake tart concoction (with cream of course!). I think I polished it off in less than a minute. Needless to say I was in heaven. If my pants had fit like they were supposed to I may have had to unbutton my top button to prevent my stomach from hanging out over my pants.

Okay, here are the pics for today. The left hand side of my face is now more swollen than the right, but the bruising is going away. The chin is looking pretty good in the profile.