Day 3

My memories of the days in the hotel room scroll through my brain like a late night movie. Much of the time it consisted of..."when do I get my next pain meds?"
My caring husband tenderly attended to all of my needs without any hesitation. When I was ready to eat some semi soft foods, he went out foraging for some instant cream of wheat. When I needed a decongestant, he scurried down to a local pharmacy to purchase some. He had to continually trudge up and down the stairs to fill the ice bucket with ice for my "jaw bra". I could not have done any of this with out his help and support. Thank you, Sweetie.

 These cute little flowers were in our room when we arrived. From my husband's co worker and his wife. My orthodontist had flowers sent also. I though that was extra special.

I had to use a syringe to get most of the sustenance I needed. This included meds, cream of wheat, smoothie, water. All of it had to be given through a small syringe. I wished I would've had a bigger one, but we did fine with the one we had. I was able to eat applesauce with a spoon. I had to crush pills and take them with the applesauce, YUCK. I never knew that Aleve and Sudafed did not come in liquid form.
 I slept in an upright sitting position with lots of pillows and an airline neck pillow for support. We brought along a boxful of post surgical supplies, such as drool cloths, Ocean saline nasal spray, a small portable Humidifier, a small blender, suction bulb and a bunch of other much needed items. So we just pressed on through until it was time to head home.

I look pretty miserable in these pics.
We stayed at the hotel for 2 days. Mostly I just laid there with ice on my face only getting up and down to use the bathroom facilities. I took a shower right away, being careful not to get my sutures wet.

I am going to my first post op appointment in these photos. We walked the 3 blocks to the Dr. office. I got a lot of weird looks from people on the street, but I didn't give it much thought.

Dr. says every thing looks great. During surgery, he had put in a bite splint to help support my new upper palate until it heals. He removed my bite splint and showed it to me. I had no idea it was even in there! It looks just like a retainer. I have to wear it for 10 weeks but I can take it out to eat.

I feel fortunate that I had such a wonderful surgical experience. I have read LOTS of other jaw surgery stories on the blogs and some of the things people have gone through have been pretty horrific. I had minimal bleeding, virtually no bloody noses, no problems with breathing or swallowing. When my surgeon asked me if I had encountered anything that I didn't feel prepared for I had to honestly say NO. I felt like everything went along just as he said it would. Truly, this surgeon is the most experienced physician that I have ever had. I would highly recommend him to anyone.

Day 2

 The video that I posted on yesterday's entry was actually taken on the second day. I am writing this blog days later, so don't think I am feeling so well that I am able to do all of this writing!!
Drooling like Tilly. She is my old black lab. Tilly is always willing to lay a wet slimy slobber on your pant leg or your lap if you're sitting down! (she seems to take such pleasure in it, I swear!)
The bandages that you see are the incisions on my outer jaw line that they use to place the  measuring rods. They had some self absorbing sutures and steri strips on them.












When it was time to leave the hospital, we made our way out to the rainy parking lot and headed back to the hotel for the remainder of our stay. We will hang out here at the Sorrento Inn until later in the week. The Inn is just 3 blocks from the Dr. office, so if we need him for anything we are very close.I have a post op appointment on Wednesday with the Dr.
We had a 20 min. drive, so I was pretty tired by the time we got back to the hotel. The staff at the hotel were so kind to me. I could just see the caring concern in each one of their eyes. They treated me with much comfort and gentility. Even if the Seahawks lost such an important game! Wasn't that just the worst ending EVER to a football game? It's all anyone talked about around here for days!

Surgery Day!

If you have a queasy stomach, you may not want to watch this. Not that it's gross, but someone suctions out my mouth about 5 secs into video. It just sounds kind of gross. At this point I felt fairly comfortable. Before surgery my biggest fear was having so much drainage and packing in my sinuses that I would not be able to breathe. I was pleased to find out that everything was just fine. I had blood drainng somewhat down my throat (at least it felt like it, who knows, with all the meds I had on board!) Me and morphine did not get along to well, so after a couple of tries ending in episodes of puking, we ended that relationship. Torodol and I did fine. I only had 4 doses during the 24 hours they had me in the short stay surgery unit. Took Zofran for the nausea, Oxycodone eilixir after I left the hospital.

 When I look back on these videos and photos, I am amazed at how cleaned up I am. I imagine there was a good deal of blood involved in this surgery, but the nurses had me extremely clean. Being an RN myself, I know good nursing when I see it. I had absolutely no signs of blood or anything, on  my gown, in my nose, though I did find a little in my hair, but way in the back!

My CNAs were fantastic. Ice around the clock, up and down for trips to the bathroom, my SCD's in place (AND turned on!), fresh water with syringe in it for drinking and another cupful for rinsing out my suction device that was pinned to my gown for my convenience. They really took good care of me. My husband was by my side the entire time. I felt a little bad for him having to sleep in that awful chair/cot thing, but he said it wasn't that bad. After all, hadn't he done this sort of thing with me 6 times already when I was having babies? True that. He's a good guy.

I had my mouth bound tightly together with elastic bands that the surgeon said he would remove when he comes in to check on  me. The video was taken after he removed the bands which allowed me to open my mouth like that. In the old days, when they moved the jaw forward they would use a bone graft taken from somewhere else on the body, usually the hip. This required them to wire the jaw shut until all of the bone fused together in a strong bond. Well, now they don''t use bone graft. They just use small surgical plates and screws to join the bone back together. This allows for the jaw to be used immediately and without fear of damage to the surgical site.
I began to use my white board to write a question for the Dr. and he told me to put it away and start to talk right away. Once the bands were off, he wanted me to eat some soft foods before I left the hospital to make sure that I could swallow properly.
Right out of the shoot, he wanted me to use my jaw and begin my healing journey. I liked that. I felt like I could be proactive and start exercising my new face into good working order.

I look just a little bit crazy here so I'm thinking it was the morphine. If anything negative I would say about the hospital stay, it would be that I wished I could've had something other than just Torodol. I know that I did get a few doses of Morphine, but I really could've used some OxyCodone or something while I was there. I had Oxy elixir waiting for me in the hotel room but that wasn't ordered by the dr. for me in the hospital, so they couldn't give me any. I went from 1 a.m. until about 9 a.m. without any pain meds. I also got a good IV push of Decadron (given VERY slowly diluted in 2 - 10 ml syringes of saline... Which still made me puke!)

Night before Surgery

When I went to Seattle for my pre op appointment in January, the CT machine, that the surgeon uses to determine how much and what kind of work he wants to do, was not working properly. I had only a couple of hours that day before my flight departed for home, so we had to come up with a plan to get the images he needed. The only alternative we had was to have me arrive the night before surgery to meet the Dr. at his office so he could get the image he needed. I thought, No big deal. We will still have plenty of time to go out to get one last delicious meal before it gets too late. Not actually how it all happened.

Now funny thing about all of this, my surgery was scheduled for the day after the Super Bowl. And the Seattle Seahawks were playing in said football game on that Sunday afternoon that we rolled into their lovely little city.
Well let me tell you, .EVERYBODY was watching the big game! The guys at the car rental agency, the concierge at the hotel, and of course the bar and lobby had the game on multiple TVs. Though it made for easy driving through town, most of the restaurants were jammed with fans watching their team. (We wound up eating our meal in the hotel bar/restaurant in order to avoid the huge crowds everywhere.)

Not sure whether the surgeon is a Seahawks fan or not, but all of this made it very inconvenient for the Dr. to meet me at a reasonable hour for to get the x ray. Apparently he did intend on watching the game, so we settled on a time of 8 p.m.

At one point while waiting outside of his office in the chilly night air, I wondered whether I could handle the anxiety of doing all of this when surgery is merely a few short hours away. I had a chill slither up my spine as I watched the hands on the clock swing past 8 o'clock and move towards the quarter past mark. What if he didn't show up? What if we are waiting in the wrong spot? I tortured myself with such silly fear.
Dr. showed up just a little late, but it was all good. His RN had to walk him through the process of taking an CT scan since he doesn't usually do them, but other than that, it was ok.
My last meal consisted of a Sorrento Inn hearty grass fed beef burger, fries and a cold IPA from Pike's Place Brewery. Yum.

 We took these in the surgeon's office while he was fiddling with his Xray machine

These are the last profile photos I have of my pre surgery face. In the morning it will be transformed into an image I have yet to see. I feel positive that I will be happy and fully satisfied with the results.
See you on the other side.

A few days before

Here are a few photos to show my facial structure before surgery.

Mandibular Advancement Surgery

Fast Forward a few months

So after 15 months in braces, all the experts agree that I am ready!!! Ready to have my face broken and rearranged. What a scary thought!! Who signed me up for this anyway???

Of course I have those fleeting thoughts from time to time, but truth be told, I am very excited to begin this portion of the journey. I have anticipated this surgery for many months now. I have done hours of research on just what the surgeon would like to do and how that will affect my goal towards a happy mouth.

Seattle is a lovely town, but I am afraid that the memories that I will be making here will not be the most pleasant.
I do try to mix business with fun while I am up there, such as going to one of my most favorite coffee shops, Storyville Coffee! Yum! The best cup. Right at the Pike Place Market.

My #5 child traveled along with me to hang out in town as he works up this way. It was great to have him drive me around in his new car instead of my original plan of taking the train and then walking the steep hill up to the surgeon's office. Like I said in the video, it is quite a journey from my remote corner of the world to a major airport and then on up to Seattle. I was pretty tired when I got home.

So.... Double Jaw surgery

Bilateral Sagittal Split Osteotomy for the lower jaw
Lefort 1 Osteotomy with graft for the upper jaw

The graft will involve pulverized, sterilized,( and any other kind of "ized" they can do to it ) cadaver bone mixed with some kind of polymer that will create a piece to be custom fit for the new upper palate that I will have.  All the work will be done inside my mouth with only 2 small incisions on my lower jaw where they will insert the small probes to measure and balance out my new jaw alignment.
The next blog entry has a short video of what they will do with the lower jaw.
On the upper jaw, the surgeon will cut into the bone to remove some, line it up nicely, insert the palate graft, screw it all back into place, then suture it up. All this is done through the  portion of the upper lip and nasal septum area - inside. Nothing shows on the outside.