Informing Employer?

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#1 Post by **Lucifina** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 12:01 pm

So how did you all go about telling your employers you were going to have jaw surgery? How soon before your surgery did you tell them? How long were you off work?
My job involves talking for 8 hrs a day! (Can you even talk w/a broken jaw?)

I am anticipating a lot of pain w/this because I hate pain and I am such a wuss.

I can't even read most surgery stories w/out fainting...for real.

I have that vasovagal thing and anything w/blood or anything related to my jaw surgery makes me get really light headed and faint.

Anyway maybe it won't even hurt that bad...but I will be having my lower jaw broken and I don't even know how long I will have to be off of work as I have yet to get into see my surgeon. Has anyone here had the lower jaw surgery? If so let me know and I will go through and read your stories! Thanks!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_syncope

#2 Post by **dubnobass** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:27 pm

My experience (upper jaw impaction and lower jaw advancement and rotation with extraction of lower wisdom teeth), if it helps..

I told my employers about the surgery before I was braced, and ended up having the surgery 16 months later than expected, after 28 months in braces. They asked me to arrange, if possible, for it to happen in August, as this is a quiet time for us at work - and fortunately, that's when the surgery was.

I'm a civil servant so would be eligible for 6 months paid sick leave anyway, but I planned to take 2Â½ weeks off work. As it was, I was checking e-mails from home a week after surgery and went back to full-time work after 1Â½ weeks. By that point I'd stopped napping during the day, had stopped drooling, and could drink from a cup without spilling it, so I thought I was ready to go back. For the first few days back @ work, I was absolutely knackered at the end of the day, and had no energy to do anything other than eat some food and then doze off in front of the telly until (early) bedtime.

What's most inconvenient at work is that I cannot eat with dignity at the moment so am having to drink Slimfast and smoothies instead of eating food. I save dropping it all down my chin and front for the privacy of my own home

I am not finding speaking difficult, but I am not speaking very clearly because I have alot of elastics on (so can't open my jaw much) and my lower lip is still frozen. I can be understood, but it's definitely not normal speech. I've got a diagonal elastic across the front of my mouth that vibrates like a kazoo when I try to speak

It's harder to speak with a splint in than without one, so find out if they're likely to leave that in place after surgery (some do, some don't). Some people are also tight-banded shut which would make speaking tricky. I had a splint for a week but have only had guiding elastics, not banded shut or wired as some people are.

I haven't really had much pain, other than a very sore mouth in places where the swelling forced the inside of my cheek to rub against some of the surgical hooks on my molars - salt water rinses sorted those out after a few days. Not any deep-seated bone pain, though, nothing like that. It has definitely been uncomfortable rather than painful.

#3 Post by **ohmyjaw** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:52 pm

Hi Luci,

I was unemployed when I had my surgery (upper and lower) but I am sure I could have been back at work by three weeks, if not sooner. My speech was fine by about three weeks, but I did not have to wear elastics.

I am one of the minority of folks that found surgery painful. However, I was prescribed liquid morphine and that made the pain pretty manageable. It didn't disappear completely but was reduced to a dull ache. I also used LOTS of ice. Most surgery patients get a prescription for a pretty strong painkiller so you have it if you need it (and many don't need it).

#4 Post by **HighandLo** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:48 am

Hi Luci,

I had lower jaw surgery only and it was pretty uneventful. You can read about it on the "HighandLo BSSO on June 30" thread.

I took Vicodin the first week. I had no real pain to speak of, but it helped with the discomfort. I only slept for short periods up until Week 2.

I had elastics only, so I could speak easily, but my lower lip numbness did make me sound a little different. Still coherent, though.

I work at home so I sent a fax around that I wouldn't be available for talking for a week after surgery and for people to email or fax. I was back to work after 10 days (albeit slow and tired at first!).

I guess the experience, like Meryaten's, was a lot easier than some other things in my life! Less pain than a toothache, for example.

You'll be fine! Think positively.

Lo

#5 Post by **Lucifina** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:10 am

Thanks a lot guys!

That makes me feel better! I had dry socket when I had my wisdom teeth out years ago and that was horrific so maybe this will not be so bad

I guess I will just count on a couple of weeks and maybe if I canâ€™t talk well they can give me other work to do. I am not going to worry about it too much as they have to accommodate me. I still need to call the OS to set the appt for the consult and then I guess when I am done w/him I will go in to meet w/HR.

#6 Post by **Braceschris** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:38 am

Iam going to have surgery in Sept. and I just told my Project manager that I need some personal time and sick leave and he said no problem at all. I did not even tell him what I was having done. I told him when I would be gone and coming back.

Chris