One week after LeFort I... *sigh*

[sirwired]

My LeFort I was one week from today. Recovery has been easier than I expected in some respects, harder in many others.

On the plus side:
I was not banded shut; just a pair of light elastics stretched in a box configuration. This means that eating and drinking did not require a syringe or squirt bottle/bag. And since I was upper-only eating/drinking hasn't been messy.

The actual acute pain hasn't been bad at all; since the surgery severs most of the nerves that would be rather annoyed with the operation, I haven't had any sharp pains that equivalent trauma in say, your abdomen, might cause. The only sharp pain is where my upper lip got WAAAAY stretched as a necessary part of a LeFort I.

On the down side:
Only a week in, and I'm already really sick of pureed foods. It's amazing how much we rely on texture to enjoy food; things that I'd ordinarily enjoy as "comfort food" I have to force myself to finish a serving once it's been turned into blenderized mush. I'm probably not getting enough calories despite using all the full-fat dairy products I can squeeze in; one can only drink so many milkshakes and bottles of Boost. (Note: Strawberry Boost is an insult to that noble fruit; if you could put "tragic failure" in a bottle, that's about what that junk tastes like. Stick with the chocolate or vanilla.)

The pain from the inflammation has been annoying, and it is only now going down. It's been a constant low-grade throbbing and tightness. I've gone through nearly a quart of liquid Advil so far. I didn't really realize how high on the face the surgery actually goes, and the pain started around the bottom of my eye-sockets. It was bad enough that I actually did break out the liquid Hydrocodone/APAP for a few days, but my last dose was a couple of days ago. (I don't think I'm in much danger of getting addicted to opiates; they do indeed dull the pain, but make me feel like a useless constipated zombie.)

The combination of the upright sleeping position, Sudafed, inconvenient medication timing, (Advil/Hydroco/Sudafed on 6-hour schedule, Amoxicillin/Afrin on 8 hours), and not being in my bed with my wife has meant I've been sleeping poorly and have to take 1-2 naps every day. I have far less energy than I expected to at this point.

The splint is horrible. Mine is non-removable, and has a trans-palatal wire. Food gets caught in it, I sound like I'm sodding drunk when I talk, and the wires that attach it to my archwire dig into my upper lip. It's a good thing I can barely feel my upper lip, because I can only imagine what it'd feel like if I had full sensation there. (I can't use wax because it's right where my elastics go; it peels the wax right off.) I sure hope my speech gets better, as I'm going to blow well past my 2-week estimate for fully returning to work if I can't talk. I can see the work assignments roll in via my e-mail; they are coming hot and heavy and pretty much all of them require starting with a conference call with a potential customer; there's no way I can work a sales call talking like this. Our busy time is at the end of the quarter, and I'm relatively new in my job; not participating in Q3 sales is not going to look that great at year-end.

********

I have my first post-op visit on Thursday and I'm dearly hoping he'll let me "graduate" to soft foods, and make the splint at least removable so I can clean the thing. I'm not optimistic; he told me after surgery that my bone was extremely thin and he was real concerned about proper healing.

I know it's "all downhill from here", but it looks like it's going to be a very long, gently-sloped, hill.

[JeniK]

Sirwired...I have wondered how you are doing. Good to hear from you. I hope the "recovery" gets better for you. Take care...The future will be brighter soon !!

[Corrinne]

*sigh* is spot on for me too.
I am 9 days post double jaw and genio, the liquid diet is so depressing.
Luckily for my I was given to all clear for mushy foods yesterday. I ate a huge portion of cheese topped cottage pie and it was so good!

I hope you feel happier soon
Are you happy with your results?

[sirwired]

Well, as expected, after my appt. yesterday, I'm still on the "nothing with more texture than scrambled eggs" diet for at least another two weeks (my next follow-up). The doctor explicitly said I'm still not on soft-chew (and the splint is still wired in place) because he's very concerned about the thickness of my bone and how fragile it is. He mentioned that the diet is always the toughest part of recovery, and that the fact that I'm complain about the food is actually a good sign, because I'm not complain about pain instead, so by implication my healing is right on schedule.

But, on a brighter note, I no longer have to sleep in a recliner, so I suppose that's an improvement; I was really missing sleeping with my wife.

On my results: Since my surgery was not for cosmetic reasons in any way, the movements were mostly not particularly visible or dramatic. My LeFort involved mostly rear expansion, with slight expansion (maybe 1.5mm) in the front, and bringing down the rear a little. It's made my mid-face wider, but not dramatically so. For me, my success criteria will be never needing another gum graft due to a mis-aligned bit, and only time will tell if that happens.