2 Months post op - not happy

[kaytuhlinn]

So I'm only new to this, so hi everyone! Sorry if I start ranting, I've been reading through some people's posts and it's a little overwhelming that there's so many people who have been going through this or even are about to go through this.

Anyway, I had lower jaw surgery on 10 December 2015, and the surgery itself went well. My lower jaw was moved forward 8mm and also got a genioplasty done. But sadly I've had a heap of problems and my 'specialists' have been driving me mental. Firstly, when I left the hospital, the surgeons didn't think it was necessary to band me shut so I had about a week and a bit with nothing. Which was a bad mistake because my jaw was trying to move back to it's original place (like muscle memory), so next time I went up to the hospital they put a heap of bands on and it was absolutely awful. Drinking was rather hard and I had to squash a straw to get it in my mouth, not fun at all I would just like to make a note for people who are going to be getting this, you may not feel like eating or drinking the first few days, but you HAVE TO. I made the mistake of not having anything and because of that I kinda fainted twice, almost three times.

Anyway, I'll skip past the part where my specialists neglected to tell me that I had to change my bands daily and so on and get to where I am now. I'm having surgery again in 4 days because one of my plates is exposed so I got an abscess there and would keep getting infections if I didn't get this surgery, and who wants to be constantly on antibiotics? Nobody, that's who. So, there's that plus I get pain pretty much every night around the TMJ joint and that kinda spreads out from there, and the only thing that seems to work for the pain is Targin, which as you'd imagine, I've kinda used a fair bit of that Also I've got a good tip for anyone who can't swallow pills and have to take the liquid medicine. Take your dose with ginger beer, ale, whatever you can find, I recommend Bungaberg Ginger Beer (it's non-alcoholic, you shouldn't really be mixing alcohol with drugs anyway) but I'm not sure if that's available everywhere. Since it's pretty strong in flavour, it overpowers the medicine

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read through all my complaining, it's just I haven't been able to talk to people who have gone through orthognathic surgery until I found this, I wish I had found it sooner! Annd this ended up being a lot longer than I had hoped, so sorry about that everyone! I'm not really all that good at keeping things short.

[Laria]

Hi Katuhlinn,

I'm sorry you're going through all of this but I promise it gets better. I would suggest taking a note book to your appointments and anytime they change or add something ask them how you maintain it or what you need to do since they aren't telling you up front. I was wired shut them banded shut and I cried with the bands the first couple of days because I couldn't get them off or on. I refused to eat because it hurt and didn't want my liquid meds because they burned.

I'm glad you found this board because talking to others dealing with the same issues really helped me.

Good luck!

[EWUgal15]

Anyway, I'll skip past the part where my specialists neglected to tell me that I had to change my bands daily and so on and get to where I am now. I'm having surgery again in 4 days because one of my plates is exposed so I got an abscess there and would keep getting infections if I didn't get this surgery, and who wants to be constantly on antibiotics? Nobody, that's who.

First off, sorry to hear you're having troubles.

I only had rubber bands, no extra wires or splints, post op. I also wasn't told to change my rubber bands, but I made sure to ask at every appointment. At 3 weeks post op, I was given the ok to start changing them on my own because 2 of the 6 that I had been wearing had broken.

As for the antibiotics, there's not way you could constantly be on them. Eventually, you would build up an immunity to them and they would stop working. That's the last thing you want.

2 months is a long time, but you've still got a ways to go. Be patient and trust that your team will get you taken care of.

[ivonne]

Thanks for posting, definitely keeps us updated.
Things happen, did you considered going to other doctors first? if the first one made a mistake perhaps a second opinion?

Anyhow, I hope it all works out.

I healed pretty fast because I DRANK A LOT< A LOT of liquids.

I agree, people if you are getting this surgery please DO AS THEY SAY, every bit of it.

[kaytuhlinn]

Well what can I say, I don't exactly have the best specialists around. That's what you get though when you can only afford to go via the public system. I haven't seen the same person more than at least 3 times, but I guess that's to be expected at a hospital in partnership with the nearby university (literally, the uni is right next to the hospital pretty much). I can't really see anybody else because I can't afford it, but they all seem to be happy. After the second surgery they said I may possibly need a bone graft, I don't exactly know why because I was off my face after coming out of surgery, but I'll find out when I go back up for a CT scan next week.

As of now I'm on my third box of Targin, last bottle of antibiotics and just so over it all. Which is understandable I suppose, especially when you've been getting pain every single night since the surgery, which I've been assured is normal, but I can't help but think they messed up.

And I'd just like to say thank you everyone for taking the time to reply, haven't really been having a good run so far and it makes me feel really happy to see I have support here

Also, I need to find out how to reply to someone's post, guess I'll get the hang of it eventually

[Luciangreuceanu]

Hi,

Sorry for what you are going through, i hope you find a good surgeon and will fix things open.

Regarding your plate exposed, what do you mean by this?

All the best for your recovery.

[americanabroad]

Keep your chin up! Swelling should be going down a bit now, right? Has the TMJ pain gone down a bit, at least?