Fall/Early Winter 2016 Surgery Buddies

[WiredJon]

Pancakes have been my choice for the past week now, and spaghetti bolognese (with the pasta in very small pieces, so I don't have to chew it).
I'm two and a half weeks post surgery now, and have just started to experiment with chewing very soft things, my aim is to eat some bread this week - minus the crust.

[momo2015]

Woo hoo, I'm done!!! still in the hospital (it's 8am where I live; surgery was at 1). The surgeon told my husband yesterday that it took a little shorter than expected, and I bled about half as much as usual I was escatic by this, since my number #1 feel of the whole surgery was throwing up.

Honestly though, nothing hurts like how I expected. I've got a super sore throat and my ears feel like they need to pop, but my actual mouth isn't that sore. And now I'm trying to choke down some ice cream. So fat I'd say I'd definitely do it again.

Oh, and I had a 2npiece Lel Fort one.

[WiredJon]

Are you having your upper jaw expanded?

[momo2015]

[quote="WiredJon"]Are you having your upper jaw expanded?[/quote]

Yes, had my upper jaw widened to fix my cross bite, and the. Whatever it is they do to close by open posterior bite.

[littlebird]

Hi Momo2015, congrats on completion of your surgery! Sounds like you are recovering really well!

Just a little update on my progress....I will be 6 weeks post-op on 12/19. On 12/12, the surgeon put two looser bands on (one on each side) to allow me to open my mouth a bit. I still have the splint in, which won't come out for another couple of weeks. Since I'm now able to open a bit, I can have unstrained, blended foods. Previously everything had to be super thin and strained. I'm also able to sort of brush the inside of my mouth. I still have quite a bit of swelling in my cheeks, but am seeing gradual improvement. My nose is still quite crooked and I've sort of resigned myself to the fact that I'll need a septoplasty at some point.

The best thing so far, now that I can open my mouth a bit to get air in, is that I'm able to take deep breaths. I can feel and hear a major difference in my airway post-surgery, which went from 4 mm to 18 mm. When I breathe in it doesn't sound as wheezy or strained, and I can take a full breath faster since more air is going in at once. This is very exciting! I can't wait to try out my new bite once I'm back on solid foods. I think that these two improvements are worth the aggravation and cost of having to have a septoplasty.

[tdhenson86]

Hey, everyone! Sorry for dropping off the radar after surgery! I know some of you checked out my blog, but if you didn't, I had double jaw surgery on November 10th. My top jaw was moved around 4 mm and my bottom jaw on one side was moved 17mm and on the other side was moved 14mm. So, I had some pretty major movements that led to some complications in the first week. After being discharged from the surgery, I ended up in the Emergency Department twice. Thankfully, I'm doing much better and am actually back to work! After 2 weeks of a lot of complications, at my last check up (this past Monday at 5 1/2 weeks after surgery), they asked where I was still numb (only a small patch on my chin/lower lip), looked at my CT Scan, checked my swelling, asked me to open my mouth as wide as I could, and did an overall check. I was told I'm healing at the rate they'd expect an 18 year-old to heal-not a 30 year-old!!! Happy dance!!! Hope everyone else is doing well!

Tim

[pantlover]

I have my surgery (2 piece Le Fort) on Monday. I have been told 6 weeks of a no chew diet, but I won't be wired shut. For you guys that have already done the surgery, what have been some of your favorite meals? I have a feeling ill get tired of mashed potatoes quickly

hi, i was on a strict liquid only diet for 10 days then no chew diet until i was 6 weeks post op. during my no chew/soft food phase, i regularly ate: fish filets (battered/fried, steamed, etc), tamales, soft meats (cooked low and slow i.e. braised short ribs, bbq ribs), meatloaf, soft boiled or scrambled eggs, noodle soups (pho, ramen, etc), ravioli (chef boyardee), crab cakes, lasagna, and rice porridge (with varying flavors). these were my go to foods since i could easily mash it with my tongue and not have to chew it. these were also foods that i would eat on a reg basis anyway even with a healed jaw so it gave me a sense of normalcy with my diet.

then after about 4 weeks, i became a lot more daring. ANYTHING that i wanted to eat, i would cut up with my scissors and place on my tongue and just swallowed while hoping that i didn't choke. lol hey, when you're hungry, you're hungry! hope this helps!

[senecastudent]

Any fast swelling strategies? I'm nearly six weeks post and I still have a bit of stubborn swelling that puffs up in the morning. I have some grand plans for New Year's Eve, so if I could minimize the swelling by as much as possible, that would be fantastic.

Any ideas? Massages, contrast baths, diet? Anything that worked for you?

[tdhenson86]

Any fast swelling strategies? I'm nearly six weeks post and I still have a bit of stubborn swelling that puffs up in the morning. I have some grand plans for New Year's Eve, so if I could minimize the swelling by as much as possible, that would be fantastic.

Any ideas? Massages, contrast baths, diet? Anything that worked for you?

My swelling has gone down pretty quickly. Just some minimal swelling right to each side of my nose (upper cheeks-ish). I've still been drinking at least one ensure in the morning and one with dinner to be sure I'm getting the protein, minerals, and vitamins my body needs. Some days, I have an extra one. I'm also drinking at least 80 ounces of water a day. I had a lot of complications to start, but with that plan, at my 6 week check up, they told me I'm healing at the rate of an 18 year-old (I'm 30). I don't know if it's good genes, making sure I have protein, minerals, and vitamins, the water, or a combination of the above. But, that's what I've done.

[WiredJon]

6 weeks since surgery for me now - in theory I should now be fully healed and able to chew on what I want, though in reality, I was told by the surgeon that where my jaw was broken on the lower right is very thin (the result of an infection that I didn't get treated many years ago), so I should wait another couple of weeks.

The swelling has mostly gone now, and the numbness on my lip and chin is slowly disappearing. The only negative at the moment is that I have elastics in, to pull the teeth into position, which has led to one tooth becoming quite loose, but this is just normal orthodontic work, and not really related to the surgery. In all, I think I've had it pretty easy, probably the hardest period was from day 5 - 10, but as soon as I had the splint out things became much easier!

So far I've had no regrets about getting this done.

[littlebird]

I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted here! The splint and all bands were removed on 12/23, which was not very much fun, but did allow me to talk more normally, keep my mouth cleaner, and enjoy some overcooked pasta over the holidays. I've been in orthodontic bands since 12/29. I feel like some of my teeth are loose, and there is a constant low-level pain. Brushing my teeth is very painful on the upper left and bottom right. I can't handle the vibration from my electric toothbrush so I'm still using a kids' brush. I'm still on a non-chew diet, which is getting very old. I've tried very hard to stick to it, but have basically been eating anything that I can cut up super small and swallow whole. I go back to both the ortho and surgeon next week and I'm hoping that my surgeon lets me start chewing since it'll be 12 weeks post-op. My swelling is very slowly going down. There is still some next to my still-crooked nose and my cheeks are a bit puffy. The swelling around my chin looks like it's mostly gone. I definitely feel like I look more normal again but am still hung up on the crooked nose issue. My midline is still 2 mm off to the right, and my orthodontist did not recommend trying to fix it. It's less noticeable now that my lips are symmetrical, so I'm ok with not trying to fix it.

I hope all of you are doing well and that 2017 is off to a good start for you!