Orthodontist appointment today. I saw another girl there and i overheard that she was having jaw surgery in 6 months. She looked so excited. I felt sorry for her. I wanted to go over and burst her bubble, but I didn't. I just felt bad knowing that someone else was being tricked into jaw surgery without knowing what it was like. The assistant who was with her made it sound so great. I remember hearing that wonderful little 'jaw surgery is fabulous" speech. pffft. If that girl knew what it was like, she wouldn't have been so happy. She's thinking "ohh boy my jaw is gonna be fixed and the world is going to be a wonderful place!" no. its not like that. yes, your jaw will be fixed, yes, you will be able to eat properly, yes, your smile may not look a little off anymore. but no, the world will not be a wonderful place. Not for a long time anyway. No one told me that before my surgery. Actually, my mom may have told me. But she told me while she was completely freaking out, so I didn't really listen. I chose to listen to everyone who was really positive about the surgery instead. I came into it with the "i can do anything and get through anything" attitude and figured i'd recover 5 times faster than anyone else ever had from sheer willpower. I was definitely tricked. I guess its not all horrible, though...Life is what you make it, mostly. If you have a good attitude you can get through pretty much anything... But it would be kind of dishonest to say I've had a fabulous attitude every day since my surgery. Sometimes when your mouth hurts cause you have 7 broken bones, and you've had a headache every day for almost 3 weeks and you're hungry and tired, you just want to sit and complain a little bit. Thats partly what my blog is for. It lets me vent a little bit so i can get it out of my system and go back to being in a good mood again. Writing is therapeutic. But really, in the whole scheme of things, my life is pretty darn amazing and I feel kind of lame for complaining at all. I suppose absolutely anyone at any point in life could sit and complain about any number of things at any time. Everyone should just get a blog.
ANYWAY Back to my orthodontist appointment. The assistant didn't say anything to me. I think she may have been a mute. Either that or she just wasn't very friendly. Maybe she was having a bad day. I'm not sure. It was kind of weird though. The doctor did talk to me though, and thats what we pay for. He said I did a great job keeping my teeth clean. I feel like I should have gotten a star sticker or something...but no. I was hoping to get some looser wires today, but they just gave me more tight ones.. boooo. But, the doctor decided that October 19 was too far away to go without another appointment (and i agreed), so now I have one on September 20. That means only 1 more month of surgical wires! Which means only one more month of rubberbands! (i think...) Still kind of long... But not as long as October 19 would have been, so that made me happy. Of course, I still have an appointment at the Mayo Clinic with my surgeon before the one with the ortho. I'm so excited to make the long trek back to Minnesota for the fourth time this year! haha. not. There actually is a certain McDonalds somewhere in Wisconsin that I'm kind of looking forward to stopping at, though. Its soooo fancy! Really fancy! It doesn't feel like a McDonalds at all, except it smells like french fries - that's not a bad thing though. Earlier this month when i stopped there though i got some lemon gelato and it was absolutely delicious. Definitely looking forward to that again....and its something that someone who's had jaw surgery can eat! yay! Yep. Anywayssss....after my ortho appointment, i came home, had a strawberry shake (because thats what i eat everyday) and went to work again, just for a few hours though. I was really excited though because I got to go back on the phones! It was a little tiring to talk so much, but i loved it! I love my job. :) I'm really excited to get to a point where i can work my whole regular shift without getting tired. That will be absolutely wonderful. Yep.
Now your making me scared.... dont want a surgery.
ReplyDeleteby ortho was very clear with me.
He told me that, it will be rough , but i will be worth it after 6 month to a year.
and you wouldnt regret it.
soo i just read ur blog. it makes me little scared now. Guess i can't go back. My bite been worse after having braces. So i am looking forward for a surgery.!!!
btw, I like reading you blog :)
I'm 3 months post op now.... And I still say that the first month was super hard to go through... but now its all past me and its pretty much like it never happened. Its just important to try to stay positive when you're going through the rough patches...it can be hard though! But the surgery was definitely worth it.....I love my new smile!
ReplyDeleteAs someone who is about a month out almost, I would say it's worth it but you DO need to be mentally prepared for how much it sucks. I have had four wisdom teeth removed and this is my third round of braces but nothing prepared me for jaw surgery. But honestly sometimes its better not to know because you'll psyche yourself out. Honestly the worst part for me was the anxiety beforehand. Now that it's happened i Just focus on the recovery and keep moving. Yes it can suck and yes there have been bad days but time goes by quick and before you know it it'll be one month, two months, three months past and you'll be feeling good again. And looking in the mirror and feeling great about your new face makes up for a lot!
Deletei totally agree with what you were saying about the girl in the ortho's office. that was me about a week ago. i got surgery yesterday, and it is not fun at all. i read your entire blog about a month ago and it now i am starting my own pretty much just to vent haha. i was just wondering when you were able to start eating pretty much everything again? i tried having pureed macaroni and cheese about an hour ago and none of the noodle chunks would go past my teeth and I was really disapointed. already annoyed with the liquid diet.
ReplyDeletehaha well good luck with your blog! venting really does help :)
Deleteas far as eating again... it comes back gradually, but probably a good 2 months. Even then i dont think i was able to bite into an apple or anything. You'll know when you're ready though. I wasn't really into pureeing things though... I stuck to food that was already able to go down. I ate a lot of cream of chicken soup...and smoothies. thats about it. I kind of hate smoothies now though... haha
Heyy I have tried mac and cheese,and it worked all right for me. How did you blend it up? I found that a food processor or the Magic Bullet work great!
DeleteI never blended anything up... i thought it was nasty. lol If i couldn't eat something in its natural form, I didn't eat it. :P
DeleteSo if you didn't blend anything up what did you eat?
Deletesoups...smoothies... canned peaches cut up small... stuff like that.
DeleteWow. I would get bored pretty fast.
Deletewell its jaw surgery, not a trip to the fair. haha I personally just couldn't stomach blended food...:P Glad you're able to get creative tho!
DeleteHahaha you're right about it not being a trip to the fair....lol!
DeleteHi! I just had my surgery two weeks ago. I'm sixteen and this is how I'm spending my summer. I don't have all the pain and misery you guys are talking about,I had it for one week and then I felt pretty normal. Sometimes I do get really depressed because I can't eat. I soon learned to eat liquified tacos and whoppers from BK. I was that desperate. Rebecca, your bite sounds a lot like mine. I had an open bite and it was really hard for me to eat stuff. They moved my top and bottem jaw. I'm surprised someone else had a bite similar to mine, but I love reading your blog, it gives me hope and let's me know that SOMEBODY understands what I'm going though. Thanks for that! :)
ReplyDeleteLiquified tacos and burgers just sounds nasty. I never was that desperate....not even close. haha Glad you're doing okay over all though!! I didn't really have a lot of pain after the first week either... but there is a lot of discomfort that you have to deal with on various levels. It'll go by fast though :)
ReplyDeleteI did think it was at first, Before my surgery I said I would refuse any real food and I'd just eat sweet smoothies all the time. But after a week of sweet smoothies and potatos...Well I had to. It doesn't even phase me to look at it anymore. Thanks for replying! Means a lot!
ReplyDeletemolly, i have been doing that too! my surgeon gave me a recipe book with meals in the blender. i've tried a few and theyre actually REALLY good! i didn't have any pain, but like rebecca said just a lot of discomfort and annoyance. i'm glad to have people to talk to about this :)
ReplyDeleteSo basically did any of your bottom jaws go numb? i am considering the surgery and the one thing that puts mw off above all else is the fact that my jaw could stay numb?:)
ReplyDeleteYeah, my bottom jaw was numb for a while - but its back to normal now. Being numb is kind of a good thing because it prevents you from feeling the pain of all those broken bones. :)
Deleteyeahh thats true! im all up for that im just scared it'l be for forever lol! is it your lips that go numb to? :)
DeleteI would just like to say that I had jaw surgery 5 days ago, and it has NOT been that bad. I understand that alot of people have an awful time recovering, but if you are planning on having jaw surgery, don't be too scared! I've already eaten with a fork, drank out of a cup, only my top lip is numb, and I'm up and walking around. Everyone's experience is different, but you might get lucky (like me!) and have a fairly comfortable and fast recovery.
ReplyDeleteYou're right...everyone's experience is different. Partly because we all heal differently and partly because some jaw surgerys are more extensive than others. Some people have slight work done on one jaw, while other people have a lot of work done on both jaws - like i did...And still other people have more work done than I did. Its hard to compare ourselves to each other a lot of times because there are so many different factors. I'm glad its going well for you though! Sounds like you'll be good as new in no time. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Rebecca, I read about your exp in jaw surgery. Thank you for creating this blog.. I had the surgery 6 months ago. My current problem is that I cant open my mouth properly and when i close my mouth it doesnt look normal so i use to open it most of the time.
ReplyDeleteHi, my name is Krystyna and I just had double jaw surgery and my wisdom teeth out on the 11th (I had an over bite). I found this blog right away when I typed in jaw surgery blogs in google. So today I'm on day six. For the first few days it was extremely hard because my nose was clogged up and I found it very hard to breathe. One time I actually panicked because I didn't know what to do. Now, my nose is cleared and I don't feel much pain, but a lot of numbness. I can feel the spot right under my nose but that's it. I'm already getting sick of liquids and I can barely sleep at night. This is probably my worst experience, but it's nice to see that other people feel the same!
ReplyDeleteI had jaw surgery on the 12th! And I also feel like I was TRICKED into having this surgery loll. definitely did not know realize fully what it would be like -_- just a few more weeks! love this blog!
ReplyDelete