2 Months Post-op

I tried to upload my last video on Youtube a few times and each time it timed out at the last 5 minutes or so... so I gave up because it took about 6 hours each time to upload a video.


Well, its been about 8 weeks after my surgery, and everything seems pretty good. There seems to be a little bit of swelling in my upper lip (under my nostrils), and numbing still persists in my upper lip. However, I've been regaining a lot of feeling in my upper lip. Just last month, I was able to tweeze my manly moustache with no pain. I tried to do this yesterday, and my eyes teared up so I retrieved my little waxing kit. And then I got carried away and now I have no upperlip hair or eyebrows.

My recovery seems to have subsided a lot, and there hasn't been any daily noticeable changes like there had been in the first few weeks. I went to see my surgeon last week and he said that I have a lot more scar tissue than most people, and offered steroid injections to the sites to help reduce the swelling. I asked if it would get better with time without the drugs and he said yes, so I said "let it do its thing."

The swelling from the scar tissue has created little pockets on the right side of my cheeks, and because I'm still numb on my upper gums, food gets stick in the very back mouth near my wisdom teeth. This is a surprise to me when I find my lunch in my mouth several hours after dinner. I swear by my waterpik and have now purchased a portable one for my purse.

Next week, my orthodontist will resume his handiwork on my teeth. My teeth has shifted a lot since my wire is broken and my lower right bicuspid has moved around a lot. I am ready for some dental pain once again. Honestly though, with 10 and a half years of having braces, dental pain can kiss my ass. I laugh in the feel of dental pain. I say, dental pain, GIVE ME MORE.

but not too much more.

I started chewing about 4 days ago, and let me tell you, after 8 weeks of not chewing, it was weird. Because of my numb upper arch, all I felt was pressure on my teeth and my food getting smaller. Eating just isn't as satisfying as it used to be. I guess reaching my goals to become obese will be farther fetched than I had believed.

The scar tissue and swelling have prevented me from opening my mouth fully. My mouth can still only open about 2 cm, but this is a GREAT improvement from last month. My surgeon tells me I have to do exercises to get my jaws to open up wider. So here I sit as Starbucks looking like a loon chewing my pseudobubble gum wide-mouthed (or not really wide, but as wide as I can).

I can finally sleep on my face now, and sleeping is once again magical.

Looking at the X-rays, I thought my bones will have filled up more, but it doesn't look that different from Week 1 Post-op. I guess 24 hour fitness wasn't lying when they said I had osteoporosis. The surgeon did say he saw some "speckling" in sites where he cut, so my bones are filling in.

Well, I'm sad my videos aren't uploading, but you guys can still message me as I will still respond.

Smile on.

Day 16

Feeling pretty damn good. I started biking at the gym, and let me tell you, that has been wonderous. I've been sleeping better, have more of an appetite, and have more energy. Eating has gotten a lot easier and less time consuming. I can now fit a small spoon into my mouth relatively easily, so I don't have to blend yogurt any longer, but eat it straight from the cup. Currently, I have been in a cheese phase. It's something easy to eat (melts in your mouth), and is salty. Lately, it seems all I have been eating/ drinking are sweet things like yogurt, icecream, and juice. The only salty things I have been eating/drinking are soups. And how sickening that gets. But... if you add a variety of cheese to it and heat it up... it becomes delicious.

I'm still wearing vertical rubber bands the surgeon told me to wear, and it seems to be getting my bite to fit nicer. However, my lower arch's midline is still not on, but that is because my teeth have shifted (before I had the surgery), not because the jaw is misaligned. The x-rays of my jaw looks pretty good. Even wolverine-like sexy. The teeth however, is a different story. After this, I'm still looking at bone grafting and implantation. This seems like a never ending process. Have I mentioned I have had braces for over 10 years? Yea. Forever pre-pubescent teen.


Here, you can see the cuts in my jaw bones are still present. The bone is supposed to take about 4 months to heal, so we'll see how that goes. You can also see 6 plates, 4 on the top, and 2 on the bottom. Those things are the things that is holding my jaw in place momentarily, until my bones fill-er-up. Some interesting fact I've read somewhere is that in the US, about 90% of the time the metal plates are left in forever. However, in the UK, 90% of the time the plates are are removed. Does it seem strange that the percentages are so high for such opposing ideas?

Brushing has gotten exponentially easier, though it still takes about 20 mins. However, the fresh and clean feeling is priceless. I can now open my mouth a little wider than before--maybe 11mm's at most. O how dental toys make you feel so good.

Day 11

11 days after my double jaw surgery, and I feel pretty good. I've regained, so it seems, all of the feeling in my lower lip, but maybe 10% on my upper lip. The right side of my mouth seems to have more movement than my left, and the left just kind of sits there when I talk or smile. I hope it's not permanent. Today I took a flashlight and shined it into my mouth to see how I'm brushing. Yuk. The very back brackets on my last molars are pretty gross cause I was taking it easy as I brushed since I'm still sorta swollen. Even now, its hard to brush cause the stitches are still there and my swollen cheeks sorta engulf whatever space I have on the outer parts of my teeth. The good part is I can open my mouth JUST enough to fit a child's toothbrush into my mouth so I can FINALLY brush my tougue and the insides of my teeth. WHAT A RELIEF.


Well it seems like I'm healing ok. The I think the stitches on the right of my mouth might have busted open, cause now it's healing with 2 chunks of cheeks and a large valley. On the left side, the bottom is healing ok, but the top left seems to be the most swollen.

What I'm concerned about:
Yesterday, when I was talking to my friend, I think I might have squeezed some air through the sutures into the upper left part of my mouth. That night, blood juice kept getting squished out of the upper left part of my mouth when I would apply lightish pressure to the outside of my cheek. I could move the air bubble from the outside of my cheek and so I tried to push it out. When I did that, the blood juice either flowed out of the sutures, or up and out through my nostril. That didn't hurt or anything, but it was kinda scary.

Also, when I feel the outside of my mouth/cheeks, the right side feels normal, though the left side has 2 harder parts to it. Like scar tissue underneath or something--but it doesnt feel normal.

I just hope it continues healing well.

Movements of the lips:
I can't really smile right now because it seems like the sutures have made the upper lip very tight. Also, the left side of my lips seems to not cooperate and kinda just sits there when I smile, skewing my smile to the right side of my face. Also, when I try to make my mouth into an "O" shape, the upper lip's middle point skews to the left. Gnarly.

Day 8

Day 8 post op--going to get the rubberbands off so I can open my mouth. This is my biggest attempt at a smile.

Day 4

Four days ago, I got surgery on both my upper and lower jaws for treatment of for Congen mandicular hypoplasia and asymmetry of maxilla. My bite was off I had not been able to chew on the left side of my mouth in about 15 years. That naturally lead to TMJ because there was too much pressure on the right side of my jaw. I have also had braces for 10 years and 2 months, and they have never been off since. Hoping there was an alternative to surgery, it didn’t seem so, so here I am with my ballon head. For those of you making plans to get the surgery, I am here to say it is NOT an easy decision made. It took me years to make my decision, and you really have to weigh the pros and cons.


So my decision was made and done, and here I am sitting here with two ice packs strapped to my head and sipping on narcotics like it was a savored cognac (Picture taken hours after surgery). So as of today, I am feeling much better, but up to the 3rd day, the days seemed like hours and the hours seemed like days. You feel like walking death, when and if you can get up at all. But its all very comical how your brain makes up for the lack of activity. You see your brain, is an extremely extremely active organ. Even if you don’t want to be thinking, you are thinking. Therefore, I have had some crazy dreams. You see, I have not been able to stay awake to watch a movie, or go online and read some news. I’ve just been in bed and the couch up until today. And whatever glimpse of the TV I get from someone who is watching it, is what I’ll dream of when I pass out. Or, when my saliva gets so think I can hardly breathe in my sleep is when I’ll dream my ecology professor working on an oil project that requires him to spray oil on the walls by the gallon, as I stand under and must ingest this oil, clogging up my passageways and letting it seep into my clothes.


Digestion is also a weird subject right now. You’re on a liquid diet, so guess what else is liquid?

Well I’ve regained some movement of my lips now and my lower lips seems not as swollen anymore. This is by far, the best day of 4 days. (4th day) Goodluck, I’ll keep you updated.





Here are my pre-op pics: