5 weeks post op

Today was the day that I had been DYING for!! But by the time morning rolled around I was feeling a little apprehensive. My stomach was a mess, I think because I was nervous, I've been living with my mouth banded closed for over a month now so I was pretty use to it. But there was no way I was going to tell my OS that I thought we should wait until I was 6 weeks. So when I got in the room he just snipped all of the rubber bands and picked them out of my mouth. Then he told me to open up my mouth so he could pull out the splint. But my splint had an attachment, it was on the roof of my mouth to help my pallet heal because he expanded it. My god did it hurt when he started pulling it out, my jaw did not want to open up wide enough for it to fit out of my mouth. When it came out my mouth tasted DISGUSTING, the splint looked and smelt disgusting, I am definitely glad to have that thing out. After he took it out I went to say something to him and then immediately plugged my ears because the sound of my voice totally creeped me out, it sounded nothing like me! I'm not making fun, but I sounded like a deaf person trying to speak. My OS then put some tight elastics in the back of my mouth, he said I had a little bit of an open bite from the splint being in there, so the rubber bands need to keep me completely closed again in order to fix that. I don't mind having the bands in there and my mouth being closed really, it's helping me gradually ease into opening and closing my mouth. At least I don't have that whole mess of bands throughout my whole mouth, and thank god that splint is out. So these bands he just put in will stay in until next Wendesday, and then he said he will put on some lighter elastics so I can open and close a little more.

Even though I can barely open my mouth, my jaw is seriously saw from talking and trying to open my mouth today. I think I've probably stood in front of the mirror today for about a good 2 hours total throughout the day! After my appt Anthony and I went to the mall to find me a swim suit, and I was even looking at my relfection in every store window smiling and checking out my new face! Anthony eventually caught on and I think he tried to pretend that he didn't know me. Whatever. I'm sure anyone else who has gone through this was obsessed with looking at their new bite every chance they got! Another plus is that I only have to strain what I'm eating once and it is so much easier to eat. I also drank a Strawberry Banana Orangle Julius for the first time today, and it was heavenly.

Time to give Aiden his tubby, put him to bed, take some tylenol and then go to bed myself!

This is right before we went to the surgeon this morning:
And this is right after we got home from the surgeon!!!

Days 12 and on

Basically this whole time I have been eating just ice cream shakes, which are so thin it's basically like drinking chocolate milk, and chicken broth. Just recently Anthony discovered some new foods for me, it can be any creamy soup cooked up and then sent through a little strainer that looks like the wire for a screen door, the wires are so small and close together that it pretty much gets all of the fine particles out. My favorites are Cream of Shrimp, Brocolli Cheese, and Cream of Potato. I haven't really reached any milestones other then getting my lips to close and drinking an iced coffee through a straw. Here is a picture from Day 12:
I can see a huge improvement in my swelling, I can even see a little smile starting to form. I think at that point I was beginning to feel happy that I did the surgery. But before that I completely regretted it 100%.
Here are pictures from Day 18:
Throughout this whole process also, my right side always seems to be more swollen then the left.
It hurt at first to smile, but it's getting better.
I am in LOVE with my new profile. It's so nice to see myself without my jaw jutting out or without looking mad because of my jaw!

These next pictures are from Day 20:
Smile is getting bigger...
Trying to keep my lips closed, still doesn't feel natural they just want to hang open!

Day 28:
The pretty earrings are HAND MADE from my sisters in-laws!So as of right now I have absolutely no pain...I have lost 20 pounds, which is okay because I still had baby weight I needed to lose...tomorrow is probably the best day of my life, the bands of doom are coming off and my splint is coming out! Hooray! I can finally talk, and hopefully get to eat a little bit of brownie batter! I will blog and put pictures up tomorrow of my new mouth rubber band and splint free!!!!!!!

5 weeks post op tomorrow!

This is me the night before surgery.
As I said in my about me, I am starting this a little late because I found this blog a little after I had my surgery and it helped me so much to see others progress so I figured I would start one of my own in hopes of helping someone else.
A little about myself:
I am 18 years old and am a sophomore in college.
I have a four month old son, Aiden, who could not be a better child. I figured this would be the best time in mine and his life to do this surgery because he's not crawling all over the place yet and doesn't need constant attention.
I have a boyfriend, Anthony, who has been a big help through this process.
I am also part of a family of eight, I have four sisters and 3 brothers...I am smack dab in the middle, #4.


This is me with my surgeon the morning of surgery.

About my surgery:
I had my surgery on June 1st 2009, I arrived at the hospital at 6:30 am, we did all of the pre-surgery stuff, spoke with anesthesia, saw my surgeon for a few minutes before, said good bye to my mom and off I went! The hardest part for me was saying good bye to my son, I am the type of person who worries too much and thinks too much (could not stop thinking about the fatal risks with anesthesia).
My surgery lasted 6 hours, I do not remember waking up in the recovery room, I do know though that my mother came in to see me. My sister had just flown in that day also from California to stay for 2 weeks to help me. She was by far the biggest help, she was getting up with me during the night every 3 hours it seemed like to take my medicine, and she would stay up with me if I wasn't feeling well.

My stay in the hospital:


This is Day 1, I was in the ICU. I had a lot of blood in my mouth and nose.


This was Day 2 when I had Anthony come up to be with me.
This was Day 3 when I first came home.

I stayed a total of 3 days and 2 nights. In all honesty I HATED being in the hospital. I was constantly nauseous, the pain medicine was making me even more sick. Thankfully I only got sick once in the hospital, there were a couple of close calls but just once did I actually get sick.
For the first night I was in the ICU, and while I was there I was pretty much just in and out of it, my mom stayed with me overnight the two nights that I was in the hospital. After my first night in the ICU I was moved to a regular room. Which did not turn out good at all. I think it was the move that did it, but up until that point I had held it together pretty well. I felt like I was burning up in that room, the pain medicine and nausea medicine was not helping me, I kept having break downs, and I wouldn't eat. I started to really miss my son...this was my first time being away from him for more then 3 hours. I didn't want him to come to the hospital though because of the whole swine flu thing going on. I originally wasn't even going to have Anthony (boyfriend) come to the hospital, I wanted to stay with the baby at all times and make sure he was fine, but when I got moved to my regular room I just kept breaking down so I had my mom call him and tell him I needed him to come up. The day after that was when I returned home. As soon as I walked in my door I burst into tears and couldn't wait to hold Aiden. My whole family was there waiting for me, I knew I looked like a monster, but I commend them for holding it together and thank them for not being their normal selves and teasing me.

Home:
Once I was home I definitely did start to feel a little better, I slept on the couch for the first week. My mouth was and still is completely banded shut and I also have a splint in there too. Because of that everything I ate had to be pure liquid, without even any fine particles. Because I wasn't really eating much I couldn't take the liquid percaset, and for some reason my surgeon didn't send me home with any nausea medicine, even though nausea was my main complaint in the hsopital. So after my first visit with him I demanded some nausea medicine, and as soon as I got home and it kicked in it worked like a charm. My sleeping was really sporatic, I tried to stay awake as much as I could during the day so I could spend time with everyone, and at night I was always with my sister who flew in from California. Day 4 for me was the worst, I wound up getting sick pretty bad that night, and I truly felt like I was slowly dying. I never want to experience that again.This was Day 5. Day 6 was when I finally started feeling better.

This is all for now. I will post about my other healing days the next chance I get!