The power of drinking water!

My new pain med strategy worked pretty well, and last night I had a great sleep from 10pm until about 3.45am, when my pain broke through into my dream. 'Ouch, my jaw is really sore,' I said to my friend's brother (who was magically unaged since I last saw him 15 years ago), surprised and puzzled as to why that might be. Then I woke up and reality hit. I took just one more tramadol. Then straight back to sleep until nearly 7am. I must say that the feeling of tramadol descending upon me and knocking me into a deep deep sleep is a hazy, lazy, seductive feeling.

This morning I read on the orthognathic surgery support website that someone's surgeon told her that drinking plenty of water is important for reducing swelling. It seems it gets the body out of 'hold on to fluid' mode.

So I finally admitted it to myself: I have been drinking hardly anything! I just didn't feel like it and because all my meals are liquid I had been telling myself that was enough (even though I knew my bladder wasn't filling often enough). Usually I drink lots of water.

I had a terrible headache from this morning and for most of the day. But I started drinking frequently. By the end of this afternoon I was feeling WAY better. I really think this will help me a lot. I feel my best tonight since the surgery. I even danced to some music! (In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps.....I love that African beat.) So my spirit is strong.

So: to water!

Day 11 - driving and sleeping

I drove for the first time today - into town to look at a homewares shop with my mother. No problemo! But then I got home, had lunch and slept for nearly 3 hours. And I'm still tired. Phew.

I saw my pharmacist Isaac today and he has a great strategy to fix the pain at night: take 4 hourly paracetamol during the day even though I feel fine without it during the day, and then the tramadol before bed. He thinks that will keep the pain low enough for me to sleep all night.

He said tramadol is basically as strong as morphine but doesn't have its addictive qualities. It doesn't seem that strong to me. I would hate to have very severe pain long-term if that's all modern science can offer! And I also take anti-inflammatories twice a day.

It worries me how long my pain will last - how long can I keep taking these strong drugs for? When will this jaw joint settle down?

Isaac then went on to sell me more than $50 of liquid paracetamol for $25 because he had stock that expires in October. It's still only enough to last for a few days, but I see the surgeon next Tuesday, after which point I'll hopefully be more loosely banded so I can swallow pills again.

I got a great response from the orthognathic surgery support website regarding my overheating/cold shivers - someone's surgeon told her it's normal in the first 2 weeks after surgery and it's to do with the liver getting rid of the anaesthetic or something like that. Good to know it's normal and won't last.

It really is starting to sink in how long it could take me to get over this.

Day 10 I think - up and down

Nice chipmunk cheek on the right still.

(I hope that little pouch under my chin is swelling, I think it is)

After 2 1/2 days in powerchains, the bite is definitely better. Teeth touch on both sides at the same time when I close my mouth, this seems like a small miracle to me.

Oh dear, my top right lip has a sneer. It doesn't work properly. Obviously some injury to the motor nerve as well as the sensory nerve. All is expected to pass as the swelling goes down though, thank goodness. But it's pretty neat that my lips touch on the left when I close my teeth together!

Had a bad day. Felt like death after going with my mother to take my 2 year old to her gymnastic class (although grandma went in with her while I slept in the car). Got hot and then cold chills, as has been happening pretty much since the surgery. Bad temperature regulation. Came home, ate (slowly) then slept another 2 hours (or was that go unconscious).

Last night had only paracetamol for pain relief because my clamped-closed jaw joint feels so much better. But, I discovered, not at night. Back to the hard stuff tonight.

I must mention Bepanthen cream. (Not the ointment version). It is SUCH a good healer, my surgeon gave me some for my ravaged lips (which must have been turned inside out during the surgery) have had skin falling off in sheets and now there is healthy pink stuff there instead. I have tried every lip balm known to man and this beats them all.

My online friend Cece who had this surgery 1 day after me near Chicago somewhere has been going for two 20 minute walks a day since day 3. I just read this on her blog. I am nowhere near that point!

Must go to bed (chair, I mean). This is the 2nd time I wrote this, lost it the first time GRRRRR.

Day 9 - getting better

Things are definitely improving. I even went for a short walk yesterday! And went the whole day without pain relief.

I just had paracetamol last night, and got an 'okay' sleep, but there was still too much pain. I'll go back to something stronger tonight.

It's still the left jaw joint that's causing the pain. And my bite hasn't improved further, it's still about the same as when I got back from the surgeon. But that wasn't even 48 hours ago yet, so I must be a patient patient. If all goes according to plan, when the joint recovers then so will my bite.

My liquid diet went well yesterday! I found smoothies I liked, and made a wonderful tomato and capsicum soup for lunch and drank about 5 cups of it. Then I had a smoothie: vanilla ensure, vanilla icecream, milk, banana and flax oil. About 3 cups of that. I felt full! But about half an hour later got some very bad upper tummy cramps. Too much volume, I think.

Last night I pureed up some beef curry my husband made for the family. It needed quite a lot of water added to make it runny enough. I drank 3 cups of it. Then I made real hot chocolate - about a small bar's worth of dark chocolate melted with milk and cream. One big mug was enough, it was rich and delicious. I went to bed with a very happy tummy.

My body is wasting away a bit. I've probably lost 2kg (which is what I put on in preparation for the surgery) but I really notice the muscle loss. I'm going to try to do a few exercises to slow it down, but really don't feel up to doing much yet.

I have more soup plans for today. I woke up at 6am and got on the computer to write this. I was just too sore to try to go back to sleep.

I'll try to get some new photos up for tonight.

In general I am feeling happy and good about the surgery. It is such a fast and magic change after the slow haul of braces. I love the way my teeth overlap and my lips touch at rest, and the few cosmetic things that are really an added bonus. I would not have had the surgery done just for the cosmetic reasons but it was great to be able to have them added in. I don't know if anyone else will even notice them but it doesn't matter to me.

It is great having my mother staying to help. I'm doing quite a bit around the house still but having plenty of time to sit around reading, which is nice.

1 week on, and encouraging news

Went to the surgeon today. He says all is GREAT - wounds are healing very well, I'm keeping them really clean (I squirt warm salty water and savacol mouthwash around) and the x-ray looks great.

But I have a bulged disk on my left TMJ. And of course my bite wasn't lining up that well. So I am back to torture of a different sort: super tight bands. I have power chains so thick and tight that I am effectively wired shut for the next 8 days. Not only is this expected to improve my bite, but it will rest my poor sore joint. Apparently the disk will 'definitely' go back to normal.

I need it - last night was full of terrible pain. The drugs aren't strong enough for it. I did have a muscle relaxant that causes drowsiness, but didn't take it last night because it was giving me these bizarre jerky rigors which were pretty unpleasant. Apparently it's a rare side effect.

My mother drove me, and on the way home we stopped to buy a few things (I stayed in the car, cowering at my freakish appearance and the hideous pain in my jaw joint, which had got even worse). By the time we got home, some teeth on my left hand side were touching! Awesome. I felt terrible - really hot and nauseous with a terrible headache - but more positive, somehow. It is easier to endure things if you feel sure it will work out well in the end.

Then I tried to eat lunch... oh my goodness. I am going to be a bag of bones after 8 days. I even resorted to the foul Ensure plus.

My family had roast chicken and vegetables for dinner and for the first time since the surgery I felt HUNGRY. I pureed it all up and it was very disappointing.

The other thing is the medications - I have tablets because I could get them in with the looser bands - but now I can't and I have to grind them up and put them in water and swallow them. And the taste is unbelievably bad. Never have I had to ingest something so foul. I'm going to ask for liquids tomorrow.

I should add that this sore joint/off bite thing is 'more common than not', in the words of my surgeon. That's one thing I hadn't picked up on from all my research, so I was unprepared for it and it really knocked me.

Day 6 or 7

Is this day 6 or 7? Surgery was last Monday, this is the following Sunday.



I rang the surgeon today because a lump by my right ear, under my cheekbone, was worrying me. He said it sounds like a displaced disk from my tmj joint. Great.

If only my tight band hadn't snapped.

Anyway I see him tomorrow so all will be revealed. I just hate feeling only my canines touching.

Check out my neck bruising.

I want to add more photos but for some reason I can't.

Managed to last all night last night without taking more pain relief halfway through. Slept for 2 hours this afternoon. Had a nasty slip on some cloth on the floor which made me jerk my jaw back somehow. It HURT.

My husband goes back to work tomorrow, but my mother's here to help now. The school term starts tomorrow so not only does Jack have to be taken to school and picked up, but there's after-school activities 3 days a week. I am feeling better though, I think we'll cope.

Day 6 after surgery

I have been feeling really down today because of the pain in my right jaw joint. It gets very bad at night. It's made worse by the face that my lower jaw falls open when I sleep. I use the 'jaw bra' I was given at the hospital to hold ice, and put it tightly around my head and jaw to hold my jaw closed. Of course then I have the uncomfortable sensation of just my right-hand canines touching. So I let off the tightness slightly to keep the teeth just slightly apart.

I am wondering if the joint has become dislocated. It feels wrong - there is a bony-feeling bump below my cheekbone just in front of my ear, where there should just be a hollow.

One more day to wait until I know for sure whether something like that has happened. But it is hard to keep my spirits up. If it has happened I dread what might happen next: could the surgeon put it into place on the spot and how much would that hurt.... or would I need more surgery.... would it cost more, this has cost so much already.

I am trying to appreciate the good things obvious from the surgery so far: my open bite is gone and the top teeth overlap the bottom ones; the slants of both my top and bottom jaws have gone and they seem to be level, and so does my chin. My airway is good. The surgeon told me he was cutting so much bone out of my top jaw anyway that he removed some bone in there to give me a wider breathing passage (the inferior something bones, he said). So that's got to be good. And he also straightened the septum of my nose (the bit that I'd have a ring through if I was a bull!). Plus my lips close naturally - or nearly, if my jaws weren't held apart by the contact of my canines they would easily close. They're still quite swollen though.

Hard to keep my spirits up. I hope it's temporary.

Also I haven't mentioned the stitch between my eyebrows. The surgeon drilled into the bone there and put a screw in as a non-moving reference point during the surgery. It doesn't hurt. Apparently it won't scar.