My Last Advice To You

Here we are, one year later. I keep having random thoughts like "at this time a year ago, I was still banded shut and couldn't eat anything solid" or "I can't believe I went through all of this and it didn't even feel like that big of a deal back then."

I'm so happy and relieved that it's over, but it was also not as bad as I thought it would be. Your mind is a very strong, flexible thing. After a few days in a tough situation, it'll adjust and you'll go through the hard times like it's no big deal. So don't worry. You've got this. It won't be as hard as you think.

Here are my last tips & tricks if you're about to undergo jaw surgery. I feel like these were the most important, and I've probably repeated some of them a million times, but I believe that you need to hear them again and again and again.

So here goes:

1. EAT.
This was the biggest obstacle to my recovery at first. I thought that my body would adjust to not eating much for the first week, but it didn't. I needed food but I wasn't hungry, and I didn't have the reflex to force-feed myself. I kept getting symptoms of low-blood sugar and generally feeling weak and very faint. Once I got a minimum of 2000 calories a day in my belly, I started feeling so much better. So if you're struggling, force yourself to eat. Get your surgeon to prescribe anti-nausea meds, work through the mental block of "I'm not hungry/I'm nauseated," and get food in your mouth. Try Ensure, Jamba Juice, Soylent, yogurt drinks. I know it's hard, and it takes forever to get that food behind your teeth, but you need to do it. Eat no matter what. And of course, keep yourself hydrated at all time as well.

2. SLEEP.
Sleeping is hard after the surgery. Don't be surprised if your body just refuses to go into deep sleep for the first few days. It happened to me, and it was very unpleasant and trippy. I had vivid, super weird "surface" dreams. It'll get better, don't worry. But make sure that you have a comfortable place to sleep. I had a shitty wedge pillow that wasn't really a wedge, and I regretted it. Get yourself a good, legit wedge pillow made of hard-ish foam. Make sure that it will retain its shape. Get yourself a humidifier and turn it on every night. Get yourself a jaw bra so that you can keep ice packs around your jaw at night to prevent your face from getting overheated on the first few days, and warm packs to relax your muscles later on. Get yourself something to calm you down while you try to fall asleep, whether it's your favorite TV shows (mine were Friends, How I Met Your Mother and Happy Endings), some calming music or even guided meditation. Sleeping will help you heal and feel better faster, so it's better to over-prepare yourself by getting extra stuff you may not need than not having them and regretting it (like I did).

3. DON'T RUSH IT.
Take at LEAST three weeks off work/school/whatever, if not a month. The brain fog was horrendous for the first two weeks; there is no way I could have accomplished any work. I started feeling like a semi-normal human being by week three, but even then, I tired easily. I wish I had taken four weeks because I definitely could have used the extra sleep. Week 3-4 is when I could sleep better, and that's when you can finally catch up by taking naps. Obviously, everyone is different, but if you can afford it, take a month off. If you feel completely back to normal by week 3, good for you! Use that time to do something for yourself for once.

4. KEEP IT CLEAN.
You won't be able to brush your teeth for a while. I mean, yeah, after a week or so you can brush a few of them with a baby toothbrush (if your surgeon says it's OK), but it'll still be too big to fit between your swollen inner cheeks and your teeth, and it'll hurt. Also, the inside of your teeth will be inaccessible for WEEKS. So do yourself a favor and get a Waterpik (#notsponsored). But be very careful with it; always keep it at the lowest setting and make sure to aim the spout towards your teeth, NOT your cheek (where the stitches will be). I'm convinced the Waterpik saved my teeth. Also, try to get some interdental brushes. Once you can open your mouth by like one millimeter, you can use them to scrape some of the gunk from your inner teeth until you can fit a toothbrush in there.

5. BE PATIENT.
This is the most important tip I can give you. Be patient with your body and your mind. You will most likely hate your face at first, but be patient. The swelling will take forever to go away. You may think it's gone, but it's not. It took me 7 months to like my face. Everything will seem bigger/uglier in the mirror just because you're not used to it. Trust me, your nose/chin/whatever is not that big. It's all in your head. Just be patient. You will also want to go back to your normal life after a week of bed rest, but be patient. Give yourself some time to recuperate. Take naps if you feel tired. Take the time to care for yourself. You will also absolutely want to start chewing food before your surgeon gives you the OK, but be patient. Don't risk it, it's not worth it. Sooner than you think, it'll be a year later, and a few extra weeks of liquid diet will be a blip in your timeline in retrospect. You will be frustrated when you start chewing, too. You'll think you'll never be able to chew normally again. You'll be angry at your tongue for not knowing what to do anymore. But be patient. It'll come back to you. Your muscles will adapt and figure it out. Almost everything you are frustrated about just takes time, so being patient is the key to getting through this surgery.

Good luck on your journey, and please never hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions or concerns!

Updates on Random Issues

Once again, I wrote such a long post last time that I had to break up my thoughts into three posts. Sorry about that! I swear if you read all my posts without quickly scanning through them, you are a saint and the reason why I write so much 😅. I know I was starved for any detail before my surgery.

But anyway, I just thought I would update you on a few random issues I brought up in my posts over the year but never quite addressed fully later on, just in case you're interested (you can scan quickly through this post, I won't hold it against you).

- Gum recession. The recession at the back of my front lower teeth never got worse. I saw a periodontist and he said it was definitely not a big deal and no grafting would be necessary. Just to remind you guys, the orthodontist had recommended a costly gum graft before the surgery to avoid the risk of gum recession, but I declined because I could not find information about such an intensive gum graft for preventive reasons. I'm glad I did, but maybe I tempted fate and got lucky? I do have a little more recession on the upper molars, but nothing dramatic.

The recession looks exactly the same today.

- Pimples/oiliness. I had a major case of oily skin and oily hair that eventually developed into Pimpleland on my face for MONTHS, but it eventually cleared up completely. The oiliness went away fairly fast, I would say in the first 3 months, but the acne stuck around for longer than I expected. I'd say it was completely gone by month 5. Don't despair if you're struggling with acne for so long; I'm 100% sure it was related to the surgery in my case, and it did go away and didn't come back.

- Nighttime slack-jaw. I mentioned before that when I fall asleep, my jaw has a tendency to open up super wide. I'm happy to report that this has improved a lot since month 10! I still sometimes sleep with my mouth open according to my husband, but not as wide, and I don't breathe through my mouth. I asked the surgeon about it and he said it's completely normal. Everyone's jaw slacks open when they're in deep sleep. So there you go!

- Pain when pressing on a specific spot on my right bottom jaw. This never went away. The surgeon thought it was a knot in my muscle, and maybe it is, but it's still there. There is no bump or anything weird in that spot, it just hurts when I place a finger there and push. It's not an issue though, and hasn't gotten worse, so I'm just going to chalk it up to a quirk. It only ever hurts when I press there, and I never need to press there, so I just... don't?

The spot.

- Lisp. That's pretty much gone. My tongue is finally used to my new mouth!

- New glasses. I finally did get new frames, and it's a totally different shape to what I would normally buy pre-surgery. I've gotten tons of compliments on them, so it must mean that they fit my new face! Although to be fair, I first bought a pair with very round lenses, and it DID NOT fit my face at all. I was thankfully able to switch frames, and went with a subtle cat-eye, but still much bigger than I'm used to. I love them!

I chose these; it's the Scarla model from Oliver Peoples.

- Salivary stone. Thankfully, I did not have any other salivary stone since that one occurrence during month 5. I recently started getting a weird cramping feeling near the left ear whenever I put food in my mouth for the first time after a few hours without any food. It's very similar to when I eat something sour, but only on the left and even if the food is not sour. It's been happening for three months now and it does it every time, but it only lasts a split second and goes away. At first, I thought it was another salivary stone, but nothing came of it. I asked my dentist and the surgeon, and they both have no idea what it is, but they don't think it's anything bad or a salivary stone so... good? I'm used to it now and barely notice it. Not a big deal!

- Bite. My bite is "perfect" in theory, but my teeth haven't settled completely yet. I would say almost all of my teeth are touching on the right, but on the left, only two or three teeth are touching near the front. I feel like this could be one of the reasons why my left joint is so unhappy, but my surgeon doesn't seem convinced it is. I just stopped wearing my retainer during the day (I only wear it at night). I'm hoping it'll help my teeth settle in a natural position, as the retainer forces my bite into a weird position because it's so thick. I might also have to visit the dentist because I think one of the teeth that touches is the brand new filling I recently got, so maybe it's just a bit too high and it needs to be adjusted. I couldn't tell when the dentist did it because of the retainer, but now is a great time to fix it.

My upper retainer.

- Palate bump. This hasn't gone away and even grew a little more. Before I stopped wearing my retainer during the day, it was starting to hurt again. I saw my dentist and he thinks it's an exostosis, which is the formation of extra bone material on top of the bone. He said it can sometimes happen with trauma or irritation, so we're pretty sure it's from the upper retainer. My dentist wondered why the retainer was so thick and so high, so it seems like it's not normally like that. We're guessing the retainer put too much pressure on my healing bone, and to protect itself, it just grew a bit more bone in that spot. However, I also asked my surgeon, who seems to think it's just tissue irritation and not bone, but also believes it's from the retainer. We'll see if it goes away after months of only wearing the retainer at night.

- Bone "dents". The notches are still there. The bone filled up completely on the side, but there is still that small dent when I pull the skin tight underneath or feel it with my fingers. Not a big deal and nothing to worry about; just thought I'd mention it!

Bone dent.

So that's it for the random updates! Let me know in the comments if there's anything else I brought up that I never resolved.

I have one more post prepared, which will be my last tips & tricks for those of you about to undertake this journey. I'll for sure update you on the status of my left joint as well, but I don't know when that will be. Probably a couple of months at least.

One Year Later

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of my double jaw surgery and septoplasty. I can't believe it's been that long, but I also can't believe it hasn't been seven years because it simultaneously feels like it happened yesterday but it's been ages. I feel like I've said this a million times before, but it's hard to explain!

I really wanted to write a post on the day of my surgery, but I had my one-year checkup with the surgeon today, and I had a bunch of questions to ask him that I thought would be important to include in this update, so I decided to wait.

I did, however, spent the evening on the 1-year mark reading through the first 30 days of my blog, and oh my god, there were so many typos and nonsensical sentences. I still haven't fixed them because I was reading the blog on my phone at night and couldn't be bothered to log in and take care of it, but I will fix them soon. I know I can blame the surgery brain fog for the first like 20 days, but after that, it's just laziness and not reading back what I wrote before posting it. I'm sure I'll find plenty of mistakes in my monthly updates too (and in this one...).

But let's get on with the update, shall we?

Sleep apnea

The reason why I had this surgery was primarily for sleep apnea. I can happily say that it has been a success! I'm sleeping through the night without waking up, I don't need one or two naps a day to function and I no longer wake up gasping for air. I can't say that I'm 100% back to normal fatigue-wise, but I suspect there is something else at play. I mentioned before that I was trying to get my ferritin, which is my storage of iron, up to a level of 50 ng/mL or more, but I can't seem to achieve it and I'm having lots of problems with the iron supplements causing me digestive issues. Still working on that, but that's a whole other issue unrelated to the surgery at this point.

Numbness

A lot of surgeons or websites will tell you that whatever sensitivity you have at the 6-month mark is what you'll be stuck with, but I disagree completely. Just in the past 2 months, I have seen a difference in the patch of numbness on the left side of my lower lip and chin. I would say the feeling is now at 85%, and I'm confident that it will keep getting better. My own surgeon said it could take years, so don't despair too much at the 6-month mark if you're still in the pins and needle stage. Of course, I'm only speaking from my experience, and if you have absolutely no feeling after 6 months, it's probably a different story.

Joint pain

This is the "bummer" part of my recovery, to be perfectly honest. I've struggled with joint pain, spasms, popping, grinding since the beginning of my recovery, and it's been very up and down. Sadly, even though it got better after removing the rubber bands, my left joint has gotten way worse over the past 2 months now that I'm braces free. I was wondering if it's because I'm wearing my retainer 24/7 (only one more week before I can wear it only at night), but my surgeon doesn't seem convinced. He said today that sometimes the cartilage and bones in the joint can rub against each other and cause inflammation, which will then cause pain. He explained that it was similar to a knee injury, and he thinks that if I take ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation, as well as chew softer foods for a while, it will help. We'll be trying that for 3 weeks, and if it seems to work, he might keep me on it for a little while longer. If not, he said we would have to do an injection directly in the joint (*shudder*) to reduce the inflammation locally. I'm seeing him again after the holidays for a follow-up on how that regimen works out. I'm a little weary of it though because I know ibuprofen is hard on the stomach, and he wants me to take 600 mg every 6-8 hours, which is quite a lot. I also tend to have a sensitive stomach to begin with. Hopefully I won't be spending the holidays with stomach pain and nausea. But if it works and it heals my joint for good, it'll be worth it.

I asked the surgeon what was the risk of this becoming a permanent issue, and he said that there was a study done in Japan where they treated half of a big pool of women with TMJ, and didn't treat the other half at all, and apparently even the women who did not receive treatment got better within a year or two. He seems to think that this is temporary and that if we treat it like an injury, it will heal itself. I'm hoping he's right, and I will follow his instructions to fix it.

Another thing I discussed with my surgeon is the laugh lines. I've mentioned it a lot in the past, and I was always hoping they'd go away as the months progressed, but sadly they haven't. Both the surgeon and my husband think I'm making a big deal out of it and it's not very apparent. I think they make me look old when my face is at rest, but I also don't think I want to do any fillers or plastic surgery. For now, I decided to let it go and live with it, but it definitely bothers me. I know I had them before the surgery, but they have significantly deepened. Whether or not it makes me look older/less attractive is up for debate, but in my mind it does. Hopefully I will get over it at some point.

Obviously, with any big surgery like this, you always end up with pros and cons, either as imminent risks during the surgery, or lasting effects after the surgery. Here's a list of my current pros and cons:

Pros

- No more sleep apnea; less fatigue

- Bigger airway; easier to breathe

- Better-looking profile

- Better-looking smile; less gummy

Cons

- Jaw joint pain, grinding, popping; possible worsening of TMJ

- Deeper laugh lines

If I end up with permanent jaw joint pain or if it gets even worse, honestly, I probably will regret the surgery. I would rather be tired than in pain. For now, the pain isn't constant; it's only when I move my jaw, so it's not SO bad. I'll keep you guys updated as the situation progresses.

I'm kind of ending on a depressing note for my one-year anniversary post; my apologies! I want to reiterate that I absolutely love my smile and my profile. I think I look overall much better than before, and, of course, the sleep apnea is gone, which is amazing! But I always strive to be honest on this blog, so I had to bring up the jaw pain and the laugh lines.

I've also prepared two other separate posts, one updating you on random issues that I brought up but never resolved, and one giving you my last tips & tricks if you're about to have jaw surgery. They should be posted within the next week.

I just have so much to say every time, even though "not much has happened"... 😒