I've got a loose screw in the head.... literally. Ha! I've always wanted to say that ;) The plates and screws around my nose have always been tender to the touch since surgery. Not painful or anything, but just weird feeling. I could never feel the plates in my cheeks or on the bottom jaw. All of the sudden between christmas and new year, I started to feel this notch on the underside of my cheek bone. It wasn't painful, but over the past few weeks it's definitely gotten worse. At first it just felt tight and sore/tired, like I had a tension headache across the left side of my face. Now it feels like a firm lump around the area (not sure if that has anything to do with the tooth I got filled the other day there either) and definitely hurts. To the point where if I roll over on it the right way in my sleep it wakes me up. So, I am pretty sure there is a screw backing out of it's home there in my cheek. Seeing my surgeon on Tues for him to take a look at it. The minor surgery to take out the plates/screws is supposed to be a walk in the park compared to the jaw surgery itself, so I am not worried about this if he has to open me up and go in and take out the plates/screws there.
Speaking of my surgeon, he's met twice this week with my orthodontist and prosthodontist. Both times on their off days/time and on their own dime. The prosthodontist lives an hour away, so I am just so appreciative of the effort that is being made to discuss the details of my case and plan it between all of these guys. I am pretty certain I didn't get anything remotely close to this kind of care during the planning of my first surgery. It really does blow my mind that this much attention to detail in the planning is going on now. Just night and day compared to the first time around. I see my orthodontist on Tues morning to hear what the consensus was from their two study sessions. From what it sounds like now, they want to remove a tooth from my bottom arch to bring that arch in more and exaggerate my overbite a bit more so they have room to move everything they need to move in surgery. I am not thrilled about getting a healthy tooth extracted, but at this point it does make the most sense in terms of what we need to do to get the surgical result I need. I am definitely anxious to hear what the game plan is.
Switching gears... I was posting online to a jaw surgery group, and I don't know why I didn't do this before, but I drew some lines on a pre op and post op picture of my mouth trying to show somebody what a cant is. This image literally made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. People couldn't believe that the picture on top was 2 week pre op, and the bottom is my 5-6 week post op result. :( I drew the horizontal plane from back molar band to back molar band. You can really see how much I am canted and how far the midlines are off. I still just can't figure out exactly how my surgeon managed to do this to me.... but she did!
Speaking of my surgeon, he's met twice this week with my orthodontist and prosthodontist. Both times on their off days/time and on their own dime. The prosthodontist lives an hour away, so I am just so appreciative of the effort that is being made to discuss the details of my case and plan it between all of these guys. I am pretty certain I didn't get anything remotely close to this kind of care during the planning of my first surgery. It really does blow my mind that this much attention to detail in the planning is going on now. Just night and day compared to the first time around. I see my orthodontist on Tues morning to hear what the consensus was from their two study sessions. From what it sounds like now, they want to remove a tooth from my bottom arch to bring that arch in more and exaggerate my overbite a bit more so they have room to move everything they need to move in surgery. I am not thrilled about getting a healthy tooth extracted, but at this point it does make the most sense in terms of what we need to do to get the surgical result I need. I am definitely anxious to hear what the game plan is.
Switching gears... I was posting online to a jaw surgery group, and I don't know why I didn't do this before, but I drew some lines on a pre op and post op picture of my mouth trying to show somebody what a cant is. This image literally made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. People couldn't believe that the picture on top was 2 week pre op, and the bottom is my 5-6 week post op result. :( I drew the horizontal plane from back molar band to back molar band. You can really see how much I am canted and how far the midlines are off. I still just can't figure out exactly how my surgeon managed to do this to me.... but she did!
2 weeks pre op on the top, 5-6 weeks post op on the bottom
And now to really switch gears.... I've hit a wall overall medically recently. I turned the wrong way at work and pinched a nerve in my neck/shoulder. Seeing a chiropractor twice a week now to try and tackle that. Still dealing with knee issues. I tore the LCL of the right knee completely off the bone 2 years ago in March (wow, times flies!). When I was coming off of that injury, I messed the other knee up on my first jog back about a year or so ago. Really bugged me right after it happened with some weird clicking, but it was something I just put off getting looked at since, 1.) I was with Kaiser and hate Kaiser, so I wanted to wait until I had my old insurance back to see the orthopedic surgeon who worked on my other knee previously, and 2.) with all the jaw surgery stuff on the front burner, this particular ailment just kept getting put on the back burner. I finally got back to my orthopedic surgeon, and have an MRI tomorrow morn to check if there is any torn cartilage in that knee. I am betting there is since it gets sore and clicks very loudly after any kind of activity, even biking which is supposed to be super low impact on the knees. The surprise of the appointment though was the xrays they took. I thought it would be a waste since most knee stuff is diagnosed with MRI, but here the xrays showed that both of my knee caps are out of alignment. They call it patellar maltracking. I've probably had it most of my life and sometimes it's just the way people are. At least this accounts for the achy knees I've had all of my life. The appointment was worth it just to find that out and not feel crazy for all the life long achy/creeky knees I've dealt with. So, MRI, orthopedic surgeon appointments, orthodontist appointment, maxilofacial surgeon appointment, and chiropractor appointments this week. Ugh.. I am falling apart!
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