In other news, I finally got my CBCT done after the machine breaking the other day and screwing up my appointment. I guess this is some fancy shmancy machine. Like a normal MRI looking machine and not your typical stand up pano xray type thing. The office I got everything done in said this is the only one they own in the Bay Area, and it's only a year old. Sweet. So, I am getting the best of the best there. This should provide my surgeon with super cool 3d imaging that he will be able to mock the surgery off of. Can't wait to see his plans with it.
Oh. My. Gawd. ...... I have a surgery date!! Dr. Karas's office got back to me this morn and asked if I could do Feb 18th. Why, yes, yes I can! I double checked to make sure that is enough planning time for him, and they said no worries there. Only 1 night overnight if all goes well. Pretty similar to last time. So, my head is spinning a little bit. I actually have a date! And I totally called this happening. This whole "surprise, you're confirmed!" less than a month out from surgery. Good thing I bought my mom's ticket out here on a whim that I would in fact end up in Feb. Oh well, I am happy to have the date finally. I was able to confirm all of my sick leave with work, book my final teeth cleaning, file my FMLA paperwork with my agency, and start planning my last days up in Tahoe for the season too. I have a ton more appointments that need to be planned. I have another set of xrays and ceph with my ortho on Feb 8th, a few more pre op appointments coming with the surgeon, full blood draw, need to get my surgical hooks on, and I think I need to go for final molds and get a splint fabricated right before surgery too. A lot to do, but I am SO glad to be in the final prep stages for all of this. Oddly enough I got a shot of excitement today instead of my usual anxiety. Like, the past month or so I've been having nightmares about waking up from surgery and my mouth is a hot mess. Like, I am missing tooth 7, my jaws are more crooked than before, and all sorts of bad stuff happened. But today I was day dreaming of waking up and knowing immediately that it's better. Being able to look through all of my swelling and tell right away that we got it. I am finally fixed. It's dangerous to day dream like that. While I have faith in my team, I also need not get excited about a result I very well may not get again and then end up in greater depression and disappointment. In other news, I finally got my CBCT done after the machine breaking the other day and screwing up my appointment. I guess this is some fancy shmancy machine. Like a normal MRI looking machine and not your typical stand up pano xray type thing. The office I got everything done in said this is the only one they own in the Bay Area, and it's only a year old. Sweet. So, I am getting the best of the best there. This should provide my surgeon with super cool 3d imaging that he will be able to mock the surgery off of. Can't wait to see his plans with it. The scans were not as long as a traditional MRI, but they sucked a lot more. You know how hard it is to breathe so calmly that NOTHING moves in your mouth or throat? I couldn't even swallow for some of them. That was pretty rough. Thank god they are not as long as regular MRI scans! I got through it though. Hopefully get the images in a few days. Hopefully I can figure out how to get them and post them. I know in the past I've had issues with the 3d Dicom images.
4 Comments
Shelly
1/23/2016 07:48:32 pm
I found your blog while googling crooked face post op. I've had 3 jaw surgeries. I'm a few months post op. I feel bad posting this because you seem so excited, i know what happened to me is just bad luck,it's unlikely to happen to you too. I was hoping this surgery would fix it all, but I'm worse off. my first surgery was great , they only did my lower jaw , I looked amazing, but I had a relapse after a few years and started getting an open bite, so I had a second surgery where they did my upper and lower jaw. Well I ended up with a bit of a cant to the right and my midline was a bit off to the right, my nose was bigger, but I lived with it, I didn't look that bad. Well a few years later I end up with an overbite and open bite, so I decided to go round 3 to try to fix everything, I was so picky , had lots of consultations,i could have had surgery a year earlier but I delayed it by waiting for extra consultations, went in with lists so I didn't forget what I wanted to tell the surgeon. Well i was hoping it was just swelling but my face is even more crooked, the midline is even more off, the cant is way more slanted and noticeable, my chin slants, I'm trying not to think about it because I'm 4 months post op , praying it's still swelling, but it's not its bone and the upper jaw crookedness is ridiculous, I've had people ask me when the right side of my face the swelling will go down, I'm pretty sure it never is because I am just crooked. It's so noticeable, my nose is even bigger now it use to have cute slope now it's a flat straight big nose with big nostrils. My nerve damage was way worse and the pain this time was horrible,my case was much more complicated then yours, but I had it in my head I would wake up and everything would be fixed and perfec,but it's not. I don't think jaw surgery is exactly as precise as I thought, I think it's half science half judgment and art of the surgeon. I think you will have better luck then me but I though I'd tell my story do you don't expect perfection like I did.i think when it comes to jaw surgery perfect is impossible.
Reply
Ashley
1/24/2016 05:41:28 am
Aaahhhh... I just got done replying to this and the comment got lost and didn't post for some reason, so lets try this again: I am really sorry to hear you're being put through the ringer with this too. It's not an easy process. I know how emotionally and physically exhausting it is, and it's a constant battle to just keep on keepin on in our situation. We sound very similar in a lot of ways. I always tell patients, "you probably won't have as bad of luck as me. Most patients come out fine with normal complications and I am in a small minority that got royally screwed." If you read some more of my blog, I talk a lot about my expectations, which have been super realistic from the start even for the first surgery. Aesthetics were always back burner and a bonus for me if I saw any improvement there. I was always primarily going for function, and even then, just an improvement and not perfection. Even more so for my revision. I am a REALLY tough case now, and I know we're not going to get it all 100% correct. My surgeon was extremely realistic with me even at my initial consult with him, telling me what he thinks he could fix, could improve a little but not fix all the way, and some things that he thinks are next to impossible to fix just in one revision surgery. Like last time, I am willing to sacrifice aesthetics for function, so whatever happens there happens and I'll be OK with it so long as I can see enough improvement in my bite that I can get some relief compared to how I feel now with my current bite. And even then, I know that might happen, but I am at a point where I have to roll the dice to see. If I get burned on this one, then I am calling it quits and will live with whatever happens after this. Who is your surgeon? Did you get your revision with the same person? Again, I am so sorry you're going through hell with this too. This process is tough even when everything goes right, and can be down right devastating and can consume your life when it doesn't.
Reply
Shelly
1/24/2016 03:01:28 pm
Ya I didn't read your whole blog, just a few pages so far,yes my first jaw surgery was like over 15 years ago, I'm almost 30 now. Ya it's been awful to go through all this , it really takes a toll mentally, emotionally, physically and killed my self esteem. All my teeth touch again, hopefully it will stay that way, it's still really uncomfortable though, I don't think my bite will ever feel comfortable though. I had someone else do my 3rd jaw surgery, I'm in Canada but he is one of the best, guess he did the best he could,couldn't get all the old plates out, they marrowed into the bones ..had to cut through the plates, I still have metal from my first surgery too,X-rays look crazy lol. I wish I never touched my face after that first surgery. I think you look great post op compared to pre op,I think once they bring all your teeth together you'll do great... looks very difficult to chew with your open/overbite. I had it in my head after this surgery my jaw would no longer slant and my face would look better, I never even thought of the possibility I'd be even more crooked lol wish I didn't build it up in my head so much, thinking life would be great after this. After my second surgery I hated photos of myself, now i hate them more. I'm going to give my face a full year to settle then see where I go from here, I hate my nose now, which sucks it use to be so small and one of my best features:( , maybe a nose job and get my jaw bone shaved so I'm symmetrical. Lol I just want my face not to look so wonky,there's no way I'll go though a fourth surgery.. Plus my teeth couldn't handle it. I didn't think looks would bother me this much ..but it dose!!. I just want these braces off now, they're really taking a toll on my gums, will need to get more gum grafts. I bought a dentist scraping pick and mirror, give myself a cleaning every night and floss lots, but still the gums keep receding post op. I read about your tooth root shrinking and how you lost one, I made an appt with the dentist for next week because I never even knew that existed, going to get them to check out mine. Oh my !!what a roller coaster this has been, I just want off.lol make sure you get them to look at condylar resorption, that started happening after my second surgery, where I went from symmetrical to a surgery caused cant ..it began causing them to wear down. That could cause another open bite or overbite down the road, they don't know what causes it, I read some articles about braces and surgery causing it to a certain degree, another article thinks it's hormone imbalance.. But it's unknown still..just theories. The jaw surely is one complex part of the body.your the only blog I found with a similar story to mine, glad I found it, hoping your surgery fixes everything!! But if not I at least hope it's functional!anyways hope to keep reading your updates!! Hoping all goes well:)!!!
Reply
Shelly
1/24/2016 04:05:07 pm
I meant to ask, how long will you be wired or tightly elastic shut for? Why only 1day in the hospital post op? where it's your second surgery should it maybe be more so they can check things out each day, give Iv fluids n do checkups, even for the first surgery around here you need to stay in the hospital at least 3 days ,that's for everyone. Then again it looks like your surgeon has a lot more advanced equipment so that might be why, the 3D imaging looks like it will help lots! Really cool.i discovered instant potatoes mixed with milk this surgery, didn't think they'd fit through the last 2 surgerys wish I had discovered they could sooner, eat that with melted butter or mix with gravy,lol Also made peanut butter smoothie: spoonfuls of peanut butter,2 bananas, yogurt, honey, ice cream, milk in blender... Everyone at work was expecting me to come back skinny but I looked the same lol, think I'm the only person who never lost weight being wired shut for a month n a half ahah for thanksgiving I got to add strained turkey gravy to my potatoes, much better than store package gravy. I even bought Hagen Daz ice cream blenderd it, let it melt strained it and drank it.not very healthy but those days when I was so hungry it helped.I'm sure second time around you will get more creative also,lol
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2018
Categories |