The Other Side

So I actually got the surgery done. Right now I'm 10 days Post Op and feeling pretty good. The insurance company approved everything we thought it would so on December 18th I went to the hospital to have everything done. I ended up having upper jaw, lower jaw, septioplasty, genioplasty, reduction of interior turbinates, removal of all wisdom teeth and my upper jaw split into three sections. The actual surgery only lasted about four hours, but I was in recovery for about two more hours after that.

I was in the ICU for two nights and the hospital experience was overall a good one. The nurses were a little slow, but the pain medicine worked well and I was comfortable most of the time. The worst part was trying to drink with no syringe because hardly none of the water made it into my mouth. Once I got my syringe from the nurses though I was good to go. I'm very happy to be home and have been taken care of great especially by my mom, my dad, and my boyfriend.

The worst part about the whole process I would say would be not being able to open my mouth and talk. I'm rubber banded shut and on a liquid diet for five weeks. The splint in between my upper and lower jaw will also be wired to my upper jaw for five weeks. The splint is uncomfortable and any food that has any consistency to it seems to get stuck in it.

My primary diet right not consists of apple, juice, chicken broth, ensure milkshakes, tomato soup, strained chipped beef, and some fresh squeezed fruit drinks. I'm hungry pretty much all the time, but eating is it a lot of work and I'm still getting tired pretty easy.

The picture above is 24 hours post op while I'm still in the hospital.

This picture was taken at 48 hours post op as I'm getting ready to leave the hospital! I'm very swollen.
This picture is from 4 days post op. My cheeks and chin are still very swollen.

The bruising has really set in, but I only turned yellow around my neck and under my chin. The bruises went away after about 5 days. This picture was from 6 days post op.