Double Jaw Surgery, After Procrastinating for 15 Years... - Denver, CO

Like others on this site, I joined out of the curiosity factor to learn more about my upcoming jaw surgery and did not plan on providing my own story. However, I've learned so much over the past few months that I hope my journey will help others, in addition to hopefully learning more myself as I struggle through some issues during my recovery.

I had jaw surgery on Nov 10, 2015 to address my cross bite and Class III malocclusion (open bite) on both my right and left sides. Only my two front teeth would touch, which made chewing progressively difficult as I got older (I swallowed a lot of food whole), caused my front teeth to buck out and chip, caused gaps and spacing in my mouth, and caused significant gum recession on certain teeth. I had slight TMJ pain on occasion, but nothing major. From the outside I looked fine; you could not tell my mouth was as mis-aligned as it was.

I had an open bite on only my left side as a child, and had braces from age 7-17 to fix it and other teeth issues. After ten years, my ortho gave up and took braces off but never proposed surgery as I could still chew on my right. However, my bite only became worse as I got older, leaving me with an open bite on both sides by the time I was in my early 20's. I went through the lengthy process of meeting with several Dr's and Ortho's to only have insurance deny the benefits. I changed jobs and insurances and the procedure was eventually approved, however, life events (marriage, job transfers, kids, career) caused me to avoid this topic for 15 years. Finally, in July of 2014 I got braces AGAIN to get this thing done and over with by the time I'm 40. It has now been a year and a half, and I still see a long road ahead. I'm thinking 41 now.

Alternatives considered: Could I get caps on my teeth to bridge the gap in bite? No, the gap is too large and I would look like I had horse teeth. Could I get some kind of tooth implant to address the bite? No, it would be too expensive and would still be dealing with the same 'large tooth' issue. Could I get some kind of device to help me chew food? One doctor actually suggested removing teeth and getting dentures. As a 20-something single woman. Seriously? There was the option of getting a device made that I would put in and take out to eat, but was told it is very obvious and I thought it would be too cumbersome that I probably wouldn't use it. Lastly, do nothing. If I did nothing, I was told by age 60 I would probably lose my teeth in front. So, I decided surgery was the best option. The malocclusion issue runs in my family, and other family members successfully had this surgery, so it made sense to me.

Benefits of the surgery: 1) I could chew my food. Wondering if this contributed to digestive issues I've experienced the last few years... 2) I could smile without being embarrassed of the gaps/buck teeth. 3) I was told jaw surgery could help my sleep apnea/hypopnea and maybe I could sleep through the night (woohoo!). Risks I worried about: 1) what my face will look like after and 2) pain.

I had double jaw surgery (Le Fort/genioplasty), my palate expanded, and lower jaw moved back slightly. The upper jaw was cut into 5 separate pieces and the lower into 3 separate pieces. I have titanium pins holding the lower jaw together, and pins and plates in the upper jaw holding those bones together. I have a plastic splint wired to the upper jaw to keep it all together, which normally comes out after 6 weeks, but my Dr is leaving it in for 8 weeks due to the extent of the surgery. I am starting week 8 and hoping I get the splint removed this week. The oral surgeon said this was one of the most difficult cases he has ever done. The orthodontist said the same. Both explained I still will most likely not have a 'perfect' bite but it will be much improved, I will need braces for another year after surgery and subsequent periodontal work.

I was well prepared, read, researched, googled, real-self'd for this surgery. I asked questions and my doctor was very forthcoming with details. But nothing prepared me for the pain. I've had other oral surgeries, multiple c-sections, other abdominal surgeries… and I would do them all over again before I did this one again. It's been a long road. My recovery has been long and painful, and 'slower than normal' according to my Dr.

Was it worth it? I'm not sure yet. Ask me again in a year. Week 8 and I still am on liquids and not chewing, still in pain, still on multiple medications, still not sleeping well, tire easily, have continuous sinus infections and swollen like a Cabbage Patch Kid. The appearance aspect was always secondary and not a priority, but currently not happy with it, at all. I realize the swelling will take months to get better. I know I'm not done yet. I will post before and after pictures later.

Surgery took about 6 hours, and my husband was able to see me after about 9 hours. I spent the first 24 hours in ICU, and then I was moved down to a regular room for the next two days. The hospital staff and doctor were great. The worst parts were the pain, nausea, constant bleeding and the tube that went down my throat.

Upon waking, I started choking on blood. I guess this surgery, especially the upper jaw, causes a lot of bleeding and obviously with gravity it falls right down. The doctor explained he would put a tube up my nose that would go down into my gut to siphon out the blood, as it usually causes nausea, and this would be left in overnight for the entire first day. This gave me a sore throat and made it very difficult to swallow. I didn't expect my mouth to fill up with blood so much. The nurses gave me a suction tube to use, but keeping on top of this every few minutes was exhausting. All I wanted to do was sleep, but I would wake myself up from choking after just a few minutes. It continued for the full 3 days in the hospital, but got much better after the first day. I was able to sleep a stretch of a few hours the next day and it helped a lot.

Pain management was difficult the first night. I didn't respond well to what they first gave me and my blood pressure dropped. I heard beeping, then woke to a nurse slapping me in the face telling me to 'wake up!' and and saw a room full of people. It was foggy, but I swear this happened twice. They needed to call a doctor for approval to change the pain med out. It felt like forever waiting, as my pain levels kept getting worse.

My worst fear going into this was nausea; I hate getting sick and was nervous about the tube and not being able to open my mouth. I think those first rounds of pain meds caused the nausea, and I threw up a lot of blood. This dislodged the tube in my stomach and nurses had to Xray to see where it was. They did this right in the bed as I sat up straight (high-tech!). Since it moved, they had to shove the tube back down into my gut through my nose, which was not fun.

Those were the worst parts. The next day, any and all tubes coming out of me were removed, which was uncomfortable but so glad to get them out. I was not that hungry but used a syringe to get down water, broth, smoothies and Ensure throughout the day. Make sure to ask for several syringes and those little extension tubes to take home. I needed them for at least 10 days after, and sometimes they would break.

The remaining stay was all about sleeping and pain management. I fell in love with my jaw bra, ice and Hallmark Christmas movies. I had to go to my Dr's office on the way home for a full round of X-rays and he added some rubber bands. One thing that really helped for the transition home was creating an excel sheet to keep track of my medicine for each day of the week. I re-printed this thing and used it for at least 8 weeks after surgery. I had to take pain meds, antibiotics, advil, mucinex, afrin and nasal spray several times a day.

My dr told me I would need someone to take care of me and my kids for the first 2-3 weeks. My mother flew out and was a huge help, as well as my husband. The first week I pretty much slept non-stop and they kept track of my medicines and brought me things to eat so I wouldn't have to walk up and down stairs. I was a little dizzy from the medicine. My energy came back a bit the second week and I didn't need to sleep as often, could care for myself better, but would tire quickly. My mother stayed for a full month since my husband had to travel. I probably could have used her for that fifth week, too, as I was too tired to take the kids to their activities. I've known others that had this surgery and were only down for 1-3 weeks. But my recovery is slower than normal and I'm having issues now, so this is probably not typical.

The antibiotic killed my gut and I couldn't keep anything in the first few days. This made me very weak and tired. I called my Dr and he had me come right in and stopped the antibiotic. He gave me bags of IV and from that point on, I felt much better.

I wore the jaw bra constantly to keep swelling down. You need to have a tray that makes little ice cubes or crushed ice to fit in those bags b/c the large cubes from the freezer machine hurt. The rubbermaid blue ice packs I put in my kids' lunch work well, because they don't leak at night.

I don't normally take all the pain meds after a surgery, but I relied heavily on them. My dr always gave me more when I asked, but in smaller quantities. Thank god I found an old bottle from my last c-section, b/c that got me through the past few weeks. I was on them round the clock through week 6, and finally stopped this week 9.

I lost 10lbs. I heard of people losing more, but my dr kindly reminded me that even though I was not eating a lot, I also was not moving a lot. I guess watching Hallmark movies doesn't burn much (I was addicted to those movies!). I also read that you typically lose enough weight to get you to your ideal weight. So I'd say that's about right.

The things that helped most during the recovery were:
1) keeping on top of pain meds - using the tracker sheet and setting my alarm at night to take meds on time gave me better sleep
2) freezing soup and smoothies - I need to avoid dairy and gluten, so I made batches of soup and froze them in mason jars. Having these on hand saved me. Thinning them out was needed for the syringe.
3) meal train - a dear friend set one up and friends delivered meals for a few weeks. This was a huge help, especially for my mom. I also made a few meals before I went in and froze them.
4) eating high fat foods - kept me feeling fuller. I used full fat coconut milk in smoothies and put protein powder or collagen hydrolysate from Great Lakes Gelatin to up the protein. By week 3 I could use a baby fork and spoon to get in mashed avocado, eggs or coconut milk ice cream or yogurt
5) probiotic - to keep my immune system up. the whole house got sick over the holidays, but I didn't.
6) supplements to reduce inflammation and swelling - I just started these last week since my swelling still has not gone down all the way, and I think the swelling looks a lot better this week. I bought 3 bottles at Whole Foods: Bromelain, Turmeric and Quercetin. I also made a turmeric and ginger tea when I had the energy. I wish I had started this earlier.
7) alternating hot and cold - my Dr said moist heat would encourage circulation and healing, and although it made me look a bit more swollen after I would do it, it felt good and I would feel better overall the next day. I alternated cold and hot the last few weeks.
8) salt water rinses, water pic and baby toothbrushes - oral hygiene with the splint is hard. Most have the splint on for 6 weeks. Mine is on for almost 10! I should get it off this week.

My chin is less pronounced now and I'm happy about that. As a result of the upper jaw moves, the tip of my nose got pushed up a bit and I think it makes the bump in my nose less noticeable so I'm happy with that. But overall, my cheeks are still puffy and I don't feel like I look right. I think people look at me funny. My right side is noticeably more swollen than my left. I will attach pictures from different weeks.