PART 13: Day 18 After Surgery

As before, not much has changed in the last few days. However, I am growing tired of my liquid diet for a few reasons:

1) I cannot find enough warm foods that I can ingest
2) The variety of liquids in general isn't enough to hold my attention for 4 full weeks
3) I don't think I am getting all the nutrients I need

The third point is probably the most important, and my 10-pound weight loss is more than enough to prove to me that I need to take in more of "something". Since I'm already a fairly small guy, losing 10 pounds puts me at a weight that I haven't been at since Grade 8. There's definitely some muscle mass loss as well, although I believe that I'm losing some fat because fat just doesn't come in too many liquid-only foods. Alas, another 8 - 9 days to go.

PART 12: End of Week 2 + 1 Day

After 2+ weeks, things are starting to look a little more normal. While a little bit of swelling remains, most of it has shunk. As the days go by, I am slowly able to open my mouth wider, which makes eating and talking easier.

The early assessment is that I look quite different. I dropped in to my workplace today, and a coworker told me that when he saw me, he was like "who is that guy?". Most people have given the new look the thumbs up, others just say it looks "different".

I went to my surgeon's office two days ago, and he said everything looked fine. Since they're closing for the holidays, I won't be having any more appointments with him until Jan 5th when he takes out my splint. That said, I can still try to chew starting Jan 1st, first softer things, then slowly with harder foods. The metric is in pain. If it doesn't hurt, try eating something harder. If it hurts, go softer.

I had my first check-up with my orthodontist yesterday, and had some X-Rays done. It's interesting to see where the staples are. From the X-ray, I have four "staples" (I'm sure they're much more than regular staples) behind and spanning my upper lip. Each one attaches from my skull to my upper jaw, kind of in a "I I I I" format. Then, on the lower jaw, I have three "nails" running over the break in the jaw -- i.e. they run somewhat horizontally. I'm going to try to get a photo of these X-Rays on a later visit.

Because the arch wire for my braces was cut in the middle by my surgeon, I need to have an orthodontist appointment closely following my surgeon's appointment when the splint is removed. So that's scheduled on the 6th of January.

Overall, I'm pleased with the way things are going. I wouldn't mind having the splint out earlier, however because of the extra cut in the upper jaw, it needs to be in there longer. I don't mind having a liquid diet, because everything I'm eating is tasty and fairly healthy. The numbness in the chin is probably the most annoying bit right now. It's a throbbing numbness that's trying to be noticed. And it is.

PART 11: Day 10 at Home

Overall, there isn't too much to report. The swelling has decreased considerably, although it's still obvious that my cheeks are chubbier than they had been in the past. Occasionally, when I'm in cooler temperatures, my chin numbness because a little more irritated and noticeable.

I'm still unable to speak clearly, but it has to do with the restricting splint in my mouth that prevents me from pronouncing words properly. I hope that'll come off soon, but I'm afraid that it'll be there all the way to the end of the year.

Given that I am able to open my mouth wider, I can also spoon-feed myself - which is sometimes better than drinking straight out of the bowl. Through the last few days, I've been chowing down on a wider assortment of cream of anything soups, and now have the ingredients to make some myself. Fortunately, I'm still okay with eating what I am, and I don't miss solid foods too much yet. However, for the last couple of days, I've had a full-body rash which doesn't show signs of going away really. Could be from something I ate. I hope it is. Then again, I don't know what the culprit is.

Finally, while there hasn't been too much pain since the operation, I found that laughing hard is extremely painful. I was watched Just for Laughs on TV, and Dave Chapelle was bustin' my gut... and my face couldn't take it. As I laughed, my upper lip raised (keep in mind that there's a cut behind my upper lip) and my cheeks flexed. Extreme pain right there. I had to calm myself down because it was hurting so much. So, note to self: not too much humour over the next couple of weeks.

PART 10: End of Week 1

I went in for my first follow-up appointment with Dr. Reichman this afternoon. He said he was very pleased with how things were progressing, in terms of my recovery. I'm sure he says that with all his patients.

I had the sutures/stitches removed from the two incisions under my jaw, with some medication and a little strip of tape in its place. The tight elastics holding the jaws together, put in place right after surgery, were also replaced with looser elastics. The new elastics can be removed for "eating" and brushing, but should be worn at least 22hrs / day. They're also loose enough to open my mouth wide enough to stick out my tongue.

All in all, things are progressing along. The swelling is going down little by little.

PART 9: Day 4 at Home

I took a shower this morning and removed the bandages from my face. It took roughly 20 mins to peel it off slowly, and without a mirror. My cheeks are as puffy as I had ever seen them -- even more so without the tape to keep them in. Unfortunately, I haven't found a good way to get the tape crud off my face; so I'm hoping that will go away with enough rubbing over the next few days.

The good news today is that there're less restrictions with the tape off, and I've got less phlegm at the back of my throat (which I'd had over the last couple of days).

PART 8: Day 3 at Home

Dr. Reichman said that today would probably be the worst for me, and it's been manageable. Through the last two nights, I've been getting up and doing things like cleaning my nose because of blood and congestion that's restricting my breathing. The swelling doesn't seem to have reduced very much over the last couple of days, although I'm trying to continue icing as much as I can, which has proven to be a nuisance.

The most difficult parts over the days at home have been:
a) restricted breathing as mentioned above
b) continuous drinking of liquids, and my body adjusting to those liquids
c) the bandages still on my cheeks, restricting the movement of my jaws more than just the elastics in my mouth
d) finding other things to occupy my time with
e) not being sure whether my salty mouth rinses and toothbrushing is keeping my teeth clean enough since I don't feel like I'm able to get to most parts of my mouth

Not much of an update, because not much has happened.

PART 7: Post-Mortem

After dressing down to a patient's gown, I was wheeled into the operating room at approximately 8am. It was my first time in an operating room, and ressembled very much like those in Sci Fi movies, but with aliens replaced with 4 - 6 nurses. Dr. Reichman was a few minutes late, but I had a quite chat with him before the general anesthetic was inserted in my IV tube. I remember being conscious for a few more seconds, but didn't awake until I was in the recovery room having nurses do little things here and there on me, taking my vitals, and such. It was around 1am when I regained consciousness, and I was really groggy. I remembered Dr. Reichman (or possibly another nurse or doctor) tell me at one point that the operation went really smoothly.

I was transferred from the UBC hospital to Vancouver General Hospital because of a labour dispute that had taken place the day before, while I fell in and out of sleep for the next few hours. My parents and sister came to visit me at 5pm or so and left at 9pm. Through their visit, I was still in and out of sleep, but we managed to take a few post-surgery photos. I could see from the pictures that my lower lip was extremely swollen, as was my chin -- both of which had no feeling in them. My cheeks were also wider than I had ever seen them, and brought me back to my Grade 8 days where I still had a certain amount of baby fat. I had an ice pack wrapped around my head, keeping my chin cooled to reduce swelling.

Being hooked up to an IV machine, I could only pee into a plastic container under my bed covers. The first time I tried urinating was the hardest. It was when I was still at UBC's recover room and I really had to go, but wasn't able to get it out. It wasn't until my 4th or 5th try that I succeed. Thereafter, the subsequent nine times when smoothly and quickly. From the time I regained consciousness, I had a tube down my left nostril keeping my stomach empty so that I wouldn't get nauseous and vomit. I had that removed around midnight, and it boy did it feel oh so good. I also had some gravol IV for nausea.

I wasn't able to open my mouth too much, which maked drinking rather difficult. I had splints around my teeth and elastics pulling the jaws together. With my swollen buttom lip, it looks like I still have an underbite... but I can feel my upper row of teeth in front of my lower row by poking around with my fingers.

My folks came to visit again today at 10am, and I was in better spirits and more able to communicate with them. Dr. Reichman came in around 2pm and give me some simple instructions for our next appointment about 1 week from today. The main tasks on my list were:

1) Drink lots of fluids. 2L or more per 24 hours.
2) Clean my mouth clean. Rinse with warm salt water after every drink, and brush what I can 3 times a day (for 15 mins).
3) No chewing and no getting hit.

My operation took 3.5 hours, which Dr. Reichman said was a longer than they had expected. It turns out that my upper jaw wasn't wide enough, so he had to cut it down the middle to widen it more at the back. Seems like the 3 - 4 months I spent with the jackscrew expander was a bit of a waste.

PART 6: The Day Has Come

Today's the day! I'm off to the hospital. It is 30 mins from my admittance time, and 2h30m from my surgery time. I'll update in a couple of days. Cheers.