Two Years Post Update...!!!

And, April 25th marked my second Jaw-niversary..... Firstly, I have to apologise for being a rubbish blogger.  I know I haven't posted for a few months and this two year update is coming on 4th may, 

So 2 year on... Exactly Two year ago on April 25, 2012, I was being wheeled into a surgery .I then spent the next two months recovering (you can read all about that in my previous posts). Reflecting on the whole experience I feel SO fortunate. Over the years I’ve read many blogs by people who went through similar surgeries and not all of them went as smoothly as mine.

I honestly think I can attribute the success of my surgery to the amazing care I had pre- during and after surgery. There was Dr Oommen's fantastic team. Dr.Rodney, who made me laugh through the humiliation of having braces in my twenties, the amazingly talented Dr. Oommen Aju Jacob and Dr Jeomy Zachariah Oommen and Dr. Murukan, who answered every single one of my questions and who let me know I was in safe hands all the way, and of course, my wonderful, beautiful mother who fed me, let me sleep in her bed and generally did absolutely everything for me the first four weeks after surgery when I was needing her care like an infant. my sweet sister who visited me, brought me presents, and even made me homemade soup, my father who welcomed me into  home with open arms, I truly am blessed to have had such wonderful people at my side and I thank God for that often.

Amazingly I don’t really have anything to tell you. Besides the obvious fact that my face looks different, it’s almost as if nothing ever happened. I gained back the weight I lost almost the moment I could eat, I have the feeling back in 99.9% of my face and I’m even (almost) used to seeing my profile in the mirror. Every so often when I’m putting on makeup I feel myself rub against plastic covered area under my lips but it doesn’t hurt at all, it just seems a little weird.

Yes I still have numbness on my left lips and chin (and will for life) but other than that there’s no remnant of this historic surgery. Considering I spent close to a decade researching it, wondering about it and worrying, it’s so odd to just have it done. No more looking at other people’s before and afters fantasizing about what my face will look like, and no more self-consciously trying to hide my under-bite. A part of my life is over and honestly I couldn’t be happier.

I doubt anyone is still reading this blog, but in case you are... I thought I would put some pictures up. I still have my braces on and no idea when I will be getting them off, but everything is going great. I'm very happy I had the surgery done.

Ulcers.... 1,2....3!!!!

I saw Dr. Rodney last week. It seems as though that the green elastics that I've had to wear across the molar teeth for the last five weeks worked a tiny bit but i misplaced the hooks. My ortho got disappointed to see the way i wore that. he gave a brief speech about the necessity of wearing elastics once again and advised to use pink code elastics instead of green. Now he says pink one’s are the softest code, i remember he told me before green ones are the softest. When i enquired that he don’t even remember that he don’t even remember his old words. but i know i remember his words, green one are the softest bands which are available...!!!! So now they have me wearing elastics 24 *7.  Now, I don't have a degree in orthodontics or dentistry or anything, so if anyone who does would like to explain all of this to me, I'm all ears. These annoying elastics hurt!!! Really hurts, often i have uncontrollable urge to pull this out but the same time my ortho’s face keeps me continue with it. Well, things aren’t going well with my cheeks, these elastics started scratching my cheeks and three ulcers turned up at the same time, on two lower and one upper lip.... And i stopped wearing elastics since i found ulcers   plus to that a part of dental clip from left upper molar teeth broken and the wire got liberty from being held tight to that joint. It started digging my lip lavishly with its full strength. i’m very uneasy about talking or eating. Torture!  But anyway.  Thats life.   50% normal, 50% weird.

broken part

I had another person contact me today through Facebook regarding jaw surgery after finding my blog. I thought, how are so many people finding this blog? So, I Googled "The Extreme Jaw Lift" and this one pops out on the list! I know it sounds lame, but I thought it was AWESOME!!!

Small But Sharp!!!!

I had another visit to my orthodontist last day evening and had my lower jaw wired onto a new clip. It was really hurting but that is normal after every appointment but later the matter got worse.  The foremost part of clip which opened above the teeth has sharp ends and it was touching and rubbing my tongue and it’s horribly hurts when i try to talk or eat…. I skipped dinner and directly went to bed…. Morning I woke up early in the morning and ringed my surgeon, he was empathetic and fixed my appointment at 10.30am….

I stumbled into my orthodontist’s office at 10. 25:00 am. The clip fixated to my right (which broken and fixed last day) lower braces has been dug in my tongue, and I was unable to bend it or trim it myself. I feel a little uneasy about sticking wire cutters into the very back of mouth, where I cannot see, and attempting to clip off some excess metal. I was also having extreme difficulty eating because every time I moved my mouth to chew, a little more of my tongue would get scraped off. So, taking the intelligent route, I went to visit my surgeon. He informed me that my right lower clip had actually sharp ends which were digging my tongue. After adjusting it he advised to apply ointment on the sides of tongue which has rashes and take saline water twice a day... I feel much better already. But it still hurts; I think it’s just because of those rashes. So its ok I think.

Again.... Fever!!!!

I have noticed something a little odd. An ulcer turned up in the numb area of my left lower lip, it doesn't caused any pain since it is on the numb area… No pain means no gain or what??? hehehe but i think its true, It was not hurting so i ignored that completely, but after almost one week, it's started complaining in other ways... It doesn't hurt or feel anything but my head aches when it touches with something, i mean food or water and after one more day its size bulged and my lips and chin feels heavy and a bit swollen….. Moreover, my facial muscles and ear were very sore and had a rise in temperature also…. My lips and chin were still very swollen and I was taking maximum pain relief.  I ringed my surgeon thinking that the temperature caused due to this ulcer but he advised that can be cuz of sinus infection and he was true!!!Another sinus infection going on over here….. My surgeon advised to take steam and Imole plus!!!.... Plus Side, ulcer started winding up slowly and the minus side, the fever strongly going on its incredible journey…. 

Fever means sitting inside home doing nothing, sleeping or in bed for 24 hrs which i ever hate... last time when i had fever i was at bed almost all time.... Luckly, this time i got some gaps, i means intervals between fever attacks, just two or three hours but i maximum utilized that. I also bought some new nail polish last week, i do have a bit of an obsession with my nails, and did this.. There are some seriously amazing nail arts out there, like spiders and flowers, my free hand skills aren't that good yet, but practise makes perfect!

18 Months Post Surgery..!!!!

Well, Tomorrow, 25th October 2013, marks my 18 months anniversary post surgery.Now, there are days and days that I don't even think about the fact that I had jaw surgery. Still, I can't yawn without any pain (in fact, it feels good!), I can't bite into anything I want to (though I still don't bite into anything hard, just force of habit), I wake up and my jaw is in the right place ( Often i see dreams about my misplaced jaws) and stays there - little to no shifting. I can move my lower jaw side to side and forward/back (not as much as before, but enough to shift food around in my mouth and I don't notice the difference). Only my numb lip and chin remembers my past days and oh yeah these bands too... But i now im in break with these bands.. Not with any new reason, just because it HURTS, really hurts and that makes me crazy....!!!!!!

So finally... 18 months post surgery, I consider myself 90% back to normal in range of motion, and jaw mobility. My chin and face are still a bit numb, but it doesn't bother me in the least. infact i love the numbness,cuz that remembers me my past days.... I love my numbness. Love it, love it, LOVE it. And, I'm very pleased with my results - and very glad I went through all of that awful-ness that was jaw surgery and recovery.

Moving on to normal life, I have to work on my software testing course, but I have been studying for a test for higher studies for weeks, and had to schedule it for both morning and afternoon sections respectively. Well they were booked, but for that I need to stay at hostel so I moved to Visitation convent hostel. Food is horrible here; the two restaurants nearby are the only consolation I found. Wednesday’s menu was little different, and It was the first day I was able to truly enjoy my dinner at hostel because of my favorite menu, chapatti and chicken curry...I don’t chew everything i eat, usually at home, I keep avoiding this kind of hard food even if it is my favorite but here at hostel after almost two weeks, im seeing something eatable so I tried to consume that by applying all possible ways I can adopt to chew…. I feel my braces pulling on my teeth again, that pressure you feel after an adjustment.  Finally I felt something inside loosen or u can term it as broken!!!! A cracking sound with pain!!! Oh my God!!!!

Today I went to the Orthodontist to check the status of my braces…. He found the clip broken and asked me to visit next Tuesday to fix it up!!!

Shiverry........ Feverry

I've been struggling on and off with a cold and fever the past week or so, which makes wearing the elastics difficult (since I usually need to breathe through my mouth - it's difficult to breathe through my nose) - at one point last week I spit it out in my sleep for the first time in a long time. I woke up with a dull headache and achy jaw! 

I had my monthly appointment today and which went uneventful. I was soo tired cuz of this fever and i was shivering when my ortho adjusting my teeth. he advised not to stop elastics cuz on and off could increase the pain. Now i'm in elastics for another one or two months (for the final push to close my bite a little more). 

My next appointment is in another one or two months. I'm crossing my fingers for that one :)

Long Awaited Appointment

Two weeks gone by no information about my doctors!!! Why they are ignoring me this much??? Don’t know,  getting confused!!! Did they have decided to endup everything which includes me???  Did they think that myself  i'll quit everything if they dont give any mind to my call?? Does this means i should stop bothering them???Don’t know!!! long 3 months from now since i heard a single word from them... this is my first experience with these doctors avoiding me this much when i'm in such kinda an emergency situation... Tried to contact Dr. Jeomy, to inform him that stranger doctor's advise to remove these braces, he have answered my call and said Thursday we have an appointment, not this Thursday next Thursday!!! Means 9^th August….. I was not in a mood to ask him what happened, he didn’t explain either….what happened with me, I know, I was tired, mind was frozen, Brain was not working at all not a single ray of hope left inside my heart to question anything, I have had a strong belief prior that this doctors will be with me in my every stage of treatment, every drop of tears but they ignored me completely when I was desperately needing their help. They left me alone completely alone…

I have finally been in contact with two members of the team today (ortho and surgeon) and I am feeling relieved. Scared and still upset but there is a sense of intense relief from knowing that they havent forgotten about me.

My ortho, tightened my teeth and again requested to wear elastics. He delievered a sppech as usuall regarding the necessity of wearing those elastics...Hmmm I think this time I should wear that….. atleast at night, in the day time im not even gonna think about that….!!!!