Something Is Not Right (Day 9, 10, 11)

Days 9 and 10: Uh-Oh Something is NOT right

The pain was still off/on on day 9.  I felt it both on both sides of my face.  It was honestly like my right and left cheek muscles were battling over which one wanted to be in worse pain.  I kept controlling the pain with the Children's Tylenol, and took the Hydrocodone on the evening of Day 9 to help me sleep.  At this point, I could feel that part of the pain in my cheeks had to be coming from the fact that I could only feel my back molars touching down on my left side NOT on my right side.  I worried, but I decide this might be one of those orthodontic issues that has to be fixed after surgery. 

On day 10, I was checking on my teeth in the mirror when I noticed that my mid-lines were no longer lining up!  This is how I knew something was DEFINITELY NOT RIGHT with my bite!  I immediately panicked and e-mailed my doctor (at this point, my doctor had actually shared her PERSONAL e-mail address with me in the event I needed to reach her immediately).  I sent her a picture of my teeth to show her my mid-lines, and I explained to her that the TMJ pain on my right side was still a intense, and that I couldn't feel my back molars touching on that side.  She emailed me back within 10 minutes, and asked me to come in the next day.

Mid-lines no longer matching up

On an emotional note, I did cry after noticing this thing with my mid lines.  It was my first real "big cry," and I'll try not to do this again as it aggravated my sinuses, gave me a headache (even worse than I already had), and worried my poor mother to tears too (she hates seeing me in such pain).  I cried out of fear that something had gone wrong with my surgery, and most especially, fear that I'd have to "redo" this surgery.  I just can't imagine going through this all over again.

Day 11:  Post-Op Visit Redux

The Doc didn't even let the nurse take the obligatory pre-Doctor visit vitals, she was so anxious to see me.  She had them wait until after she was done examining me.  Funny enough, her first comment was about how much more my swelling had gone down just in the 4 days since she'd last seen me.  At this point, my swelling was the last thing on my mind, I just wanted an explanation for the mid-lines and pain!

She apologized in advance for what she was about to do as she peered into my mouth, and then proceeded to gently, but definitely firmly, push my jaws into place.  This was automatically painful, but not intolerable.  Again, I was most afraid my jaws weren't ready to handle this kind of "touching," but as many of you have commented in your own recovery blogs, it's amazing to see how fast our bodies are want to recover from trauma.  I winced and wimpered as she pushed my lower and top jaws "into place" so that the mid-lines lined up and then she showed me with a hand mirror, how when she does this my teeth line up correctly.  She explained that what was happening was that my muscles are forcing my lower jaws back into an asymmetric position.  She said that this is common in recovery amongst asymmetric jaw patients.  My muscles need to create new muscle memory and the only way to encourage this is to put me back into tight bands that hold my teeth into the correct alignment.  When she did this, oddly enough my bite (even though it doesn't touch down on the right side) automatically felt "more right."  She even asked me if I felt better in the tighter bands, and when I said yes she said this was another solid signal to her that it was indeed my muscles fighting back.  As an added precaution she sent me for another X-ray, just to be sure that there wasn't a problem with the actual surgery and/or movement of any bones.  We got them back right away, and as she expected, everything looks beautiful.  She explained that I can't feel my back molars on my right side touching because this is an orthodontic issue.  Once I'm able to go back to my ortho Doc, he'll align my back right teeth into position.

Mid-lines correctly line up in tight bands. Notice my back right molars don't touch; very stress/painful on my cheek muscles on my right and left sides because of this.

I cannot explain the mixed emotions I felt coming out of that Doc's office well enough.  On the one hand I was more than ecstatic I wouldn't be needing surgery again, and that this was just a "muscle memory" thing.  On the other hand, I was getting put back into tight bands (and misery) for 2 more weeks (making it a total of 3 weeks of being TIGHTLY banded).  I had just gotten used to my loose bands and the ability to speak and not SLURP back saliva after every sentence.  I had been looking forward to practicing opening my mouth wider and wider every day to get on with this healing, and to move on to a mushy food diet (at least), but all of that was now going to have to wait another 2 weeks.  My mom was the one who had to remind me that I knew going into this that it wouldn't be easy, and that I would have good and bad days, and that to her, today was a good day.  She was right.  And with that, we headed off to the farmers market for fresh veggies that we could puree into soups--- my new diet.

Speaking of diet, at my Day 7 and Day 11 Doctor visits, I showed a total of 6lbs (2 kg) lost.  Doc was pleased with this, and said that it means I've kept up with my nutrition.  She asked what I've been eating, and I rattled off some of the various kinds of liquids I "eat."  At some point, I'd like to devote an entire post to some of the liquid diet items and recipes I've been eating for all of you to look into.  The first 3 days were the most "boring," but my mom and I have gotten REALLY creative, and have managed to make some incredibly yummy soup-meals.  I've kept up a vegan diet throughout this, so all of my smoothies and soups are made from fresh vegetables, fruits, and non-dairy milks.  I highly recommend investing (or maybe borrowing from a friend) in a VitaMix.  This thing is simply incredible, and so much more than a blender.  They're expensive, but honestly, if I had to do this surgery all over again, I'd throw down the $300-$400 bucks for this machine again in a heartbeat.

So far I've updated you to Day 11.  I'm currently on Day 17 and there have been improvements to my overall pain, energy, and comfort levels.  But I'll leave that for yet another blog entry to come.  Until then, be well fellow jaw surgery adventurers.

Day 11.  Back to tight bands, but making the most of it with some delicious soup.  See pic below.

 

Roasted Beet & Potato Soup.  I don't normally like root vegetables (like broccoli or beets), but this soup was AMAZING! I was so pleasantly surprised by how nicely the flavors blended together, garnished with just a bit of lemon zest. Yum!  Recipe to follow in subsequent post. PS: Beets are amazing food for healing.