The Bare Bones...

Yesterday was our visit with Dr. Posnick (surgeon) for my final jaw models, to discuss all the elements of my surgery and to answer any questions we had.  Boy, did we!  I'm SO glad Brian went along to this appointment.  He's always got good ideas and he asks the things I would never even think about!

Here's the scoop.  First, we took more pictures of my teeth and face.  Brian got to come in and watch them and even saw the hideous plastic things they make me stick in my mouth to pull my lips away from my teeth.  We giggled the entire time!  Then they did my models, which means they put that nasty tasting stuff in the trays and cemented them to my teeth for 30 seconds to get a mold of each jaw.  Let me tell you, that stuff is not fun to get out of braces!  At this point, Dr. Posnick came in to take a look at things.  They attached what looked like a torture device to my head to take measurements, and the Doc kept pinching my upper lips with his fingers.  Brian said after the first couple of times, I looked like I was ready to slap him.  LOL  I never did ask what he was doing.....I'm not sure I want to know.  While Brian and the Doc chatted, Neil (a resident of Dr. P's) took more measurements of my teeth and jaws and asked numerous questions of me like, "where is your jaw pain", "do you have clicking or popping", etc.  Then it was time to get down to the nitty gritty - what to expect a month from now when I have this procedure done!

The surgery itself will take about 3 hours.  He'd originally told me it would take 5 so I was more than pleased to hear it wouldn't be as long!  At this point, he knows that he'll be moving my upper jaw out approx. 5mm and then down.  My bottom jaw isn't quite as easy - it will need to come out a good distance to be where it should be, then another 5mm to match the upper jaw.  The distance is TBD - I'll know more when I revisit him one more time.   He'll also be lengthening my chin.  It turns out I'll have a gap from extending both my upper jaw and my chin.  Something needs to fill those gaps.  That filler material?  Bone!  He tells me that I'll need a bone graft for those places, but that I've got two options.  The first one is the most obvious...he would make a small incision (during surgery) in my hip and take my own bone.  You're gonna love the second option!  Freeze-dried cadaver bone!  Yep, you read correctly...bones of a dead guy (or girl, of course).  As is expected with me, as soon as I heard that, I got the giggles.  lol  I can't help it.  We asked all the right questions: "What are the risks of my own vs. cadaver bone?", "Is there a reason why we would do one over the other?", etc.  If they take my own bone, there is obviously some extra pain and recovery time.  Dead guy bones?  None.  There was no overwhelming evidence pointing us towards using my own bone, so.....freeze dried it is!!  How cool is that?  :-)

When I'm out of recovery, I'll be moved to ICU for the rest of that day and overnight and if all goes well, I'll be moved out and into a regular room.  Apparently there's a lot of bleeding afterward and unfortunately, much of it is swallowed so there's a good possibility that I'll get sick.  In the (unfortunate) event that happens, I'll have the care I need to be able to get through it.  Once I'm in a regular room, it's another night in the hospital.  They'll teach both Brian and I all the care techniques we'll need to know and Dr. Posnick said I won't be discharged until we know everything very well!

Day Three.....if all goes as planned, I'll be able to head home.  I'm already looking forward to that day!  For the first two weeks, aside from having my computer on my lap or watching t.v., I can't do a thing.  At two weeks, if I'm feeling up to it, I can return to work but in a very limited capacity.  Basically, I can sit at my desk and use the computer.  Not sure how well this will go since I don't like to sit still for a long time.  I'll be eating through a syringe at the beginning, strictly liquids.  The doctor said that if I'm feeling well enough after a week, I should be able to drink some liquids from a glass rather than use the syringe so I'm hopeful this will be the case.  Liquid diet for 6 weeks, and then I can slowly move into some solids.  Probably the worst part in all of this is that I won't be able to talk - or talk well anyway!  For those of you that know me, you know this will be the most difficult thing I've ever had to endure...LOL.  Brian will probably be a happy man!  hahahaha 

So, I'll have two bands on each side inside my mouth that are attached to the hooks on my braces.  These are there to keep my jaws in a good resting position.  Right after surgery and for the first couple of weeks, the muscles will be sore and damaged so I won't be able to move my jaw, even if I wanted to.  However, once a week for 5 weeks, I'll visit Dr. Posnick, he'll remove the bands and will have me exercise my jaw, then the bands go back on.  At our last visit, I must say that my mind was put at ease a little bit.  I was very concerned about a few things..."What if I sneeze and open my mouth quickly?"  "What if I cough and my mouth opens?"  "What if I have to yawn?"  I was concerned that any of these things might happen and I would do damage to what had just been done.  Not the case.  If my mouth opens, that's a good thing and it means I'm healing.  It won't do any damage.  In fact, he said that sometimes people get a little claustrophobic and feel a little closed in having the bands on.  He told us that if I feel panicky like that, to just go ahead and snip the bands, get over my panic attack, then call him and he'll replace the bands the next day.  Simple as that! 

Lots of information to take in, but we're learning.  Brian's been wonderful and is learning along with me.  We go back in next Monday - the molds are done and Dr. Posnick has done the mock surgery!  We get to see where my jaws will be when everything is all said and done!  Yippee!!