Friday, October 12, 2012

Jaw surgery blathery



So here's a video of a version of what needs doing on me choppers.  I don't think they'll remove any teeth but there will be the segmentation and repositioning of the bones above my upper teeth.  Yes, it's gruesome to ponder, but totally amazing, too.  There are videos of the actual procedure on YouTube if you are curious and would enjoy seeing that sort of thing, or if you would enjoy torturing yourself with that sort of thing.

I have to say that the anxiety over the surgery has been a major distraction in recent times.  It's really difficult for me to hunker down and study as I should, but I've been making progress on that score in the past handful of days.  Macroeconomics is going well, and Anatomy could be better, but I'm on a production schedule with studies to ramp up in anticipation of the test coming up on Tuesday.  Wish me luck.

I've never had a big surgery other than wisdom tooth extraction, and that's relatively minor in comparison.  I'll be in hospital overnight, which is probably a good thing.  I'm toying with the idea of doing some before/after videos, because I couldn't find many open bite surgery vids from people who had the experience, and they were all from very young people.  As for physical appearance, there will be very little change in how the area around my mouth and jaw look, and it will probably not be at all noticeable to people even who are acquainted with me.

As to the survey of testimonials I viewed tonight, there are varying degrees of discomfort and food-through-a-strawishness.  I don't think my lower jaw will be cut & spliced at all, so that's one less thing.  I do expect a severe amount of bruising, even up to around my eyes.  My mouth-- well, that will be a mess afterward.

In the weeks leading up to the surgery I'm going to make up some good pork and chicken bone stocks and I'll eat that while I'm recovering to help knit the bone tissue.  It's pretty gross, but this will save my teeth hopefully for the rest of my life, as well as prevent the rheumatoid arthritis in my right jaw from advancing further due to misaligned bite.

My heart is buoyed by the fact that I googled my surgeon online and one search engine listed him as 5th top surgeon in the country for TMJ surgery and ranked first for jaw surgery.  It does help that I have confidence in him.  Yay.  More on this to follow.

8 comments:

drjim said...

That hurts just looking at it!
Hope it all goes well for you, phlegmmy.

Gaffer said...

Le Conteur and Gaffer will keep good thoughts and mental support flowing your way. And we won't tell you to "keep your chin up"

Christina RN LMT said...

Good luck, Phlegmmy. Try to use school to distract from the surgery anxiety, focus on your studies and...well, shit. I guess I'm spouting platitudes (well-meaning, but still...) ANYWAY. Love you and wish you all the best of luck for the surgery and school. :)

Jennifer said...

scary, but it will be so worth it. We may have to bring you a care package. A tasty care package.

BGMiller said...

Oh dear God.....
OW!!!!

Best of luck to you dear lady.

BGM

TOTWTYTR said...

It will be worth it, at least I think it will be.

Don't be afraid to ask for and use pain medications, especially for the first few days post surgery.

Once the swelling goes down, the pain will be reduced.

Having recently had much less complex surgery, I can attest to the salutary effects of analgesia.

Thud said...

bloody hell! I think I'll stick with my English teeth...good luck by the way.

Don said...

Whoa! Good luck with all that. I haven't checked in for a long time, and I almost missed this. Hope you and Himself are both better soon.