Wednesday 13 August 2014
Thursday 10 July 2014
7 Weeks Post-op
Time flies when your healing! Along with some pictures I'll share many improvements that I've seen over the last 3 weeks:
So for a while now I've looked pretty normal when I have my casual face on. It is still obvious when I talk or show any emotion that something isn't quite right; but that is getting better with time. My smile is much better than the picture I posted 3 weeks ago.
It takes some time to realize after jaw surgery that you won't wake up feeling better than you did the day before; at least not after the first 1-2 weeks. The process is very slow, but I have been seeing improvements on a weekly basis. The bottom half of my face is still stiff, but is loosening up. I can notice this when I brush my teeth; I have been brushing 90% normal for the last few weeks. I am worried that I have a bunch of cavities. There are 2-3 teeth in particular that are sensitive to crunchy foods like chips so I try and stay away from that.
The only area that is noticeably swollen at all is my upper lip. Although it has gone down a bit and isn't even noticeable in any of these pictures.
There is currently no part of my face that I would say is completely numb. Only my upper lip, the button of my chin, and the tip of my nose are partially numb. At this rate I can't imagine I'll have any permanent nerve damage! Knock on wood.
My face isn't as oily as before. Just a little noticeable now.
Unfortunately I have had a cold for about 1.5 weeks. A sore throat has lingered the whole duration and I've had periods of sneezing. It just doesn't seem to go away. When I was sneezing a bit 2 weeks ago it didn't feel good; I was worried it was opening up some of the snitches still healing in my mouth. Today I can let out a sneeze and it feels quite normal.
My TMJ symptoms from before surgery are still around right now. My muscles are very tight and sore. It hurts to eat solid foods sometimes. I am not too worried about that though because my orthodontist had me wearing lots of night elastics that would keep me clenching throughout the night and I would wake up in the morning in pain. For the last week I have stopped wearing my night elastics and stuck to the more comforting day elastics. I have since seen some noticeable improvements; not cured, but much easier to deal with. Last time I saw my orthodontist he said that my bite was perfect, so I'll see how not wearing my night elastics will affect my progress next time I see him.
The swelling in my knee has been very slowly going down. You have to look past the fact that I have very skinny legs to see the swelling. Doctors still don't know what is wrong with my knee. It has been a month now that I have been swollen. One of the possibilities before was that it was a rheumatoid arthritis attack. I have had a history of rheumatoid related problems and was very lucky to get an appointment (tomorrow) with a rheumatologist to see what he thinks. I am very interested to see what he says, but for now I am walking fine and mobile enough to not sulk.
I still weigh about 120lbs and need to really start making a real good effort to gain weight back. At this weight I look about 16 years old!
Time flies when your healing! Along with some pictures I'll share many improvements that I've seen over the last 3 weeks:
So for a while now I've looked pretty normal when I have my casual face on. It is still obvious when I talk or show any emotion that something isn't quite right; but that is getting better with time. My smile is much better than the picture I posted 3 weeks ago.
It takes some time to realize after jaw surgery that you won't wake up feeling better than you did the day before; at least not after the first 1-2 weeks. The process is very slow, but I have been seeing improvements on a weekly basis. The bottom half of my face is still stiff, but is loosening up. I can notice this when I brush my teeth; I have been brushing 90% normal for the last few weeks. I am worried that I have a bunch of cavities. There are 2-3 teeth in particular that are sensitive to crunchy foods like chips so I try and stay away from that.
The only area that is noticeably swollen at all is my upper lip. Although it has gone down a bit and isn't even noticeable in any of these pictures.
There is currently no part of my face that I would say is completely numb. Only my upper lip, the button of my chin, and the tip of my nose are partially numb. At this rate I can't imagine I'll have any permanent nerve damage! Knock on wood.
My face isn't as oily as before. Just a little noticeable now.
Unfortunately I have had a cold for about 1.5 weeks. A sore throat has lingered the whole duration and I've had periods of sneezing. It just doesn't seem to go away. When I was sneezing a bit 2 weeks ago it didn't feel good; I was worried it was opening up some of the snitches still healing in my mouth. Today I can let out a sneeze and it feels quite normal.
My TMJ symptoms from before surgery are still around right now. My muscles are very tight and sore. It hurts to eat solid foods sometimes. I am not too worried about that though because my orthodontist had me wearing lots of night elastics that would keep me clenching throughout the night and I would wake up in the morning in pain. For the last week I have stopped wearing my night elastics and stuck to the more comforting day elastics. I have since seen some noticeable improvements; not cured, but much easier to deal with. Last time I saw my orthodontist he said that my bite was perfect, so I'll see how not wearing my night elastics will affect my progress next time I see him.
The swelling in my knee has been very slowly going down. You have to look past the fact that I have very skinny legs to see the swelling. Doctors still don't know what is wrong with my knee. It has been a month now that I have been swollen. One of the possibilities before was that it was a rheumatoid arthritis attack. I have had a history of rheumatoid related problems and was very lucky to get an appointment (tomorrow) with a rheumatologist to see what he thinks. I am very interested to see what he says, but for now I am walking fine and mobile enough to not sulk.
I still weigh about 120lbs and need to really start making a real good effort to gain weight back. At this weight I look about 16 years old!
Wednesday 18 June 2014
4 Weeks Post-Op
My knee is finally getting better! When I saw the knee surgeon last week he gave me a compression sock to wear on my leg along with some anti-inflammatory pills. The swelling has gone down quite a bit, but is still there. I've started going for daily 30 minutes walks to drain any swelling I have left in my face. It still really bothers me that my upper lip is really swollen (and numb) still but I guess that will take some time. I am normal to look at but can't hide the fact I had surgery on my face when I talk or smile because of my stiff upper lip.
Ever since I've started seeing improvements in my knee, I've started feeling more flickering of regenerating nerves in my face. I've also noticed that I have more feeling in my face. It is such a gradual process that I did not realize any improvement until recently. With my increased mobility I have more energy and am much more up-beat. Eating is going great; I had a large bowl of pasta last night. Now that I can eat more of a variety I am trying to focus more about nutrition now and not just about getting anything possible into me. I don't think I had any vegetables at all until about day 12! I have also started to get into my Dental Aptitude Test (DAT) studying. All of this dental work that I've had done has made me want to go into the profession. Just to clarify, I've known I wanted to do this since I was about 16, so I did not just decide last week :) Anyway, that's about it! Check back in about 2 weeks!
Wednesday 11 June 2014
3 Weeks Post-Op
Here I am 3 weeks after my jaw surgery. Things are not going too well right now. On Day 10 I woke up in the morning and my right knee was moderately swollen. I wasn't able to bend it too much and had a bit of difficulty walking. My mom took me in to a walk-in clinic to get it checked out. The doctor just said to ice it and if it gets worse, go to emergency. So that's just what I did the next morning when I woke up. On Day 11 it had swollen up even more and I couldn't put any weight on it; I had to get around on crutches. I then went on to spend 4 days (3 nights) in the hospital. On Day 1 (at the hospital) they drained 60ml of synovial fluid from my knee that did not look quite right; they sent it
for testing. On Day 3 (at the hospital), they put a scope into my knee to clean it out and remove some more fluid for testing. This was a very minor surgical procedure, but they had planned for me to be put to sleep for it. Right before the surgery they realized that I could not open my mouth wide enough for them to put some tubes into me during the surgery. So instead they decided to give me a spinal block and have me awake for the procedure. It was so weird to not have any sensation below my hips!!! Anyway, the doctor was very nice and gave me the option of watching the entire procedure on a screen via the camera that he would be working with inside my knee. I said yes to that! The whole procedure took about 20 minutes and then I was consciously wheeled into the recovery room. I took this picture of my knee below today (Day 21) to show the swelling. The swelling has never really gone down at all since I left the hospital which is a bit worrisome. My surgeon (jaw), Dr.Tocchio, warned me before having my jaw surgery that there was a <1% chance that I could get an infection afterwards. Out of the 6-7 surgeries he does a week, he says he only sees 1-2 infections a year. It sure seems like I won the lottery due to the timing of this, but the doctor says there is no sign yet of this being an infection. He has found no puss in my knee, and I am not fevering at all. Coincidentally I finished my bottle of antibiotics for the jaw 1-2 days before my knee flared up, giving more reason to point to infection, but at this time we don't know what it is. I have an appointment with the doctor (knee) this Friday so I'll find out then if they've found anything.
That's it for the knee. I'll write a bit about how my jaw has been doing:
All of the major swelling in my face has gone, except for my upper lip; it is still quite swollen. There is still minor swelling around my nose and lower jaw/throat that is only noticeable to me. The numbness in my face doesn't feel like it is changing very much, I guess this takes time. I am not in any pain and have not been since about Day 4. My knee has a bit of an ache but that's that. I can talk quite well now in the sense that I can be clearly understood. As the swelling and numbness goes down even more, my speech will keep getting better. I wear some lose elastics during the day and take them out to eat. I can chew soft foods like eggs and pasta now, but I still resort to mostly blended/liquid foods because they are just easier to get in me. Some of my molars are sensitive to food so I'm sure I've got a few cavities that'll have to be fixed down the road. I also put on some additional elastics during the night that keep my bite closed tight. In other news, I saw my orthodontist today for the second time. He says the mouth looks great!.... but the knee does not.
I have slowly been able to open my mouth wider and wider. My smile is also looking better and better as the days go by. My new bite feels AMAZING! For the first time in years I can feel all of my teeth touching properly and an even distribution of force when I bite down. Here is a look at how my bite is closed in the front:
Before my knee swelled up on me I was just starting to get some energy to go outside and have a semi-normal life. I can barely walk now, so I'm back on the couch. I have been watching a lot of Prison Break (Season 3 now) with my cats to keep my company. I wake up each morning and don't really notice any difference in my knee so I'm looking forward to that appointment with the doctor on Friday. In terms of weight I'm back to rockbottom (about 120lbs) because I wasn't eating a whole lot while in the hospital. I should start gaining some weight now.
That's it for the knee. I'll write a bit about how my jaw has been doing:
All of the major swelling in my face has gone, except for my upper lip; it is still quite swollen. There is still minor swelling around my nose and lower jaw/throat that is only noticeable to me. The numbness in my face doesn't feel like it is changing very much, I guess this takes time. I am not in any pain and have not been since about Day 4. My knee has a bit of an ache but that's that. I can talk quite well now in the sense that I can be clearly understood. As the swelling and numbness goes down even more, my speech will keep getting better. I wear some lose elastics during the day and take them out to eat. I can chew soft foods like eggs and pasta now, but I still resort to mostly blended/liquid foods because they are just easier to get in me. Some of my molars are sensitive to food so I'm sure I've got a few cavities that'll have to be fixed down the road. I also put on some additional elastics during the night that keep my bite closed tight. In other news, I saw my orthodontist today for the second time. He says the mouth looks great!.... but the knee does not.
I have slowly been able to open my mouth wider and wider. My smile is also looking better and better as the days go by. My new bite feels AMAZING! For the first time in years I can feel all of my teeth touching properly and an even distribution of force when I bite down. Here is a look at how my bite is closed in the front:
Before my knee swelled up on me I was just starting to get some energy to go outside and have a semi-normal life. I can barely walk now, so I'm back on the couch. I have been watching a lot of Prison Break (Season 3 now) with my cats to keep my company. I wake up each morning and don't really notice any difference in my knee so I'm looking forward to that appointment with the doctor on Friday. In terms of weight I'm back to rockbottom (about 120lbs) because I wasn't eating a whole lot while in the hospital. I should start gaining some weight now.
Thursday 29 May 2014
Day 8
Got my elastics off today! Well....not completely. The tight ones that were holding my bite shut are off now. My orthodontist gave me some new ones that are looser and allow me to still open my mouth a bit; kind of like your standard elastics for braces. Being able to open my mouth a bit, I now can take another step with eating. Today I had some Beefaroni and Kraft Dinner. I had to blend both a bit with the blender. Not pureed by any means; just substituting for the ability to chew. All I had to do was use a spoon to get it past my teeth and then just swallow it whole. Boy was it good! I have now started doing very light brushing of my front teeth that I can reach. My lips are still particularly swollen and chapped and it hurts to try and move them to get to my back teeth. Another good thing is that I'm not constantly drooling and having to constantly walk around with a paper towel. I only drooled like 3 times today! My weight has also gone up a few pounds to 122! Recovery is going to be all downhill from here!
Got my elastics off today! Well....not completely. The tight ones that were holding my bite shut are off now. My orthodontist gave me some new ones that are looser and allow me to still open my mouth a bit; kind of like your standard elastics for braces. Being able to open my mouth a bit, I now can take another step with eating. Today I had some Beefaroni and Kraft Dinner. I had to blend both a bit with the blender. Not pureed by any means; just substituting for the ability to chew. All I had to do was use a spoon to get it past my teeth and then just swallow it whole. Boy was it good! I have now started doing very light brushing of my front teeth that I can reach. My lips are still particularly swollen and chapped and it hurts to try and move them to get to my back teeth. Another good thing is that I'm not constantly drooling and having to constantly walk around with a paper towel. I only drooled like 3 times today! My weight has also gone up a few pounds to 122! Recovery is going to be all downhill from here!
Wednesday 28 May 2014
Days 5-7
Things are looking up! I turned a corner on day 5. I have been sleeping better these nights, only getting up a couple times for a stretch. My swelling has been going down gradually and I have dramatically been eating better. In particular today (Day 7) I have had 1300 calories today of liquids. I've started to make milkshakes and eat soups. Ensure (a store-bought drink) is the best form of calories I have right now; 400 calories in one small bottle. On Day 6, yellow bruising appeared on the front of my neck and bottom of my lower jaw. This is normal and is the end of the bruising stage. I have even stopped taking my pain killers because I really don't have any pain, just discomfort from swelling. Although I still have to take my antibiotics 4 times a day to prevent infection. My surgeon says infection is a serious problem but he only sees 1 or 2 a year. Remember that I had said he does 6-7 surgeries a week! So less than 1% chance.
Days have been much easier now. Although I am still looking forward to getting healthier, I'm not just praying for the next day to come anymore. I am currently enjoying the Prison Break series on netflix and very addicted to it, as I am already through Season 1 as of day 7 (started on day 5). The lowest number I've seen on the scale so far is 118lbs, yikes!
Great news! I'm going to the orthodontist tomorrow to have my elastics taken off so that I can finally talk again. This will be a huge step for me and I'm looking forward to it!
At the eating station
Where I sit all day
Side view - see some yellow bruising on my neck
Day 7
Here is just a really funny picture of me. My mom and I found out that I look hilarious when I am laughing because I am so numb and swollen. We always burst out laughing when we see this picture now:
Selfie
Things are looking up! I turned a corner on day 5. I have been sleeping better these nights, only getting up a couple times for a stretch. My swelling has been going down gradually and I have dramatically been eating better. In particular today (Day 7) I have had 1300 calories today of liquids. I've started to make milkshakes and eat soups. Ensure (a store-bought drink) is the best form of calories I have right now; 400 calories in one small bottle. On Day 6, yellow bruising appeared on the front of my neck and bottom of my lower jaw. This is normal and is the end of the bruising stage. I have even stopped taking my pain killers because I really don't have any pain, just discomfort from swelling. Although I still have to take my antibiotics 4 times a day to prevent infection. My surgeon says infection is a serious problem but he only sees 1 or 2 a year. Remember that I had said he does 6-7 surgeries a week! So less than 1% chance.
Days have been much easier now. Although I am still looking forward to getting healthier, I'm not just praying for the next day to come anymore. I am currently enjoying the Prison Break series on netflix and very addicted to it, as I am already through Season 1 as of day 7 (started on day 5). The lowest number I've seen on the scale so far is 118lbs, yikes!
Great news! I'm going to the orthodontist tomorrow to have my elastics taken off so that I can finally talk again. This will be a huge step for me and I'm looking forward to it!
At the eating station
Where I sit all day
Side view - see some yellow bruising on my neck
Day 7
Here is just a really funny picture of me. My mom and I found out that I look hilarious when I am laughing because I am so numb and swollen. We always burst out laughing when we see this picture now:
Selfie
May 24th & 25th - Days 3 &4
These were the worst days for me. They say your swelling will peek 48-72 hours after surgery. This made my throat even more tight, making it nearly impossible to get any food in you. I felt as if someone was strangling me when ever I went to swallow any liquids. I basically starved for 2 straight days; wake up and go to bed hungry. My parents were worried and kept urging me to eat something. I was quite grouchy during this time.
In other news, on day 4 I took off that compression bandage on my chin. This made it only slightly easier to eat. Still not really in any pain, just a lot of discomfort as I was craving food. I was so hungry that I was even jealous of the food my cats were eating. Throughout my early days of recovery I was using a notepad to communicate with my parents. Looking back, here are some of the things that I wrote down during this awful couple of days:
"Just keeping up with medicine drains me of energy to eat food"
"Makes me wish I didn't have surgery"
"I keep getting the urge to yawn and I'm fighting it"
"Eating is like torture"
"Throat area so stiff"
Having to fight back yawns was (and still is) horrible. When I feel one coming on I'll start grunting and clenching my fists to fight it off. It's safe to say that these were the worst two days of my life. By the end of these two days I only weighed 123lbs.
Looking very exhausted and hungry on day 3
day 3 - compression bandage = day 4
Taking my meds
These were the worst days for me. They say your swelling will peek 48-72 hours after surgery. This made my throat even more tight, making it nearly impossible to get any food in you. I felt as if someone was strangling me when ever I went to swallow any liquids. I basically starved for 2 straight days; wake up and go to bed hungry. My parents were worried and kept urging me to eat something. I was quite grouchy during this time.
In other news, on day 4 I took off that compression bandage on my chin. This made it only slightly easier to eat. Still not really in any pain, just a lot of discomfort as I was craving food. I was so hungry that I was even jealous of the food my cats were eating. Throughout my early days of recovery I was using a notepad to communicate with my parents. Looking back, here are some of the things that I wrote down during this awful couple of days:
"Just keeping up with medicine drains me of energy to eat food"
"Makes me wish I didn't have surgery"
"I keep getting the urge to yawn and I'm fighting it"
"Eating is like torture"
"Throat area so stiff"
Having to fight back yawns was (and still is) horrible. When I feel one coming on I'll start grunting and clenching my fists to fight it off. It's safe to say that these were the worst two days of my life. By the end of these two days I only weighed 123lbs.
Looking very exhausted and hungry on day 3
day 3 - compression bandage = day 4
Taking my meds
May 23rd - Day 2
After spending that long night in the hospital, I was up pretty early at around 6-7am. I relaxed a bit and watched the hockey highlights from the last night. At 8am Dr.Tocchio came to see how I was doing and answered any questions that I had before I left. We hit the road at 10am for a long car trip home. I remember walking out of the hospital to the car; everyone was staring at me as if I was in a horrible accident.
The car ride was comfortable enough; I had lots of pillows to rest my head. I didn't really feel much different than yesterday in terms of symptoms. I discovered today that I really liked flat ginger ale from the syringe instead of apple juice. Towards the end of the day, I could feel twitching on my face. This is normal as it is just a sign of nerves regenerating. For that reason I really like when this happens.
Ready to go home
Back in my own bed :)
After spending that long night in the hospital, I was up pretty early at around 6-7am. I relaxed a bit and watched the hockey highlights from the last night. At 8am Dr.Tocchio came to see how I was doing and answered any questions that I had before I left. We hit the road at 10am for a long car trip home. I remember walking out of the hospital to the car; everyone was staring at me as if I was in a horrible accident.
The car ride was comfortable enough; I had lots of pillows to rest my head. I didn't really feel much different than yesterday in terms of symptoms. I discovered today that I really liked flat ginger ale from the syringe instead of apple juice. Towards the end of the day, I could feel twitching on my face. This is normal as it is just a sign of nerves regenerating. For that reason I really like when this happens.
Ready to go home
Back in my own bed :)
May 22nd - Surgery Day (Day 1)
Alrighty, here is my experience on the day of my surgery:
I woke up at 5:30am, completely ready for this surgery to happen. I had to be at the hospital for 6:15am to check in. When I arrived I had to go through a few customs (like at the airport) such as signing some forms, taking pre-surgery medication, and getting all dressed up for surgery. At 7:20am-ish I left my parents and was brought closer to where I would be getting surgery. I sat on a bed for about 15 minutes while members of the surgical team came back and forth to talk to me and give me some instruction. I then followed a doctor and walked myself into the surgery room and laid down on the surgical table. As I laid there, I talked a bit with the surgery team as they were putting needles into me to get me all drugged up. Here's a picture of me before I left my parents for surgery wearing this nice gown they gave me:
Perhaps the most awful hour of my life was from 11am-12 noon after I woke up from surgery. I was incredibly loopy and nauseated as I threw up all the blood that went down into my stomach during surgery. I threw up in a container and filled it up to the 250ml mark by the end of that hour. This period of time was very blurry for me as I could not keep my eyes open for most of it.
I remember seeing my parents for the first time around 1:30pm once I had been moved up to my overnight private room. Word of advice: It is worth the extra $50 to get a private room instead of a semi-private or non-private room because of how bad you will feel. I was very drowsy and remember my aunt coming in to see me at one point but I just have blurred memories of her being there. For the rest of that day I stayed in my hospital room with my parents to keep me company; though I kept drifting off. I would say that around 6-7pm I stopped dozing off and was fairly alert. Here are some pictures from this time:
Me when I was very sleepy from 1-6pm
This is me quite alert that night
In these pictures I've got a two-part contraption going on here: I have an icepack wrapped around my head, along with a humidifier that is keeping me from getting too congested (blue tube, very helpful!!!)
Without my headgear the swelling shows a bit more, especially on the right side of my face
I felt very swollen, but this is nothing compared to patients that had longer jaw surgeries. Remember, the longer you're in surgery the more swollen you will be. I was only in for 1 hour. The nurse helping me out, who has seen many other jaw surgery patients, said she thought that I looked fantastic! I still felt quite awful though.
My pain level, at the time I was vomiting a lot, was a 3-4/10 but after that I was never higher than a 2. I would say discomfort is a better word for what I was feeling. My whole face below my eyes was numb (especially my nose and upper lip). Before exiting surgery the surgeon wired my teeth shut using strong elastics so I cannot move my jaws at all. This is me trying to get a bit of calories in me using a syringe:
Aside from me, there were two other lucky guys (around my age), both getting double jaw surgery on the same day. Those poor guys spent the night on their own while my mom stayed with me; my dad went back to the hotel to get a good sleep for the ride home the next day.
That night was a long one because I had slept so much that day that I was wide awake when night came. Every couple hours I would stretch my legs/back and go for a walk around the hospital floor with my mom. My back was terribly sore from laying down inclined on the bed all day.
This me out for a walk around the hospital. Peace!
I weighed myself after a whole day of no food and was 132lbs, which is very light, but my beanpole frame was only 130-135lbs going into surgery. It is a good idea to try and gain weight before surgery but if you don't it's not too detrimental as far as I know.
Anyway, this was my first day so I'll continue with some posts about the days to follow!
Wednesday 21 May 2014
May 21st - 12 hours until my surgery
Just a quick update here before surgery tomorrow. I made the trip to Toronto on Tuesday (May 20) and had my pre-op consultation with the surgeon at 3pm. It was very similar to the first time that I met with him a year ago, although he took X-rays, impressions and went into a bit more detail about the surgery. He was great at explaining the whole procedure and made me feel better about what is ahead. His name is Dr.Tocchio and he has been doing maxillofacial surgery for over 30 years. To get an appreciation for how experienced he is at this just multiply the 6-7 surgeries that he does a week over a span of 30 years. This guy is the best around at what he does. I was assured again that my surgery is very easy for him to do as it only involves my upper jaw. Doing work on the lower jaw is much more complicated because of all the nerves and vasculature. He actually said that I shouldn't have much pain for this reason.
Today I went to North York hospital to get more info about my stay there as well as filling out some paper work regarding my medical history. They said that these appointments would take 2-4 hours but I was out in 30-45 minutes.
Aside from all of this I've been doing some shopping with my parents and eating dinner at two of my favourite places to eat; The Mongolian Grill and Memories of Japan. I ate dinner an hour ago and that will be the last solid food I will be eating for some time now. I am very much looking forward to tomorrow!
Just a quick update here before surgery tomorrow. I made the trip to Toronto on Tuesday (May 20) and had my pre-op consultation with the surgeon at 3pm. It was very similar to the first time that I met with him a year ago, although he took X-rays, impressions and went into a bit more detail about the surgery. He was great at explaining the whole procedure and made me feel better about what is ahead. His name is Dr.Tocchio and he has been doing maxillofacial surgery for over 30 years. To get an appreciation for how experienced he is at this just multiply the 6-7 surgeries that he does a week over a span of 30 years. This guy is the best around at what he does. I was assured again that my surgery is very easy for him to do as it only involves my upper jaw. Doing work on the lower jaw is much more complicated because of all the nerves and vasculature. He actually said that I shouldn't have much pain for this reason.
Today I went to North York hospital to get more info about my stay there as well as filling out some paper work regarding my medical history. They said that these appointments would take 2-4 hours but I was out in 30-45 minutes.
Aside from all of this I've been doing some shopping with my parents and eating dinner at two of my favourite places to eat; The Mongolian Grill and Memories of Japan. I ate dinner an hour ago and that will be the last solid food I will be eating for some time now. I am very much looking forward to tomorrow!
Friday 2 May 2014
Thought I'd share some tips/tricks that I've come across and use to help relieve day-to-day jaw pain:
1) Pineapple contains a fiber called bromelain and it is a natural anti-inflammatory. I eat a slice or two of canned pineapple every morning to ease my jaw. It is surprisingly effective!
2) Oil Pulling - look it up. You swish some kind of oil (coconut, sesame seed, etc) in your mouth every morning for 15-20 min to see anti-inflammatory effects on your jaw.
3) Stretch your neck muscles, this helps relieve stress on your jaws
4) Watch this lady's video on youtube for some quick and easy pressure points that will help your jaw! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTKqvaY84G4)
5) Some fish oil pills in the morning help relieve symptoms, OMEGA 3 is an anti-inflammatory.
6) Keep hydrated with water to keep your joints nice and loose.
Hope this helps!
1) Pineapple contains a fiber called bromelain and it is a natural anti-inflammatory. I eat a slice or two of canned pineapple every morning to ease my jaw. It is surprisingly effective!
2) Oil Pulling - look it up. You swish some kind of oil (coconut, sesame seed, etc) in your mouth every morning for 15-20 min to see anti-inflammatory effects on your jaw.
3) Stretch your neck muscles, this helps relieve stress on your jaws
4) Watch this lady's video on youtube for some quick and easy pressure points that will help your jaw! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTKqvaY84G4)
5) Some fish oil pills in the morning help relieve symptoms, OMEGA 3 is an anti-inflammatory.
6) Keep hydrated with water to keep your joints nice and loose.
Hope this helps!
May 2nd, 2014 - 20 Days until my surgery (First Post)
Hi guys, welcome to my blog. I will be tracking my progress throughout my procedure that is scheduled for May 22, 2014 (3 weeks from now). Leading up to this point I have found it very helpful to read through all the different jaw surgery blogs that are available on the internet. It really put me at ease to learn a bit about the process so that I wasn't completely blindfolded going into my own surgery. I just want to pay it forward and share my experience with anyone out there that may require jaw surgery in the future. I have read many of the other blogs and taken notes on them, so I hope to share all of the best tips for a great recovery.
Background information:
My name is Shane and I am 20 years old. Ever since I was very young my dentist told me that I seemed to grind or clench my teeth a lot during the night; he could tell by the wear and tear on my teeth. By the time I reached 10 years old I started complaining to mom that my jaws were a little bit sore when I ate. Of course, this just started out as very, very mild symptoms. These symptoms progressively got a little bit worse as each year passed, but they were only related to eating.
In my grade 9 year, out of the blue, I started to have arthritic symptoms in both of my hands. All of the joints in my hand (but not the wrist) would ache with every movement. It bothered me a lot at the time in my gym class. It didn't seem to really affect my performance in most sports but it made it quite uncomfortable. I loved sports and wasn't going to let that stop me! My mom brought me in for blood work that revealed I had a slightly high R factor. This marker can indicate if a patient has rheumatoid arthritis. My level of R factor was just a little bit above the threshold that would indicate an arthritic patient. To get through the year I was taking ibuprofen for the pain. Before I knew it, all those hand symptoms were gone by the summer and I still to this day have never experienced anything like that again. For all I know, this could be unrelated to what is happening with my jaw. Whenever I go and see doctors about my jaw I always mention this incase there is some relationship.
Back to the jaw. As I said above, my jaw symptoms have pretty much slowly, but steadily worsened with each year. I got braces at the end of grade 9 and they were taken off at the end of grade 11. The reason for them was just that I had both of my top eye teeth pulled down to the level of the rest of my teeth along with some minor straightening. Here are some pictures of me below on the day that I got my braces off:
Here is a nice little momento of my time at my orthodontist's office. It was supposed to be a farewell gift, but I ended up having to come back a couple of years later.
My bite has not looked this good since.
My regression into the symptoms/problems that I have today can be tracked by looking at my lower jaw year-by-year. What has gone wrong is that due to my constant grinding/clenching of my teeth during the night growing up, the articular cartilage that cushions the head of my mandible (lower jaw) into my skull has worn away; leaving me with bone on bone contact. Basically, the head of my lower jaw is eroding away. Due to this, my jaw began receding as a function of time.
Based on pictures of my past, I've estimated that my lower jaw structure started to change at some point in grade 11.
As I said, I have read MANY of the jaw surgery blogs out there on google and it seems that most people are having TMJ (temporomandibular joint) problems because of either an over or under development of their mandible. My case is a bit different as I have a deterioration problem as opposed to a growth problem; though the end result is still an under-developed mandible. Below is a younger picture of me just to show that there were never any visual signs of jaw problems as I was growing up, until-mid high school:
around 13 years old
After getting my braces off, my symptoms were still worsening and my jaw was getting shorter and shorter in length. What also started to happen was that I was losing occlusion of my teeth (my teeth of each jaw were not coming together properly, which you will see later in pictures of me today). Because the mandible is an L shaped bone, if deterioration happens at the head, the jaw is going to want to recede back into the socket where the head sits. The result is that as the jaw recedes, it will also rotate the jaw downward so that the front teeth come apart and the back teeth are closer together. This altered position of my jaw causes a lot of tension to be put on the chewing muscles, especially my masseter muscle; trying to massage it is like playing the harp but with enormous strings (knots). I am also known for being THE SLOWEST eater on the planet. Back in grade 11 or so my brother timed me while I ate a 6 inch sub(way) for 18 minutes!
Ok, so this pretty much brings me to today. Below are all of the main symptoms that I currently have with my jaw today:
-tender/sore jaw muscles
-limitted jaw opening
-jaw fatigue/discomfort all the time
-jaw pain when eating
-less ability to talk
-tight neck muscles
-difficulty swallowing (only within last year)
-clicking or popping jaw joints (only within last year)
Only a couple of these symptoms came on within the last year. Two other noticeable symptoms that are often mentioned by people are headaches and locked jaws. For whatever reason, I thankfully have not experienced these.
Here are some pictures of me today:
Above here are my side profiles at 17 and 20 years old. As you can see, my lower jaw has receded more within these 3 years indicating that there has been more degeneration of my lower jaw.
This is just a picture showing a small patch of white hair that has been growing behind my left ear for the past year and a half. It is a bit more prominent when my hair is longer (I just got it cut) but for the most part it doesn't bother me. This is known as Poliosis and can be a sign of an autoimmune disease (arthritis for me). I've seen other people with this too, but it is usually just a birthmark.
Here I just took this picture to show how my teeth are coming apart at the front. As my jaw recedes, my teeth move farther apart. This is me biting down, so only my molars are touching when I do this. People that have this problem know that it is very difficult to eat thin foods that you can't grab onto with you front teeth; you've got to get it back to your molars to chew. It is also hard to finish your "s" sounds with this gap in your teeth.
In the summer of 2013 I finally was referred to Dr. Tocchio; an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in the Toronto area. He met with me and said that he has seen many cases like mine before and that he could fix me. Before I met him, I read a lot of great things about him from both the internet as well as my dentist and orthodontist. He is said to be "the best" in his field. My procedure was booked on June 2013 for May 2014. I am in post secondary school and will have a whole 4 months to recover before the beginning of a new school year. It was at this time that I was officially diagnosed with having degenerative joint disease (a form of arthritis).
The Procedure:
There are a total of 3 procedures being done on me. The first is shown below and it's goal is to align my jaws so that my teeth will come together properly:
This entails them cutting off my maxilla (upper jaw bone), changing the angle on it, and then holding it in place to heal with screws. This will bring my teeth together for a proper bite. I haven't been told this by any professional, but a Leforte Osteotomy is the name for this procedure that I've found online.
I got braces put back on (for the second time) last summer right after my consultation with the surgeon. They wanted to align some teeth a bit so that when they changed the angle here my teeth should fit together perfectly. This will reduce the stress on my jaw and hopefully relieve a lot of my symptoms.
Secondly, they are going to do what is called a genioplasty. This is where they will move a small piece of my lower jaw forward to help my appearance and make it look as if I never lost any bone mass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ExY370wbA
The final procedure is totally unrelated to my jaw problems, but I'm actually having all 4 of my wisdom teeth taken out at the same time.
I was told that the procedure would only take 1 hour. Believe it or not, it turns out that what I'm having done is an easier procedure to do. I've read blogs about people with cross-bites and other horrible things that need 3-5 hours of surgery and their mouth wired shut for 6 weeks. I will not have my mouth wired shut at all.
What I know about recovering after surgery:
My surgery is on a Thursday, so on Tuesday I will make the trip to Toronto to have an appointment with the surgeon to get a bit more information about how everything will work. On Wednesday I will have x-rays taken. I need to be at the hospital for 6:30am to have my surgery at around 9-10am on Thursday. I will stay the day and night there and then if everything is going well I'll leave to go home the next day. I will be on a liquid diet for the first 2 weeks, soft foods for the 3rd week and then after 4 weeks I should be able to eat anything that is not extremely hard. Nutrition is CRITICAL for recovering from surgery. The better you feed yourself, the more quickly you will recover.
Swelling: The longer that your surgery takes the more that you're going to swell. Mine is only 1 hour so I won't be awfully swollen. I've seen some people that had surgery for 3 hours and their head was the size of a melon. However, most of your swelling will go away within the first 7-10 days and it won't be noticeable at all really after 2-3 weeks.
Pain: I have heard that when you wake up after surgery you may be a bit nauseated but you are too swollen and numb to feel a whole lot of pain. It is during days 3-5 where you are in the most pain as you start getting sensation back on your face. People have said on blogs that the pain is no more than a 4/10 during this time if you are not taking any medication. Overall, people say that after day 10 they start feeling much better and it is much easier to get through it.
Sensation/Numbness: You will be very numb when you wake up. It really depends case to case how quickly sensation will return. During surgery, the surgeon tries to preserve nerves but small ones have to be cut to do the surgery regardless. Nerve fibres have the ability to regenerate, so if they are cut they may take some time to do so. The rule of thumb seems to be after 1 year, the amount of sensation that you have is the amount that you'll have for the rest of your life. Generally people will get all (or almost all) of their sensations back. There are some cases where a small portion of their bottom lip (for example) will never feel again. It seems horrible, but people say that they get used to it and it doesn't bother them at all.
That is about it for my first post, that took me a really long time to write up. I will probably be posting again a few days before my surgery or if I forgot something important that I want to share. If anyone has any comments or questions I would be more than happy to answer any questions. Also, if someone who knows better than me catches something that I was not correct about let me know! Bye :)
Hi guys, welcome to my blog. I will be tracking my progress throughout my procedure that is scheduled for May 22, 2014 (3 weeks from now). Leading up to this point I have found it very helpful to read through all the different jaw surgery blogs that are available on the internet. It really put me at ease to learn a bit about the process so that I wasn't completely blindfolded going into my own surgery. I just want to pay it forward and share my experience with anyone out there that may require jaw surgery in the future. I have read many of the other blogs and taken notes on them, so I hope to share all of the best tips for a great recovery.
Background information:
My name is Shane and I am 20 years old. Ever since I was very young my dentist told me that I seemed to grind or clench my teeth a lot during the night; he could tell by the wear and tear on my teeth. By the time I reached 10 years old I started complaining to mom that my jaws were a little bit sore when I ate. Of course, this just started out as very, very mild symptoms. These symptoms progressively got a little bit worse as each year passed, but they were only related to eating.
In my grade 9 year, out of the blue, I started to have arthritic symptoms in both of my hands. All of the joints in my hand (but not the wrist) would ache with every movement. It bothered me a lot at the time in my gym class. It didn't seem to really affect my performance in most sports but it made it quite uncomfortable. I loved sports and wasn't going to let that stop me! My mom brought me in for blood work that revealed I had a slightly high R factor. This marker can indicate if a patient has rheumatoid arthritis. My level of R factor was just a little bit above the threshold that would indicate an arthritic patient. To get through the year I was taking ibuprofen for the pain. Before I knew it, all those hand symptoms were gone by the summer and I still to this day have never experienced anything like that again. For all I know, this could be unrelated to what is happening with my jaw. Whenever I go and see doctors about my jaw I always mention this incase there is some relationship.
Back to the jaw. As I said above, my jaw symptoms have pretty much slowly, but steadily worsened with each year. I got braces at the end of grade 9 and they were taken off at the end of grade 11. The reason for them was just that I had both of my top eye teeth pulled down to the level of the rest of my teeth along with some minor straightening. Here are some pictures of me below on the day that I got my braces off:
My bite has not looked this good since.
My regression into the symptoms/problems that I have today can be tracked by looking at my lower jaw year-by-year. What has gone wrong is that due to my constant grinding/clenching of my teeth during the night growing up, the articular cartilage that cushions the head of my mandible (lower jaw) into my skull has worn away; leaving me with bone on bone contact. Basically, the head of my lower jaw is eroding away. Due to this, my jaw began receding as a function of time.
Based on pictures of my past, I've estimated that my lower jaw structure started to change at some point in grade 11.
As I said, I have read MANY of the jaw surgery blogs out there on google and it seems that most people are having TMJ (temporomandibular joint) problems because of either an over or under development of their mandible. My case is a bit different as I have a deterioration problem as opposed to a growth problem; though the end result is still an under-developed mandible. Below is a younger picture of me just to show that there were never any visual signs of jaw problems as I was growing up, until-mid high school:
around 13 years old
After getting my braces off, my symptoms were still worsening and my jaw was getting shorter and shorter in length. What also started to happen was that I was losing occlusion of my teeth (my teeth of each jaw were not coming together properly, which you will see later in pictures of me today). Because the mandible is an L shaped bone, if deterioration happens at the head, the jaw is going to want to recede back into the socket where the head sits. The result is that as the jaw recedes, it will also rotate the jaw downward so that the front teeth come apart and the back teeth are closer together. This altered position of my jaw causes a lot of tension to be put on the chewing muscles, especially my masseter muscle; trying to massage it is like playing the harp but with enormous strings (knots). I am also known for being THE SLOWEST eater on the planet. Back in grade 11 or so my brother timed me while I ate a 6 inch sub(way) for 18 minutes!
Ok, so this pretty much brings me to today. Below are all of the main symptoms that I currently have with my jaw today:
-tender/sore jaw muscles
-limitted jaw opening
-jaw fatigue/discomfort all the time
-jaw pain when eating
-less ability to talk
-tight neck muscles
-difficulty swallowing (only within last year)
-clicking or popping jaw joints (only within last year)
Only a couple of these symptoms came on within the last year. Two other noticeable symptoms that are often mentioned by people are headaches and locked jaws. For whatever reason, I thankfully have not experienced these.
Here are some pictures of me today:
Above here are my side profiles at 17 and 20 years old. As you can see, my lower jaw has receded more within these 3 years indicating that there has been more degeneration of my lower jaw.
This is just a picture showing a small patch of white hair that has been growing behind my left ear for the past year and a half. It is a bit more prominent when my hair is longer (I just got it cut) but for the most part it doesn't bother me. This is known as Poliosis and can be a sign of an autoimmune disease (arthritis for me). I've seen other people with this too, but it is usually just a birthmark.
Here I just took this picture to show how my teeth are coming apart at the front. As my jaw recedes, my teeth move farther apart. This is me biting down, so only my molars are touching when I do this. People that have this problem know that it is very difficult to eat thin foods that you can't grab onto with you front teeth; you've got to get it back to your molars to chew. It is also hard to finish your "s" sounds with this gap in your teeth.
In the summer of 2013 I finally was referred to Dr. Tocchio; an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon in the Toronto area. He met with me and said that he has seen many cases like mine before and that he could fix me. Before I met him, I read a lot of great things about him from both the internet as well as my dentist and orthodontist. He is said to be "the best" in his field. My procedure was booked on June 2013 for May 2014. I am in post secondary school and will have a whole 4 months to recover before the beginning of a new school year. It was at this time that I was officially diagnosed with having degenerative joint disease (a form of arthritis).
The Procedure:
There are a total of 3 procedures being done on me. The first is shown below and it's goal is to align my jaws so that my teeth will come together properly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiUMaokTidw
I got braces put back on (for the second time) last summer right after my consultation with the surgeon. They wanted to align some teeth a bit so that when they changed the angle here my teeth should fit together perfectly. This will reduce the stress on my jaw and hopefully relieve a lot of my symptoms.
Secondly, they are going to do what is called a genioplasty. This is where they will move a small piece of my lower jaw forward to help my appearance and make it look as if I never lost any bone mass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ExY370wbA
The final procedure is totally unrelated to my jaw problems, but I'm actually having all 4 of my wisdom teeth taken out at the same time.
I was told that the procedure would only take 1 hour. Believe it or not, it turns out that what I'm having done is an easier procedure to do. I've read blogs about people with cross-bites and other horrible things that need 3-5 hours of surgery and their mouth wired shut for 6 weeks. I will not have my mouth wired shut at all.
What I know about recovering after surgery:
My surgery is on a Thursday, so on Tuesday I will make the trip to Toronto to have an appointment with the surgeon to get a bit more information about how everything will work. On Wednesday I will have x-rays taken. I need to be at the hospital for 6:30am to have my surgery at around 9-10am on Thursday. I will stay the day and night there and then if everything is going well I'll leave to go home the next day. I will be on a liquid diet for the first 2 weeks, soft foods for the 3rd week and then after 4 weeks I should be able to eat anything that is not extremely hard. Nutrition is CRITICAL for recovering from surgery. The better you feed yourself, the more quickly you will recover.
Swelling: The longer that your surgery takes the more that you're going to swell. Mine is only 1 hour so I won't be awfully swollen. I've seen some people that had surgery for 3 hours and their head was the size of a melon. However, most of your swelling will go away within the first 7-10 days and it won't be noticeable at all really after 2-3 weeks.
Pain: I have heard that when you wake up after surgery you may be a bit nauseated but you are too swollen and numb to feel a whole lot of pain. It is during days 3-5 where you are in the most pain as you start getting sensation back on your face. People have said on blogs that the pain is no more than a 4/10 during this time if you are not taking any medication. Overall, people say that after day 10 they start feeling much better and it is much easier to get through it.
Sensation/Numbness: You will be very numb when you wake up. It really depends case to case how quickly sensation will return. During surgery, the surgeon tries to preserve nerves but small ones have to be cut to do the surgery regardless. Nerve fibres have the ability to regenerate, so if they are cut they may take some time to do so. The rule of thumb seems to be after 1 year, the amount of sensation that you have is the amount that you'll have for the rest of your life. Generally people will get all (or almost all) of their sensations back. There are some cases where a small portion of their bottom lip (for example) will never feel again. It seems horrible, but people say that they get used to it and it doesn't bother them at all.
That is about it for my first post, that took me a really long time to write up. I will probably be posting again a few days before my surgery or if I forgot something important that I want to share. If anyone has any comments or questions I would be more than happy to answer any questions. Also, if someone who knows better than me catches something that I was not correct about let me know! Bye :)
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