68 days post jaw surgery!

68 days post jaw surgery! I don't really have any updates other than I can open my mouth a little wider than last time I posted. Not much difference but any little bit helps! I'm going to post some pictures that were taken today to show my bite and to show how all my swelling is down :) My hectic life is back and even though it's been a while since surgery my body feels like it's just now catching up. I'm going to attempt to work out lightly soon...that's pretty exciting for me! I go to the ortho in a couple days for an adjustment so i'll update if he has any news about the braces.
xoxo
Aubrie

Teeth close! No more open bite!

2 months post op jaw surgery

It's been two months since surgery and it feels like ages ago. I haven't updated in a while i've been so focused on trying to catch up with school and my social life. I am still numb in a few places but it doesn't bother me at all. I have moved onto eating foods the consistency of fish. I eat a lot of pasta, fish, potatoes, still a lot of smoothies, and yogurt. Going out to eat is still a challenge. My surgeon told me I could start to chew more in 2 months at the 4 month mark. My energy is back! I went to Miami this past weekend to celebrate my friends birthday. I'm really surprised I am pretty much back to normal this quickly. I went to my orthodontist a week ago and he said my bite looks almost perfect. There may be a need for some rubber bands next time I go in but other than that I should have them off in less than 4 months. I can also breathe 100 times better now that my deviated septum is fixed. That's all I have for now! I will update next time I go to the ortho/surgeon.

taken a week ago

xoxo
Aubrie

3 weeks, 2 days post op

It's been 3 weeks and 2 days since my surgery! The recovery is going by faster than I thought. I feel more like a normal person these days. I go to class on Tuesday's and Thursday's and i'm driving again. I'm off all my medicine except for the rare occasion that my jaw hurts. It usually hurts after I try to push myself to eat more than I can. I can't talk clearly because of the splint in my mouth so when I see people who I know I have to stumble over my words to explain why i'm talking like this. My surgeon says the splint will come off in another 3 weeks (at the 6 week mark).
More importantly, I feel like my mouth is slowly opening more and more but I haven't measured anything. I can now fit a baby toothbrush in my mouth although it takes a while. It feels amazing to finally brush the inside of my teeth!
My diet is getting more variety which i'm extremely happy about. I've eaten things like angel hair pasta cut up, flaky fish, and eggplant. Of course, I still can't chew anything so everything has to be cut up really tiny and pressed flat to fit in my mouth. It's nice to taste something other than smoothies and mashed potatoes.
As for my weight, I started out at 117, got down to 109 and now i'm back up to 111. I have much more energy now that i'm starting to eat larger amounts. Three more weeks until the 6 week mark! On that day I also go to see my orthodontist and hopefully he will let me know how much longer I will have the braces on.
The healing process if frustrating at times but even at this point I can say I don't regret going through with the surgery. I can't wait to see the final result.

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xoxo Aubrie

2 weeks post op double jaw surgery, wisdom teeth removal

I'm beginning to ease back into my normal life for the most part. Which is surprising to me because it's only been 2 weeks since my surgery. My energy levels are still very low but overall I feel pretty normal other than my puffy face and not being able to open my open very wide. I'm going to try to go to class tomorrow even though people may stare at my chubby cheeks. Being behind in school and trying to heal from a major surgery make for some stressful times.

 I'm so lucky to have my mom with me through this time. She has made sure that i'm comfortable and have enough to eat. Anyone about to have this surgery, you really need someone there for you for at least the first week. I couldn't imagine having to get up and make myself something to eat during that week. 

I went to my surgeon a few days ago and he says i'm healing very well. He took my rubberbands off after only 2 days which is awesome because they hurt worse than anything to do with the surgery. They put so much stress on my teeth and my jaw that I could hardly sleep. I had to go back to my pain medicine. He said if I practice biting into my splint 5-6 times a day I should be fine and there won't be a need for the rubberbands. My lip is still a bit swollen but he said all of that will be gone at the 5 week mark. (3 more to go!)

I can't wait to get my splint taken off (that also goes on week 5). It's getting really gross because I can't get a toothbrush far into my mouth at all. And there are spaces in the splint so food gets trapped up there..so gross. I bought a smaller baby toothbrush to get behind my bottom teeth. I couldn't stand it any longer. 

Overall, things are looking up! I went out to breakfast with my family and got grits. Took about 45 minutes to get half the cup down but it's nice to get out of the house. I feel like the healing process takes a while but it gets better every single day.

1 Week & 2 days POST OP!

Finally i'm back! It's been about of week since i've updated because the little energy I have goes toward my online classes. I'm a week and 2 days post op! Let's see...there's a lot that's happened this week so i'll try my best to include everything.
When I said day 3 was the worst...I was definitely wrong. Days 4 and 5 were worse because I was nauseous and there's nothing worse than trying to take all these medicines and being nauseous. I ended up throwing up about 2 pounds of liquid because I drank milk of magnesia and a bunch of water afterward. Very unpleasant but I can open my mouth 1/2 inch so there was a space for it to go through (sorry for the gross details but a lot of people worry about throwing up). Other than that I pretty much stayed in bed for those days. This is a picture from day from day 5. Overall, the swelling is slowly going down but my top lip is getting bigger (just went to the surgeon today and found out it was because I sliced the inside of my lip on my surgical hook and I was numb so I didn't know). The numbness is in my cheeks and one side of my nose, which doesn't really bother me.

Days 6 & 7 I began to get some of my energy back and I felt like eating. Also I barely felt any pain in my jaw but there were a few short periods where my ear was in excruciating pain. If you have this get ice the side of your neck and sit up straight. so I wasn't taking the Motrin so often. Eating is beginning to be a struggle. Nothing like a smoothie or soup or pudding sounds good anymore. I'm craving meat and real, solid food. I got really desperate so I blended up some pizza with marinara sauce. I had to block it out of my mind that I just put pizza in the blender and was about to shoot it into my mouth with a syringe. It was actually pretty satisfying! Chicken broth is still my favorite because it goes down smoothly, there's no need for getting food out of my teeth and I crave salt. I started out at 116 pounds and i'm down to 111. My surgeon said it's fine to lose weight but he doesn't want me to lose anymore than I have. This is a picture from day 7. One week post op!

Days 8 and 9 were pretty much the same thing as the days before. Energy levels are starting to come back! Today I went to an appointment at my surgeons office. He took my stitches out on the sides of my cheek and said the ones in my mouth will dissolve within a few more weeks. He looked at my bite and decided I needed to be put into elastics. There's a splint that covers my top row of teeth and a space for my bottom teeth to bite into. I'm not quite biting right so he says the elastics will fix this. It's kind of disappointing because I was able to talk and slide small pieces of food through my teeth but now i'm completely rubber banded shut. On the bright side I go back for another appointment in 2 days and if i'm improving I can take 1 of the 3 rubber bands off. Below here i'll put some random tips and tricks i've come across so far to make everything a little easier/cleaner.

• If you can open your mouth a little bit buy a tongue scraper/cleaner (not sure what it's called) to clean your tongue. It will get very coated since you can't brush it. 
• If your mouth tastes really nasty and brushing the outside of your teeth doesn't help, dilute some mouthwash and rinse with that. If it's not diluted it will burn your stitches. 
• Don't eat any smoothies with raspberries! The seeds are ridiculously annoying...it took forever to get them out of my teeth.
• If you're craving breakfast food try blending grits, an egg, tiny pieces of crispy bacon, and milk. Some of the bacon bits don't suck up well in the syringe but some will. 
• If you're not making your smoothie, ask the person making it to blend it twice. This thins it down and gets rid of any missed chunks. 
• Buy big smoothie straws! I was able to drink out of these way better than regular straws.

First time in 9 days that I did my hair! But still no makeup. Botox upper lip!  

Profile view right (before) left (after) Still swollen but you can see the slight difference

Day 3 Post-op double jaw surgery & upper wisdom teeth removal

Hey guys! I got discharged from the hospital last night so this is my first chance to update. I will post pictures from the day of surgery, yesterday, and today. There's a lot of info to share so i'll just break this down as clearly as possible.

Day of surgery: When I woke up in recovery I had a bandage over my head and the tubes were still in my nose going into my throat. Everyone told me I wouldn't remember being in recovery, but I did. I didn't mind much when they took the nose tube out because I was still pretty drugged up. Soon after that I was moved into my room around 3. My surgeon came in a few hours after since I was feeling blood in my throat. He clipped the wires holding my teeth together and used a suction device to suck the blood clots out. It felt amazing. The rest of the day pretty much consisted of me sleeping while nurses came in a out taking blood pressure/giving medicine. The pain level was around a 2 or 3, basically just uncomfortable. That night I woke up about every hour or two, it seemed like the night was never going to end. The first thing I had to drink was apple juice around 3 am. For those who were wondering, I did have a catheter in so I didn't have to get up to go to the bathroom which was really nice. Excuse this picture it's pretty bad!

 right of of surgery

Day two: I got my catheter taken out so I could get up and walk around! I felt much more going on the second day because the anesthesia was starting to flush out of my body. The surgeon came in that morning at 7 and clipped my stylish head piece off and said he would be back around 7 pm to release me from the hospital if I was doing alright. I was told on a scale of 1-10 my swelling was about a 2. Thankful for that! In addition to the jaw surgery and wisdom teeth, the surgeon fixed my deviated septum. This was minor in comparison to the other things but it's making my left nostril bleed non stop. Not a big deal but it's an annoying addition to everything else that's going on. My diet on the 2nd day was apple juice, lots of water, and chicken broth. Toward the end of the night my mom brought me a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks. We mixed it with vanilla ice cream until it was thin, then I drank it through a syringe...heaven. I use the syringe for anything warm or anything thicker than water. Apple juice, and water I can drink out of a styrofoam cup. The pain was much more significant today because the nurses are on a very strict schedule with medications. I was allowed to take more pain medicine than they were giving me so my surgeon called and told them to give me more. Then he proceeded to tell me I could go home so I could better regulate my intake of medicine. I am taking childrens Motrin every 6 hours (30 ml) and tylenol with codine (1-2 tbsp) every 4-6 hours. So I made it home last night and slept in about 3 hour cycles so I could get up to take medicine. 

 

Day three: I was told the swelling would be the worst on day three, and it definitely is. I feel like a balloon and most of my pain is coming from all the pressure I feel in my head. Drinking through the syringe is slightly more difficult today but I drank more ensure (i really like the vanilla) and my mom pureed cream of mushroom soup and added milk to make it thinner. I've been drinking a lot of water and apple juice also. Overall, today has been the worst because my mouth just feels so gross and I feel huge. If you feel like your mouth is getting to gross to even eat anything try rinsing with warm water through the syringe so you can get back in the hard to reach spots. Brushing my teeth at this point doesn't really do anything because I can't use toothpaste. I haven't been to the bathroom yet so my doctor told me to take milk of magnesia. Also, i'm still waking up about every 3 hours during the night.

  

I'll update soon! Feel free to message me!
xoxo Aubrie

the night before jaw surgery

It's 10 p.m and I have to wake up at 4 to go to the hospital because tomorrow's the big day! I didn't update after my appointments but there wasn't much that happened that was different from other appointments. I got my surgical hooks at the orthodontist and then went to the hospital to pre register for surgery. There, they took my blood and gave me the instructions of what to do and not to do before surgery. From there I went to my surgeon's office. He answered my last minute questions and wrote me all my prescriptions. I will be in surgery for about 5 hours so ill be done around 1:30.
I'm feeling really anxious and just want it all to be over with. My doctor gave me an anxiety pill so I can actually sleep tonight so that helps. I have an amazing support system that's making this process so much easier. My mom, dad, boyfriend, and my sister, who flew in from Alabama, are all coming tomorrow.
Well i'm off to sleep for a couple hours! I've put my boyfriend in charge of documenting everything. I will update as soon as I can.
xoxo
Aubrie

6 days until jaw surgery!

Hey guys!

Well, only 6 more days until jaw surgery! I almost wish the surgeon would keep the date of the surgery a secret so I wouldn't be so anxious. Last week I went to my surgeons office so he could take molds of my teeth. These are used by the surgeon to practice the surgery, so before he goes in the operating room he has basically done the surgery before.
Tomorrow is a day full of appointments...fun stuff. I go to my orthodontist to get the surgical hooks put on. These will be the hooks for the rubber bands after surgery. Then I go to the hospital to pre-register for the day of surgery. Then lastly I go to the surgeons office to go over everything with him one last time.
I'm still in school at UCF so I have plenty to keep me occupied at the time but I find myself dozing off and thinking about Monday. It's almost here! I'll update again tomorrow after all the appointments.

xoxo
Aubrie

Cleared by the Orthodontist and surgeon! Ready for surgery

It's been a while since my last post because there wasn't much going on besides tightening the braces. I finally have some news and things are starting to fall into place! I visited my orthodontist about a month ago and they cleared me for surgery. No adjustments were made to the braces at that appointment and they said if the surgeon likes where i'm at we will schedule the surgery. It took me a month to get an appointment with my surgeon and that was really frustrating at first because I am getting impatient and just want everything to be done as soon as possible. It's really easy right now to get impatient but I have to remember there are other people in my same situation, waiting. So after a month, today I had the appointment with my surgeon. He told me everything looked good and we went ahead and scheduled the surgery for September 9th. He only does surgery on Mondays so I thought he may be booked out for a while. So it's surprising it's coming this fast! But i'm so happy that things are progressing. Up until now I was just going through the steps of tightening the braces and dealing with them day to day. For the first time it's all starting to feel real! I spent time at this appointment to ask my surgeon all the questions that had been on my mind and he put me at ease with every answer. There's a lot of appointments before surgery but the office is handling all the scheduling, so that's nice. Below here I will post some of the questions I asked because many of you probably have the same ones. I will post again when I have updates!

xoxo

Aubrie

-How long will I need to recover? Everyone is different during the healing process but generally a good 2-3 weeks.
-When will I be up and moving? Two days after surgery you will have to go in for your first post op appointment.
-How long do I have to be on a soft-food diet? 5 weeks
-When will the swelling be at its peak? Day 3 will be the peak of the swelling, it won't get worse from there.
-When will the swelling be fully gone? Generally, after about 4-6 week
-Why do some people say their swelling hasn't gone down even after a year? Because they are not used to their appearance. Your appearance changes slightly and some think it's swelling.
-Will I be in a lot of pain? Your face will be numb, other than feeling uncomfortable your pain level (after taking the pain meds) should be close to nothing.
-When can I start eating normal food? After 4 months
-How much weight will I lose? (I weigh 116 and i'm 5'5") Probably no more than 5 pounds and you will gain it all back within the first month.
-Is this surgery common? Very.

The beginning of my journey through braces+surgery

5 months down 5 to go! 21 with braces...

Hey everyone!
This is my first post to start off my journey through braces and jaw surgery. I have an openbite and my jaw comes forward a bit when I am just relaxing (small underbite). This seems like a minor thing to some people but for me, it has become a problem. I can't eat certain things because I am unable to bite down with my front teeth and I have a tiny speech problem because my tongue goes through my front teeth. Also in pictures it would be nice if my teeth would close :) So to fix these problems I have opted to have jaw surgery! I knew about 4 years ago when I was 17 that braces alone wouldn't fix this problem and I needed the surgery. Me, being in my senior year of highschool and about to go into college said no way...due to the braces. I am now 21 and going into my senior year of college and the reality of life is bigger than it was 3 years ago. My parents are willing to pay for the surgery now I want to get everything out of the way before I have a real job and get married... and all that fun stuff.
I got my braces on November 26, 2012. So to this date it has been 5 months and a few days. My orthodontist said I would have the braces for 10-12 months before surgery and 4-6 months post-surgery. Apparently this isn't that long to them since my teeth are already straight. I am aiming for the 10 and 4 months.
I probably won't be posting much until it gets closer to surgery time (hopefully 5 more months) but I just wanted to put some pictures of myself before braces and in braces. Yes, I look a good 5 years younger than I am. It's tough seeing people and trying to talk normally when all i'm thinking about is how stupid the braces look and how i'm stumbling over my words. Being 21 with braces definitely has it's downs but I know in the end it will all be worth it. I would love to talk with those of you who have already been through this process, those contemplating, or those in the same stage as I am!
Good luck to all starting this journey!

xoxo,

Aubrie

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