Day 964 - 97 Hours Post-Op (+ PHOTOS!!!!)

Well, I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but I think the swelling may have peaked. I was a little upset when it clearly did not peak last night. The swelling had in fact advanced under my eyes yesterday, making me wonder if this swelling would ever stop! I think it MAYBE has.....we'll see.

On a positive note, the nosebleeding has pretty much stopped. The annoying part is waiting for the clots to make their way down (I know that's gross). No signs of infection or anything like that.

Not a lot of sleep again last night, but I'm finding that I can get a few hours in during the day which has been helpful. I think I'm almost a little afraid to sleep at night time in case my airway is blocked, which I understand makes no sense (the swelling does not affect your airway....remember that the swelling pushes you OUTWARDS, not INWARDS).

Weight loss is pretty good still. It has now been nearly five days without eating anything, and I've only dropped five pounds (keep in mind that I weighed in at 235lbs pre-op....I'm 6'7"). On Tuesday, I will hopefully be given the green light for the non-clear liquids like purees and meal supplements. So I think the majority of whatever weight loss I incur will be over today and tomorrow.

Anyway, this post is long overdue, but I thought I would maybe share some of the pre-op photos. I am not yet looking at my post-op photos, so those will have to wait a few days yet, but I wanted to give you an idea of WHY I needed jaw surgery:


PROCESS START PHOTOS
These photos were taken three years ago prior to my SARPE:
http://paulsjawmakeover.blogspot.ca/2009/05/picture-post-1-prior-to-sarpe.html

Probably two immediate observations:
a. My teeth were crooked! Probably enough said. Not one straight tooth.
b. My upper jaw was narrow! The SARPE helped to correct that, but did not expand it completely obviously, because I underwent some further expansion in last week's surgery.

After SARPE, I have been wearing braces for the last 2.5 years to straighten the teeth out before the orthognathic surgery. To be perfectly honest, I was quite happy with my results prior to surgery, but obviously the way my jaw was aligned would still create problems for me down the line.


PRE-OPERATIVE PHOTOS
Here are some of these photos (taken the night before surgery):

Photo #1: Smile
Again, I was pretty happy with this, especially when you compare this to the photo from three years ago!! However, when you look a little bit closer, you will see the reasons the surgery was needed.

Photo #2: Closeup of Teeth
There were three main issues here that needed to be addressed. The first is the crossbite. As you can see, the upper midline is almost half a tooth right of my lower midline. The second is the 'gummy' smile. Again, this is not nearly as bad as I have seen in other cases, and I could have lived with it, but there is definitely some upper gum exposed. The third is how the upper law looks like it's kind of slanted down to the right. The mandibular (BSSO) part of the surgery would rotate my lower jaw in order to meet the upper. Because of how this was before, the teeth on the left side of my jaw never made contact with each other (see Photo #5 below).

By the way, if you are wondering what those hooks attached to the wires are, they are for the elastics used to hold your jaws together post-op and also to help the surgeons stabilize your jaw in a certain position during the surgery.

Photo #3: Roof of Mouth
This pic is included to show you how much expansion the SARPE achieved. Compared to three years ago, that's a LOT of expansion, but again, a little bit more was needed.

Photo #4: Profile
Again, this is a profile I could have very easily lived with, but you can see the need for that maxilla to be moved forward a little bit.

Photo #5: Left Jaws
This is a photo of the left side of my jaw. As you can see, none of those teeth make contact with each other when I bite down. In fact, only two teeth on my right side made contact. This could mean big trouble down the line in terms of decay of the teeth and all that due to over/under utilization.

Photo #6: Pre-Op
Just for kicks, here is a photo of me waiting in the recovery room prior to being called into the OR for surgery. I thought the headdress thing was kind of funny. At the very least, it helped to distract me!

Anyway, I am now at 97 hours post-op.....still not feeling great, but with each passing day now, I know things are going to start to feel a whole lot for the better.

Thanks for reading everyone. I will try my best to respond to any questions you have.

Take care,

Paul