I think I'm at 8.5 weeks post-op now, can't remember - it's such a great feeling to lose track of how long ago my surgery was! A lot has happened since my last post.
Firstly my splint came out. That was an interesting saga. I walked into the surgeon's office glad as could be. I walk over to the receptionist and she tells me I need to sign papers for my surgery today.
I say: "Oh no no, you've made a mistake, I already had my surgery. I'm just getting my splint taken out today."
And she responds with: "Yes, but it's a surgical procedure."
I nearly crapped my pants! I would prefer to keep the splint in than going through surgery again. She tells me I'm going to get local anesthesia and will have to sit in the recovery room and all kinds of things I didn't want to hear! Once I got called in, the nurses started taking my blood pressure and started prepping me for what looked like a surgery. And then Dr. Freidman walks in and says, "What's all this? We don't need anesthesia. I'll just take the splint out without it. He won't feel any pain." What a relief! In retrospect, I think it's just a nasty prank they like to pull off with their post-ops.
So the splint got removed. It reeked like an ogre. All kinds of food had crusted on the back of my upper teeth and it took 3 consecutive brushings to feel semi-normal again. My speech came back pretty quickly - about 30 mins to get used to talking and finally people can understand me again!
What else has happened recently? Dr. Freidman also cleared me to start resuming my regular diet but at 2 months post-op I'm not all the way back yet. My jaw isn't strong enough to take on the hardest of hard foods but I'm gradually getting there. It didn't turn out to be a big-bang now-you-can-eat deal so I didn't really get a chance to go for a celebratory post-op meal. I've had pizza 3 times since then though.
Other than that, I visited my orthodontist. The million dollar question I had for him was when I'll get my braces taken out and the million dollar answer I got was disappointing - "hopefully at the end of the year." He also slapped on elastics and wants me to wear them 24 hours a day so that was a colossal disappointment too. They don't seem to help either. My bite isn't any better than it was 1.5 weeks ago. We'll see what my surgeon has to say when I visit him next week.
Upcoming milestones:
Jul 25 - Visit surgeon
Aug 13 - Visit orthodontist
Dec 2007 - Braces come off (hopefully...)
3 comments:
You're just getting your splint off and i just got mine on!! it's not as bad as i thought but talking is gonna suck for a while--even when all this swelling goes down.
It's good to hear you're not finding it too bad. Don't worry too much about not being understood. Everyone's really understanding when you have a hunk of plastic stuck in your mouth!
All I can suggest is practice talking as much as you can. I avoided talking for the first couple of days until I got my James Bond inspiration.
I haven't seen my ortho yet, but I have a goal of getting my braces off by the end of the year. :)
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