As I write this now I'm exactly three weeks post-op from my double jaw surgery. Well more specifically double jaw surgery, genioplasty, and some bone grafts. I feel pretty much back to normal, so here I am blogging about it.
A little background. I have always had bad teeth. I was about 8 when I had my first tooth pulled due to crowding. Fast forward to 2005, I like many of peers got braces. What I thought would be the typical two year stint in braces turned into a five year ordeal. One of my adult teeth hadn't come in so I had a bracket and gold chain attached to it underneath my gums trying to pull it up. After about a year of no movement and wild amounts of pain, my oral surgeon and orthodontist realized my tooth was actually fused to my jaw bone. So that tooth was literally chipped out of my face. Then came wisdom teeth surgery where my wisdom teeth and a couple of molars which were also attached to my jaw bone were removed. I finally got my braces off right before this surgery in 2010, but my raging under bite was never corrected and I was told that once I had finished growing I could get a dental implant for my missing tooth. Initially my oral surgeon told me that I was a candidate for jaw surgery but it wasn't really needed. He also told me that I would look more feminine and pretty if I got surgery. Literally the worst thing to say to a self conscious 16 year old girl. Needless to say I never went back to that guy.
Fast forward through my college years, I felt totally fine. My jaw would pop and hurt on occasion but I had no idea anything was wrong. When I finally stopped growing at the ripe old age of 21, I went to go see if I could get the ball rolling on my dental implant only to be told that my cross bite and under bite were so severe that any dental implant would fail. My dentist suggested braces and I started balling like a baby right in the office. I got flashbacks of those five painful years of braces and couldn't even think about getting another round of traditional orthodontics. My dentist is a gem and refereed me to a new orthodontist who specialized in Invisalign and I started that process about a year ago. Both my dentist and orthodontist were firm that I needed jaw surgery and referred me to Dr. Aziz, my current surgeon. Getting an appointment was an ordeal. My college is about three hours away from home and my spring break appointment was cancelled so I had to miss two days of class in order to have my consultation appointment. Dr. Aziz has an incredible reputation though and all of my dentists agreed saying he was the best of the best to do this surgery.
He took one look at me and agreed. My surgery was planned for the end of June so I would have enough time to heal before I started grad school at the end of August. I spent all of June preparing myself for this surgery, experimenting with different smoothies, eating a ton of my favorite foods knowing I wouldn't be able to for a long while ( Sweet lawdy I want a Moe's Burrito and a Cinnabon right now). About a week before surgery I saw my orthodontist and he placed little button brackets on my teeth, which I hated. I was so self conscious of them.

Me the day before surgery with my brackets

The day before surgery I went all out, ate everything in sight and my parents took me out to dinner and I got myself a large plate of baked ziti with lots of cheese, a large helping of bread and butter, and a side salad ( good gravy I'm getting hungry typing that out).
My parents drove me to the hospital and waited with me until I went in. I was super hungry already and super nervous. My surgery got off to a late start at around 2pm, I had been there since 10. When I woke up I was super loopy and the only coherent thing I could say was " my ass feels numb," I know classy right, I had zero filter. It was super late at night when I finally left recovery. They made me take some X-Rays which was really difficult, my face felt like it weighed 20 tons and I was still pretty loopy from all the drugs. When they finally rolled me to my very own room ( thank GOD), my parents left me and I had to pee like crazy. The nurse helped me along but this was a lot for me and I felt super nauseous afterward. I was given some anti nausea medicine through an IV and was hooked up to morphine that I could administer via a button. That was the only time I was really nauseous though through this entire experience. The next morning I was given pureed soup to eat and I gobble that down as best I could with my mouth wired shut. I wasn't in terrible amounts of pain thanks to the morphine and I went home at about 4pm that day.

At the hospital. New face who dis?

Coming home was worse though. My swelling was crazy around my third day post-op and I felt awful. I barely slept the night I got home from the hospital, I couldn't get comfortable. On the plus side I got to watch CSI: NY, which I haven't seen in forever and in my opinion was a pretty gosh darn good series but back to recovery. I took a shower the day after I got home and that felt amazing. Being clean just makes me feel ten times better. I slept on the couch for the first few days because sitting up took a lot of the pressure off my face and I binged watched more episodes of Law and Order: SVU, NCIS, and ordered London has Fallen on Demand. I was very weak the first few days but I made an effort to get moving at least once a day be it a walk around the house or down the street and back with the help of my dad. I kept ice on my face constantly to bring down the swelling. My doctor made a house call on Saturday morning right after my surgery and took a look, he said everything looked good and told me to make sure I kept it clean. I use a waterpik with Listerine and warm water and use a baby toothbrush to gently brush what teeth I can get to.
By the one week mark I felt a whole lot better. By the two week mark, I was more angry and frustrated by the whole situation. I was tired of not being able to eat, tired of my face being swollen. I felt so very low. It sounds crazy but Pokemon Go really helped my melancholy. I would get up everyday and take a walk around my townhouse complex and catch Pokemon. It gave me something to do and when I felt a bit better I started walking my neighbor's dog a couple of times a day whenever he needed me to. My dad also really helped me out taking me out for Rita's, going to see a movie, or just driving me to every grocery store in the are to find new soup flavors.

Week 1

Week 2

I'm getting my wires off tomorrow and I am so excited. After three weeks of eating nothing but soup, Ensure Clear, and smoothies I can't wait to eat some mashed potato, mac and cheese, and spaghetti squash, maybe even a Moe's burrito bowel? I'm still going to be limited on what I eat but anything is better than soup. My meals consists of an Ensure Clear and green tea for breakfast, soup for lunch, soup for dinner, and maybe a little bit of dairy free ice cream. The first couple of days I ate my meals via a ketchup squeeze bottle, then I graduated to small paper cups. Now I drink my meals out of a big tea mug. I did manage to go out to eat three times. Once for my mom's birthday. My godmother called the owner of the restaurant beforehand and they blended Pasta Fagioli for me. By far my favorite soup I've eaten during this entire three weeks comes from Stop and Shop. Their Kickin' Crab Soup blended and strained tastes like a crab cake in a cup. During the past three weeks I've lost 10 lbs which I haven't really minded. I'm back to my pre-college freshman 15  25 weight, so that's one plus. I'd like to keep the weight off and I'm excited to workout again. I might try Barre.

Week 3, Sorry about the RBF and crazy hair

My skin has also gone crazy during this whole thing. Normally I have very dry skin but now my skin is a literal oil slick and I've had to revamp my entire skin care routine. I also have two small scars at the corner of my mouth from the surgical clamps that cut into the skin. That looked pretty gross for a while. It's been a struggle trying to find makeup that won't slide off my skin or become super patchy. I've been using setting powder like a fiend whenever I do wear makeup.  Still it's nice to be able to be back in public again and start moving around more. I'm pretty understandable and don't feel super anxious about being around other humans again.
I'm excited to continue my healing process and getting my life back to normal. I know this will all be worth it in the long run but I am literally one of the most impatient people on the planet and want to be better NOW. I'm feeling better and more energized, I'm even heading to the PGA tournament next week, my face just needs to catch up with the rest of me.

The screws and plates in my face