This is part three from the story about my corrective jaw surgery combined with plastic surgery. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

Home after surgery

… So I arrived home from the hospital, against doctor’s orders, my head wrapped (in bloody bandages) like an easter egg.

I was so relieved to be back home!!! Leaving the hospital felt like escaping from jail. At home, the circumstances were not ideal, with the BF leaving for a week of skiing with his friends the next day. Luckily the BFF offered to be there for me, whenever I needed her, which was very reassuring.

As I said in part 2, my face was unrecognizable; inflated and deformed. My head looked like a pufferfish, a football and a hamster… a very ugly hamster.

Jaws immobilized and bound together by elastics meant 6 weeks of liquid diet; eating and drinking via a straw. Because six weeks was what it was going to take for the jaw bones to heal. Until then I had to be careful and sleep on my back, since sleeping on my side could put pressure on the jaw bone and dislocate the halfs.
The part of my face below my lips was numb. In most cases the feeling comes back over time. Fingers crossed!
I was black, blue and yellow from my eyes to my chest; colorful, but not my kinda colorful perse.
Oh, and did I mention the pain?
I guess you get the picture by now. No, it sure was no picknick!

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

During the weeks to follow, I looked in the mirror numerous times each day, hoping to suddenly see my own face again, instead of looking at a creature that was unfamiliar to me. Needless to point out that no matter how often I looked in that mirror, it did not speed up my recovery in any way.

The first week, my nights were spent on the couch, half asleep, half awake, catching up on movies on DVD.
I lost weight, as a result of the liquid diet. One of the rare perks of having your jaws sawn in half;-).
My face deflated a bit, day after day. The discolorations lessened each day as well. Little by little, the hamster-from-hell in the mirror got replaced my me.

Not little old me, since the new jaw had changed my face. But my reflection in the mirror at least looked familiar and pleasant again.

There were some post-surgery complications; my new occlusion was not good, so a molar had to be pulled. And the pain remained, especially in and around my left ear. My BF regularly found me crying from the pain and it drove him crazy, not being able to help me.
After about three to four months I finally was pain-free.

Picture below: a few weeks after surgery. Swollen face, not able to close my mouth and black and blue down to my cleavage. My mum sits next to me, visiting her recovering daughter.

As soon as the jaw bone had grown back together, I was allowed to brush my teeth again, but first the orthodontist removed the yellow color from my teeth. A bonus-effect of 6 weeks gargling with a special teeth-yellow-ing fluid (instead of teeth brushing).

There were still some months of braces to go before the whole process of my corrective jaw surgery came to an end.
And actually, that was not even the end.

Life after corrective jaw surgery

• Physiotherapy for my jaws helped me to open my mouth further, but I cannot open my mouth as far as I used to before the surgery. Luckily not a major issue in life;-).
• Speech therapy helped me to speak properly with my new mouth and taught me how to position my tongue in my mouth. Despite that training and therapy, I still have trouble pronouncing certain words and letters, making me lisp and spit drops of saliva from time to time. Again, not a major issue. Although the person I am talking to at that moment may beg to differ;-).
• I regained all feeling in the lower half of my face! Yay!
• At the dentist, opening my mouth is hard. After 10 minutes, my jaw begins to feel like there is a weight of 5 kg hanging on it. Weird feeling. I also have phantom pain around where the extra molar has been pulled.
• Before the surgery the doctors discussed with each other and with me, wether it would be necessary to reduce my chin (aka cut short the chin bone). Reason being that, after placing my lower jaw one whole centimeter more to the front, as a result, my chin could be sticking out too much. After measuring and calculating, they told me it would be borderline. They advised me to take my chances and leave it as was. I took their advice. In hindsight, esthetically seen, it would have been better to shorten my chin a bit, since it is quite pronounced now. On the other hand it would have added to the length and complexity of the surgery, so never mind.
• My double under chin underwent liposuction, which they clearly did very careful and conservative. In other words: I still have a double chin:-(. But to be honest, I prefer these kind of procedures to be done in a modest way, instead of overdoing it. Better safe than sorry, right?
• The result of my upper eyelids lift was fab, for several years. But of course aging and gravity are always winning in the end, so my eyelids are beginning to droop again. Ah well, that’s life.
• I have splints behind my upper and lower front teeth permanently, as well as a night retainer for the rest of my life.
• My jaw correction definitely did NOT give me a perfect smile; there were too many complicating factors to achieve that. But let’s not forget what was it all about: the goal was to save my teeth. To improve my occlusion in a way that would preserve my teeth. And in that aspect, the surgery was a big success. My teeth are safe, sound and stable in my jaws. Mission accomplished!

Picture below: about a month after the surgery. My eyes look pretty, the shape of my face is almost back to normal. Still some discoloration on my neck and I can see that I’m in pain.

Good to know about corrective jaw surgery

• the gravity of, problems with and recovery from this surgery can differ enormously. One person is healthier, younger or stronger then another, one procedure will go faster and smoother then the other, etcetera. Many factors that will determine how the surgery will be for each person.
• although there are people who experience this procedure as ‘not that bad’, on many people it makes quite an impact. For me it was flat out traumatic, and I know at least one other person, a strong man, not a wimp at all, who felt it that way too. Too bad for him, but reassuring for me. Made me feel less like a pussy.
• would I do this surgery for cosmetic reasons? NEVER! Would I make the same decision in the same situation as I was in? Without a doubt. Remember the toothless mouth that I showed you in part 1? SO not an option.

A cry from the heart to nurses and doctors

I know that many doctors and nurses are great: skilled, kind, hard-working. This heartfelt cry is not for them.

My cry from the heart is meant for medical staff like the ones that I encountered during my last hospital stay (read part 2), who made me flee the hospital in barely 36 hours:

“Dear nurses and doctors:

I know that your workload is enormous, the pressure is high and some patients may treat you like crapp. I get that.
Still, patients in general are people at their most vulnerable. They are in pain and discomfort. They are sick and sometimes afraid and emotional.
I hope that you will always remember that. That you will stay able to see patients as people instead of as numbers or troublemakers. That you can stay kind and human. The way you treat us, patients, is crucial. We depend on you and need you.

Thank you for your attention and keep up the good work!”

Corrective jaw surgery can be a necessity, like for me to preserve my teeth or for a friend of mine to cure his life-endangering sleep apnea.If you have a choice though, I do not recommend this surgery. It is invasive, complex and the whole process can take a long time from beginning to end. In my case a bit over two years. I find it a surgery that should not be underestimated.

Do you know anybody who has had corrective jaw surgery? Did they sail through the whole process without too much problems? Or did they find it quite a big deal, in hindsight?