Before and After Lefort I - 5 weeks post-op

Let me just start by saying that my recovery has really made me appreciate the way God designed the human body to heal all by itself... it really is incredible the way we are designed!

It's been 5 weeks and I feel almost all back to normal! Feeling is around 80% back. There are still some pins and needles behind my nose every once in a while, but nothing major. The swelling has almost all gone down too...I know there is still some swelling under my lip, but I would say for the most part, it will not make any dramatic difference when it does all go down.

Overall, I am so happy I had the surgery and would definitely do it all over again. I haven't had ONE migraine since I had the surgery which is HUGE to me...and I am very hopeful that they are gone for good! I can NOT wait to start using my new bite too! I have my 6 week followup next Wednesday and get to find out if I can start chewing!!!! I'm VERY exicited!!!

Here are some side-by-side before & afters...pretty neat to see how much a couple millimeters can change your face.

And here is a silly picture that shows you how wide I can open my mouth now!!! A few weeks ago I couldn't even get a full sized spoon in my mouth!!

2 Weeks Post Surgery - first day back to work!

Its hard to believe its been two weeks since surgery already. It has gone by fast, but it still feels like the surgery was yesterday...

Being home with Gregg for two weeks was amazing, even given the circumstances, but I knew it would come to an end eventually. Today was my first day back to work and I must say it has been nice to get back into the swing of things and get my mind of my jaw for a little while. (I DID not miss Atlanta traffic though...ugh!) Everyone at work has been so understanding through the whole ordeal...I couldn't ask for better employers and co-workers!

Swelling goes down a little each day, but I'm still very swollen above my upper lip and behind my nose. The bruising is almost all gone. Stitches are still in the healing process, and really only bother me when I talk for a long time or laugh. I'm still completely numb on my nose and the area directly around it, most of my upper lip, and the roof of my mouth. I'm not happy with my nose at all...it still looks quite "piggy" to me...as if I needed any help making my nose bigger! haha

I'm trying to remember that the doctor warned me it would take 3-6 months to really judge the final result, but thats hard to do.

Here are some photo's from this morning:

Chew something for me!

What did I have done?

So, a lot of people have asked what I had done exactly, and why I needed the surgery, since to most people my teeth looked fine before. The thing is, my "teeth" pretty much were fine, and I wanted them to stay that way, my bite on the other hand was incorrect and was causing my teeth to wear down more and more because of the way they hit each other. If I didn't have the surgery my teeth would have continued to get smaller and smaller. I got migraines on a regular basis from grinding my teeth, and had cracking and popping in my jaw.

I had braces for 1 1/2 years prior to the surgery to reposition my teeth to fit correctly AFTER surgery. If they had done the surgery without braces beforehand, my teeth wouldn't have fit together correctly, but now they only need fine tuning.

The procedure is called a "Lefort I Multi-Piece Osteotomy". The Lefort I can be 1-piece, 2-piece or 3-piece. I believe I got the 2-piece since they had to expand my upper jaw. In layman's terms:

2-Piece Lefort I Osteotomy:

•makes an incision under the upper lip
•fractures the upper jaw
•completely separates the upper jaw
•removes a wedge of bone
•splits the jaw down the middle
•re-positions the jaw
•re-attaches the upper jaw with titanium screws and plates
•sutures the incision

 

Days 7-10

Now that my steriod induced pity party and bout with depression has subsided, I figured an update would be nice :)

I think Tuesday was definitely the PEAK of everything...the swelling, the pain, the depression, the bruising...you name it - it was at it's worst. Crying for no reason, curled up in a ball, missing my mom, feeling sorry for myself, not wanting to get out of bed, looking at my face in the mirror and convincing myself that I look like Shrek - it was no fun. And for all of you who were victims of mine, I sincerely apologize and promise I will make it up to you somehow (ie: Gregg, etc.). Oh yeah, and good news, I'm not pregnant. I found that out on Monday too...so I think that emotional lovelyness that takes place naturally on a monthly basis really added a "little something special" to the emotional state that I was already in...

Wednesday was like a light switch went on...I went into some sort of crazy organizational frenzy and decided it would be a great time to organize things that I haven't organized in 4 years (cabinets under the bathroom sinks, drawers of the nightstands, boxes under the bed) Gregg just kind of sat there with a look on his face like he saw a unicorn in real life or something....confused, but pleasantly surprised.

Yesterday, I had my post-op with Dr. Loetscher. He really is an amazing surgeon, and all of his nurses and staff are SO nice too. He said that my bite is "perfect", and that everything is healing the way it should be :) I asked if its normal for the inside of my mouth to look the way it does, and he was like "oh, like fish guts? yeah, that's normal." So thats a relief. They took xrays and I got to see all the metal plates holding my grill together. I think there were 4 metal plates all together, and 2 screws holding the bone graft in place. He showed me on a model where they separated my jaw to widen it, that was pretty interesting, its like a "v" cut into the roof of my mouth with the point starting between my two front teeth...cool, huh? I have to go back in 5 weeks for a follow-up, but all in all it was a great doctors visit. I asked one of his nurses to email me "before" pictures and copies of the xrays so I'll post those when I get them.

I guess thats all for now...here are some pictures from day 9 (4/28), the swelling has DEFINITELY gone down a lot, and the bruising seems to be getting better too:

I thought I would end with a picture of my favorite little visitor (isn't she adorable?!):

Love you Karley!

Chew something for me!

-Sarah

Day 5&6

Hello Everyone,

Didn't post yesterday because I hardly had the energy (or desire) to leave my bed. There was more swelling, more pain, and more bruising. Since I didn't feel like moving, Gregg was nice enough to watch a movie in bed with me that came highly recommended... "hiachi". Note to self: do NOT watch a depressing animal movie when steriods are wearing off!! Very sad :( I'm sure it is a good movie otherwise...

It was nice to have my mom here this weekend to make sure I ate, that I had fresh ice in my "bra", and to stay on top of my medication schedule. She even went grocery shopping for me, and made the boys dinner last night (fajitas have never looked or smelled so good). Aren't mom's great? I was sad to see her leave this morning :( but it was SO nice to have her here during the worst part of this ordeal. She left me some homemade tapioca pudding that I'm sure I'll devour at some point today.

Thank you again to everyone that has come to visit, brought soup, sent cards, flowers, etc. now I know that that stuff really DOES help people heal faster. You'll never know how much it means to me!

Here are a few pictures, these were taken 4/24:

Chew something for me!

Day 4

Good morning! Nothing like a warm cup of coffee through a syringe to start my day:) I guess this is what the doctor meant when he said it would get worse before it got better... here is an update:

Nosebleeds - just when I think they have stopped it will start bleeding again, so I pretty much keep cotton up my nose all day...just lovely. I've heard nosebleeds are very normal for upper jaw surgery though, so I'm not too worried, just annoyed at this point.

Swelling - my left eye has now begun to swell shut, and the roof of my mouth has too. My nasal passages must be really swollen because it is really hard to breath through my nose. Lips (mostly the upper lip) and cheeks continue to expand (more on the left than the right) as well. I've always been a "nose breather" when I sleep, so its hard to get used to sleeping with my mouth open. I don't know how people do it, I woke up 3 or 4 times just to drink some water because my mouth was so dry!

Bruising - Very light bruising on my right side, and it seems to be about the same as it has been on my left side, no better, no worse. I'm starting to get bruising under my left eye and the inside of my mouth is actually bruised, which is pretty weird to see.

Pain - Like I've heard from other people who have had this surgery, I'm not in excrutiating pain, but I AM extremely uncomfortable. My face feels like it weighs 20 lbs. and my skin feels incredibly tight. My lips hurt real bad too. haha I need my chapstick!

Food - not much to talk about here. I promised I wouldn't give them a hard time, but Gregg and my mom had pizza for dinner last night and it smelled and looked amazing. Gregg was going to let me lick a piece to "get the flavor" (isn't he sweet?) but I decided to pass and figured that would just make it harder. I made celery and pineapple juice, and had some butternut squash soup that Vanessa brought me instead.

Weight loss - I've heard you can expect to lose 10% of your body weight on a liquid diet even if you take in MORE calories than normal, since your body processes liquids so much faster than solids. Well, I'm not sure when that part starts because I have actually GAINED 5 lbs.

Here are some pictures taken around 12:30pm today ...

Chew something for me!

-Sarah

Pictures 4/22/11

These photos were taken around 12:30pm on 4/22/11.

Day 3 - ready...set... SWELL!

Thank you everybody for all of the encouragement, phone calls, cards, flowers, and prayers. I knew it before, but it has been reiterated to me this week what good friends, coworkers, and family I am fortunate enough to have. I'm especially thankful for my amazing husband who has been doing everything possible to keep me comfortable...always making sure I have ice in my "jaw bra", getting up with me in the middle of the night to take my medications, watching girly movies with me all day, etc. (still waiting on him to feed me like a bird like he promised, but I guess there is still time for that)

These were taken this morning at around 8:30am... bad case of bedhead going on...

You can't really see the bruising very well in the photos, but my left cheek is a nice shade of purplish green...

As you can see, the swelling has gotten a tad bit worse :) It actually takes effort to close my lips together.

My nose and my upper lip is completely numb, and most of my cheeks. I pretty much only have feeling in my chin, and forehead.

Day 2

Well, aside from being really sore, tired and hungry, I'm feeling pretty good today. Sleep last night was still pretty restless. The antibiotic I'm taking makes me really, really itchy all over so I kept tossing and turning, and itching and scratching. At least there is no rash or anything. I took some Benadryl last night and that seemed to help. The nose bleeds are a bit more under control, but still very annoying. Bruising seems to be worse in the evening, and not as bad first thing in the morning. I am way more swollen and bruised on my left side where they took the bone graft from, that side is way more painful too. I've been keeping my "Jaw Bra" on almost all day to hopfully minimize swelling. Oh, and my nose is really really swollen too, somewhat pig-like you might say. Lets hope that it doesn't stay like that.

So far I've eaten (if you can call squirting a syringe in my mouth eating) chicken broth, tomato soup, Ensure, apple juice, gatorade and coffee. Tried using a straw to no avail, guess I'll try again tomorrow :) Oh yeah, I took a shower this morning and that was pretty incredible...

Had some visitors today too which really cheered me up, (thanks Michelle and Susie! and Karley too!)

Here are pictures from this morning (and yes, that is tissue shoved up my nose... attractive, right? I'm so over these random nosebleeds!

Guess thats all for right now....

Chew something for me!

- Sarah

Surgery and Day One

I still can't belive its all done! It seems like I've been planning this surgery for so long, and now its finally all over!

Heres a little recap of the surgery, and how my first day home has been...

Yesterday was a long day... had to be up at 4am, at the hospital by 5am and surgery was at 7:30am. The last thing I remember is being wheeled into the operating room and the anesthesiologist saying "sweet dreams".... next thing I know I am waking up in recovery around 10:30 and was finally moved to my actual room at 12pm, when I got to see my hubby and my mom (who have been wonderful and supportive and so sweet throught it all).

The surgeon said everything went wonderfully. Here is what he ended up doing: taking a bone graft from my lower jaw and putting in my upper jaw in an area I will need an implant down the road, moving my upper jaw down 3mm and out 6mm and the day of surgery I found out he was going to widen my upper jaw a few mm's as well.

Sleep last night was in and out. I wasn't really a big fan of Morphine, it didn't seem to take the pain away, it just made me sleepy and that didn't even seem to last very long. So they switched me to Roxicet which helped with the pain, didn't give me that groggy "out of it" feeling and lasted around 3 1/2 hours...MUCH better. They were also giving me high doses of antibiotics, potassium, and steriods.

The surgeon came and saw me this morning and said that everything looked great and the I could be discharged after I got up and walked around and could keep down clear liquids. I was pretty ready to get home and to my bed, so I made myself get up and walk the whole floor and ended up getting discharded at 9am.

All of the nurses, and doctors at Northside Hospital were amazing. I can't say enought about how well they took care of me. Hopefully I'll never have to go through this again, but if I had to, it would be there.

Here are a few photos taken the evening of surgery:

And here are a few later last night. As you can see, the swelling and bruising really aren't that bad yet. The surgeon said that day 5 (sat/sun) is when the swelling and bruising will peak, and that that is also when the steroids will start leaving my system so to expect to be in a bad mood, and feel depressed... can't wait. haha

I will take more pictures today, and update you on any changes!