Exactly three years ago I went in for surgery on both my upper and lower jaws. This was serious, though elective, surgery, designed to improve my breathing by increasing the airspace to breathe and to realign my lower jaw.
Background -- I had braces as a child, but the program was never completed. I had some breathing issues as a child but they really became more and more exacerbated as an adult. Sleeping was more troublesome, worse every winter. Few noticed, though, because as a consultant I could work whenever I felt like it. Trouble was, it was getting to a point where I couldn't hold down a full time job anymore if I wanted to. I got braces as an adult, went through the plan as if I'm having the surgery. Two months prior to the potential surgery, I couldn't sleep to save my life. Two hours a day at most, and that wasn't restful sleep. (Stephen, putting the time line in context, you came out to LA Fox that month, if memory serves). Simply driving was difficult. So I decided to go forward with this double jaw surgery. The surgery is the easy part. 4.5 hours. Little pain, very little pain. But you'll be very, very, very uncomfortable for quite a while. As in months. There's nothing to feel because...you're numb. You can't feel your face. After the surgery, though, the swelling started. And continued on. For several days until my head was simply huge. Turns out I was a "sweller" -- the aftercare facility had an actress that went through the procedure a week before me and had more swelling. She refused to drink water for some odd reason. She started to swell so much that her lips started to separate in different directions. Bad. I had two people visit me in the aftercare facility. Neither recognized me. I made some good preparations beforehand, stocking up on juices and supplies. But I couldn't anticipate everything. Went to the drug store on occasion with a literally swelled head and a drool rag. You gotta do what you gotta do... 2.5 weeks clear liquid diet, 8 - 10 weeks liquid diet, 8 - 10 weeks soft food diet, then back to normal eating. I dreaded that the most, but that was the easy part. What turned out to be harder than expected, much harder, actually? Driving. Too much input at once absolutely exhausted me. I drove to a couple of LA Fox board meetings in May and June and was utterly spent by the time I got there. I was emailing people as to my progress. Our esteemed ProFox list hoster was one of them. I'd go on and on (like now) if for no other reason as to keep my sanity. It isn't easy recovering alone... ...but I made progress, slowly but surely... After about 10 weeks, I could eat soft foods. I went to a restaurant on the way home and ate a plain omelet. It was wonderful, though slow, eating. After about 10 minutes, I realize there's food hanging out of my mouth in multiple places. I can't feel it, I'm numb! So I go on, eventually I'm allowed to eat solid foods. I held a "I can eat again!" party at a place called Castaways Restaurant in Burbank, with formal invitations. My mother accepts, then backs out, then shows up. One of my brothers backs out immediately, but we spoke for a long time. No problem. The other, youngest, brother doesn't even respond. (This is the first contact of any sort I had with my immediate family since the surgery). A dozen or so people show up and we all had a good time. Afterwards, I meet with my mother (who had her own serious medical issues during mine) and showed her some of the images after the surgery. It was then she realized that this was serious and she told me more about how I fell off the top of a bunk bed at 19 months (which I was told) while they were on vacation but that they took an hour before deciding to go to the doctor. Turns out I had a broken collar bone and now based on what my mother stated, I think I know why my jaw pulled left. Grrrrrrr....... Later on, one of the two people who came to the aftercare facility began inviting me to some group social events. No big deal... On November 29, I the braces were removed. The next day I got fitted for a retainer (for which I still wear at night to this very day...). Later that day, I dated a lady that was introduced to the both of us by one of the people that showed up to the aftercare facility. It took off from there, and we were married a little over six months ago, the first marriage for both of us. Tonight, my wife and I will stop by Castaways for dinner. Bill --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html --- _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
