Jaw Surgery Timeline

Here's a basic timeline of my jaw surgery experience. I didn't realize how vastly different everyone's experiences were. I wish I had known it would take me about 5 weeks to recover, instead of my anticipated 2-3 week recovery.

9-10 Months Before: Braces placed on.

Day 0: Woke up from surgery groggy and swollen. Jaw tightly banded together around splint. All nutrition and fluids by IV. Nausea. Attempted to drink fluids with syringe, but couldn't keep it down.
Day 1: Begin drinking fluids using syringe. Had some water, juice, Ensure, soup. Assistant surgeon wiped my jaw area, which was covered in dried blood from vomiting the previous night. Extremely painful experience! Begin brushing teeth. Begin walking around.
Day 2: Discharged from hospital!

Week 1: Lots of sinus congestion. Lots of mucus production. Barely got sleep due to congestion and excess mucus. Resisted blowing nose but eventually caved later in the week. A humidifier was helpful, but not as helpful as blowing my nose.
Week 1 Appointment: Stitches on sides of face removed! Had assumed all stitches were dissolvable, but guess not. A little nerve-wracking, but not too painful. However, assistant surgeon poked around mouth, which was very painful and tear-inducing. Apparently, the wires and brackets had caused blisters all along the insides of my mouth. Had tight banding removed, and now replaced by 3 rubber bands on each side.

Week 2: Had some blended pastas and canned foods. Brushed teeth more vigorously than the previous week, after being lectured by assistant surgeon. Frequent feeling of mucus stuck in the back of the throat. Felt like I was about to suffocate at times. Some food bits got stuck in my splint, and it felt like some of it was starting to rot. Gross.
Week 2 Appointment: Stitches on the insides of lower jaw removed! Totally unexpected, as I had thought disposable stitches were used on the inside of my mouth. Kind of painful and uncomfortable. Had 3 rubber bands on each side removed and replaced with 2 bands on each side, each in a block formation.

Week 3: Feeling of mucus stuck in the back of throat/sinuses persisted. Cutting out dairy products (goodbye clam chowder!) helped somewhat.
Week 3 Appointment: 2 rubber bands on each side removed. Now it's just one band on each side, and I can take them out 6 hours each day!

Week 4: Continued sleeping with humidifier running at night to prevent sinus dryness. Otherwise, the dryness would lead to congestion and wake me up sometime around dawn. Couldn't speak clearly even with the bands out due to the bulky splint. Back teeth on the side I drank food through were starting to feel a bit sensitive.
Week 4 Appointment: Nothing new. Still had to wear rubber bands for all but 6 hours a day. Assistant surgeon wanted me to try to place my bands in a block formation further back in my mouth, if possible. I couldn't manage to do it on my own, so did the best I could.

Week 5: Back teeth on the side I drank from were feeling very sensitive when I drank sweet things, like juices and Ensure. Stopped drinking juice and Ensure.
Week 5 Appointment: Wires snipped. Splint removed! Headed immediately to orthodontists to get new wires placed on braces. Got new rubber bands to wear, one on each side in a triangle formation, for all but 6 hours a day. Headed out to Cheesecake Factory that very evening! Shared the Ahi Carpaccio appetizer. Basically raw tuna so it was easy to chew. Also had fish and mashed potatoes. Took forever to eat.

Week 6: Continued eating new foods! Burgers, fish, ravioli, sofritas burrito from Chipotle (no lettuce), raw oysters. Tried bites of chicken, scallops, and steak. Difficult time chewing lettuce and basically any raw vegetables. Used front teeth to chew a lot of the time, since those were the least numb. Back teeth on the side of my mouth were still a bit sensitive.

Week 7: Continued eating. Still cutting up everything into bite-sized pieces. Back teeth on one side still sensitive. Noticed one front tooth is slightly chipped. :( Attempting more foods, such as pizza, vegetables. Don't think anything should be off limits now, within reason. It'll just require a lot of cutting into tiny pieces, and possibly swallowing them whole from there.

Jaw Surgery Shopping List

You may have noticed that I removed all my before photos from this site. It's because of all these new fancy image search tools. I don't particularly want future employers and colleagues tracing me back to this blog and wondering why I named it "Asian Jaw Surgery" when it wasn't cosmetic in nature. Oh, well.

So, here's a list of products that I have found to be very helpful during my jaw surgery recovery process (in no particular order).


Crane Drop Shape Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier with 2.3 Gallon output per day

This humidifier has been immensely helpful for relieving my sinus congestion and dryness, especially since I had my deviated septum corrected and my turbinates reduced in addition to my upper jaw surgery. This may not be necessary for everyone, but I'm really glad I made my dad go out and get it.


Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli, 15-Ounce Units (Pack of 24)

Thanks to the YouTube video I mentioned a few posts ago, I found out that these cans of ravioli are incredibly easy to puree. The regular sized ones work just as well as the minis. This was the first real food I attempted after my jaw surgery. Dilute with water to blend. Add more water a second time for a smoother puree.

Cuisinart CSB-75BC Smart Stick 2-Speed Immersion Hand Blender, Brushed Chrome

I was a little hesitant to purchase the CSB-75 model, since it's a lot cheaper than many of the other models and other blenders. It was the only model I could find available at the local Bed, Bath and Beyond store. However, it did the trick in pureeing most of what I wanted to eat. (Blueberries don't blend as well as I like, due to their slippery skin and tiny seeds, but everything else has been blendable.)


Progresso Traditional Soup, Chicken and Herb Dumplings, 18.5-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12)

Very yummy, and surprisingly blendable with the above blender. Too bad it doesn't have more calories. Pro tip: dilute this with water instead of store-bought chicken broth when blending.


Campbell's Chunky New England Clam Chowder, 18.8 Ounce Cans (Pack of 12)

Yes, I ate a lot of canned food. More than I have in years, combined. This clam chowder is especially tasty and blends really well. However, it's creaminess might cause extra mucus production, which can feel like it's stuck in your throat. In the end, I stopped eating this and my throat felt much clearer.


Idahoan Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Garlic , 4 Oz

Yummy. I love anything roasted garlic flavored. The best part of powdered mashed potatoes is that you don't even need to blend it! Just add extra water for a more liquid consistency. The bits of herb in these mashed potatoes didn't clog up my syringe or require blending. I added some gravy for an added layer of flavor, but the roasted garlic flavor was quite delicious by itself.


Cesar Canine Cuisine Variety Pack (Top Sirloin, Grilled Chicken) for Small Dogs, 3.5-Ounce Trays (Pack of 24)

 

Just kidding! No, seriously. No matter how hungry you get, you don't need to resort to eating dog food. Do remember to feed your dog during this time, however.


Also, be sure you have a giant syringe to pump all of your food and liquids into your mouth. Your syringe should hold at least 60 mL of liquid. The hospital should provide you with several of these. Use a bit olive oil to get the plunger in if you plan on pulling out the plunger each time you rinse the syringe. This is another tip I picked up from one of jonpaul70's videos. The full video shows you exactly how he eats through the tube. I personally didn't use the catheter portion when eating. Oh yeah, the blender, ravioli, and clam chowder were ideas that originated from him as well.

Maybe if Soylent works out as a viable meal replacement, you won't need to waste time heating and blending everything. Even though I'm thankful for the canned foods, I'm getting a little sick of them. I also blended some packaged pastas, but those are a little harder to get to a smooth consistency.

Soylent - Liquid Meals Reinvented?

Thanks to a post from a Facebook friend, I was alerted to this cool new product called Soylent. It's an all-liquid diet that promises to give you all your nutritional needs in the form of shakes. Plus, people have successfully lived off of it for weeks or even months, and most of them have reported more alertness, increased energy, and no feelings of hunger.

I wish I had a couple bags of Soylent handy when I just got jaw surgery! That would have made my life a lot easier. I spent a few days feeling light-headed as I was trying to subsist on Ensure. Later on, I finally blended some real foods. But that's not without it's issues as well. Real food can get stuck in your teeth and splint. And if you don't get it out properly, which chances are, you won't, then it'll start to rot in your mouth. Lovely, ain't it. In my experience, cheese doesn't blend too well. Neither does chili or pork.

Anyway, Soylent is supposedly decent tasting. It's not sugary like Ensures are, but more of a neutral flavor. Several journalists have tried it for weeks without complaint about the taste, to their own surprise as well as everyone else's.

Here's the link to Soylent if you're too lazy to Google it yourself: Soylent.

Notes:

• I have not tried Soylent, so I have no clue how well it works/tastes.
• There's currently a 4-5 month waiting period, so I won't be able to get it in time to try it before my liquid diet phase is up. You should also plan accordingly if you're thinking about trying it for yourself. The powdered form is delivered to your door, and lasts 2 years, so order well in advance of your surgery date to make sure you get it in time.
• I have nothing to gain by sharing this. I'm just trying to prevent people from suffering more than is necessary with this complicated process.
• Anything beats living off of Ensure!

This Video Saved Me from Hunger

I had been drinking at least 3 Ensures each day just like the doctor ordered. Despite that, I was quickly burning through my calorie reserves. After a few days, I started feeling light-headed despite drinking plenty of Ensures, beef and chicken broths, juices, and baby food diluted with water daily.

Baby food is great in terms of nutrition. But the problem is that a container of baby food is only about 90 calories. You'd have to eat about 6 to get a meal's worth of calories. And if you're diluting it with water to suck up into your syringe, that will take a long, long time to finish. I usually got through only about 1 baby food container per day, on top of everything else I was consuming.

After about three evenings in a row of feeling light-headed, I thankfully stumbled upon the following YouTube video. It's titled: Don't starve when your jaw is wired shut! Don't be hungry!

I was so, so happy once I saw it. Also hungrier. It showed me how to eat REAL food. In another one of the poster's videos, he mentioned the Cuisinart Stick Blender (CSB-77). The next day, I searched all the local stores for that blender. I could only find the CSB-75, which is a slightly cheaper model. But it seemed like the blending power was the same as the CSB-77, with the only difference being the body's material. It worked great pureeing my canned ravioli! Much better at blending than our old, bulky large blender. In hindsight, some of the other brands of hand blenders will probably work just as well.

I feel so thankful and grateful to have found that video. Prior to that, I had texted my surgeon mentioning that I was hungry, to which he suggested drinking more Ensure. I highly doubt subsisting primarily on Ensure for several weeks is a good idea. Certainly feeling light-headed from hunger can't be healthy.

Now I feel a lot of sympathy for people who frequently experience hunger. I hope to donate money to a food-related charity once my jaws are set free. I also feel for the supermodels out there who have to starve themselves in order to keep booking jobs. Apparently, some of them faint from hunger on a regular basis. What a sad situation it is for all who experience prolonged hunger.

Not for the faint of heart

Wow. I'm not saying I'm brave or anything. In fact, I'm one of the biggest babies I know when it comes to pain or suffering. Maybe that's why I'm complaining in this post.

To anyone who is considering jaw surgery but doesn't suffer from sleep apnea or other medical/dental issues, don't do it!

I had sleep apnea, so I could somewhat justify what I've been through over the past week to myself.

In short, jaw surgery isn't too bad in terms of pain. But it's everything else that makes it really, really tough. Everything was going great as I checked into the hospital. They put one IV in my hand, and it didn't hurt much.

When I awoke after surgery groggily, I wasn't in much pain. But now I had 3 IVs, plus, was peeing out of a tube. The IVs were really annoying. The one on my right hand was really sensitive, and it hurt every time something was initially injected into it.

I was also nauseous and puked up blood a few times before I finally learned to ask for the anti-nausea medication consistently. It's really unpleasant to puke up blood when your teeth are tightly banded together. In fact, the blood will probably end up pouring out of your mouth and nose, and will end up covering half your face.

I feel bad for anyone who saw me like that. It must have looked terrifying.

In terms of pain, I would say I usually averaged a 3 or 4 on a scale of 10, and I'd usually ask for a shot of morphine by the time I'd hit 4. Most of the lower half of my face was numb, so that's most likely why I didn't feel too much pain. There was probably twice the pain shot up to a 6. Once right after I puked up blood, and the force tugged on the inside of my left cheek. Another when the doctor was wiping up dried blood from my chin.


Here are some tips for those of you who haven't been totally scared off of jaw surgery by my account:

• Ask for anti-nausea medicine as soon as you start feeling a bit nauseous -- don't wait until after you've puked a few times
• Don't cry! I cried out of frustration and pain when my doctor was wiping my chin the day after surgery. Unfortunately, once I started, it was hard to stop myself. So I ended up clogging up my swollen sinuses. Don't do this!
• Moisturize your lips well with Vaseline. It'll prevent bruising as you frequently wipe your lips of blood and drool.
• Moisturize the skin around your mouth and on your chin. I didn't really start doing this until I came home. But I just use a light hand cream a few times a day to protect my parched skin. I use Vaseline Intensive Care Total Moisture Aloe Fresh Light Feeling Lotion. It's moisturizing enough yet light enough to not clog pores. Plus cheap enough to dap on and wipe off multiple times a day.
• If possible, try to get a close family member or friend to stay with you in the hospital. With multiple IVs in both hands, you might not be able to do much for yourself. And you won't be able to explain much, if you're able to speak at all. Eventually, you'll have to feed yourself lots of liquids, which is a challenge on its own so soon after surgery, but it's especially hard when you have IVs in your hands.
• The sinus congestion was one of the worst symptoms of the surgery. It's not just due to swelling, but also increased mucus production. There were times I was panicked that I would suffocate because I couldn't breathe through my nose and couldn't open my mouth. This isn't a huge deal in the hospital, since they're monitoring your oxygen levels, but once you're home, you're kind of on your own. A humidifier is immensely helpful. I got a Crane Drop Shape Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier, which is as stylish as it is useful.
• In addition to having a humidifier, I cheated and blew my nose gently several days (about 4-5) after surgery. There, I admitted it. This isn't something I would recommend, especially immediately after surgery, but I figured I'd rather risk blowing my nose than passing out from lack of oxygen. Some other blogger apparently also did so with no ill effects. I gently blew my nose without using a tissue or holding down my nostrils. I also had a large box of cue tips ready to assist with the cleaning process.

Aftermath:

• My surgeon did a great job, and thankfully I suffered no complications. (Everything I complained about above is just what's to be expected.) I pray that I won't develop any as I continue to heal.
• I'm starving. Absolutely starving. It's really hard to consume enough calories when you're just eating liquids, even if you drink multiple Ensure drinks a day.
• My nose looks a little wider and flatter. The nostrils themselves look wider too. But it doesn't look bad somehow. It kind of turns up a bit at the end now and looks like it fits my face better from the profile.
• When your body is in recovery mode, it's crucial to get good nutrition and good rest. Unfortunately, both of those will elude you right after surgery. That's part of what makes jaw surgery so challenging and hard on the body.

Now I'm probably going to call it a night unless I decide to open another Ensure.

In conclusion, jaw surgery is major surgery, nothing like getting your wisdom teeth out. Don't expect you'll be one of those people on YouTube, cheerfully putting up videos a day or two after surgery. Or looking like your old self a week or two afterwards and chattering happily.

In the end, this was one of the hardest experiences I've ever gone through. In a way, I'm thankful that I've never experienced anything worse. However, it's not an experience I would wish on anyone.


Disclaimers:

• I realize that most people get this surgery for a multitude of reasons, with health and function being the primary one. However, I know this surgery is being advertised in countries like Korea for cosmetic enhancements. To which I say: IT'S NOT WORTH THE SUFFERING/RISK!
• Apparently the other blogger who blew her nose didn't get her sinuses operated on. So proceed carefully if you're going to go this route.

Oops, broke my braces

I was eating honey mustard pretzel bites, and they were so good that I couldn't stop. They were really hard to chew through, and I could feel each pretzel bite smashing against the wires of my braces as I chomped down. However, I had eaten a bunch of these pretzels months ago, and my braces were fine then, so I figured eating them again wouldn't be a problem.

When flossing later that night, I noticed that the lower left end of the wire on my braces had come outside of the last bracket. (Apparently only soft pretzels are appropriate for braces wearers.) I tried sticking the wire back in, but couldn't manage it. I called my orthodontist's office about a week later. They told me if nothing in my mouth hurt, I could wait until my next appointment.

During my appointment, I was informed that the wire had come out because the bracket next to the last had fallen off, likely swallowed by me without my knowledge. After the orthodontic team had glued another bracket in its place, a separate bracket on my top braces fell off. And then the new lower bracket came unglued.

Then came the frustrating process of re-gluing both brackets. I felt kind of guilty because I had knowingly chewed on something really hard. My mouth was stretched and pulled in different directions for quite some time. My lips even cracked in two places because they were so dry and chapped.

Luckily, everything eventually got glued on, even though I couldn't upgrade to the thicker wire this time.


No more pretzel bites for me.

Guaranteed Permanent Nerve Damage?!

I had always known that nerve damage could be a side affect of jaw surgery. I did not know, however, that some degree of nerve damage would most definitely be a side effect for everyone.

My future surgeon explained that the nerves to the skin on the upper jaw almost always completely recover within a year. But all patients experience some decreased sensation in their lower jaws after surgery. The decreased sensation in the lower jaw is permanent. Fortunately, the nerve damage only affects skin sensation, and not any of the nerves connected to the muscles. There's also a 1% or lower chance of nerves of the tongue being affected.


Luckily, my intended surgery date is still 6 months away. There's still time to prepare and do more research.