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.
