Day 31 --- Update on my ear plugged situation

I mentioned my right ear was plugged since the day of my surgery. Since last doctor's visit, I've been taking Sudafed 12 hours. And it seems to be working to clear my ear. Now, I tried not to take one to see if the problem is really solved. Because the doctor said "normally, it's clear out by itself, but sometimes takes time." It is not as bad as it was, but still I can feel a little pressure on my right ear, and slightly plugged. So that's not solved yet, unfortunately. I cannot wait it is truly heal. For now, I will take Sudafed 12 hours again so I don't have to deal with this annoying situation.

Day 30 --- Soft food

Wow, it's been 30 days since my surgery. It seems to be forever, and at the same time it went fast. Over all, it's been great, but still I feel weak. I have two daughter who's 7 and 5. So they need active daily routine. However, I haven't been able to do much with them. I get tired very quickly and want to sit down or lay down for nap. One progress today is food! Last time when I tried soft food was painful. But today, I could eat quite a bit without hurting myself. I started the day with shake, then ate grilled cheese for lunch, and pasta for dinner! Yay! I hope I won't gain back weight too soon. I wanted to loose some weight and this was a chance. I only lost 4 pounds, so it is too easy to gain back!

Here are some soft food that's easy to eat:

scramble eggs

grilled cheese (not too toasty)

pasta

ice cream

soup

risotto

Day 29 --- Waterpik Waterflosser

Since I left hospital, I've been using this Waterpik for cleaning my teeth, and I love it. First two weeks of course, I couldn't even open my mouth. And my face was somewhat sore, so this spraying water gently to clean works excellent. Long time ago when I first started braces, I got different kind. I think that was for adult. And it was too intense and spray water everywhere. So I returned it next day. This time, I got one for kids with braces, so it has gentle cycle and water pressure isn't too intense. I can still change that settings to higher pressure, but for now gentle cycle is just perfect. I put some mouth wash with water and feels just as good as it should be. I'm thinking of using this even after braces are off.

Day 27 --- Biting my mouth.. OUCH!

I mentioned that now I could eat soft food, right? Well, it wasn't as easy as I imagined. Without front two rubber bands, I could open my mouth a bit wider, but not that wide. So I actually cannot really put anything in it. I could slide in spoon like I drink soup. I tried small pancake first. After a few bite, my jaw were too tired to try anymore. My upper jaw inside the mouth is still numb. So in a way, I don't taste anything really. I was disappointed about eating, and went back to my shakes. After trying a few times, I bit myself way in the back. I think that's where my other rubber bands are. Once you bit it, you keep biting it. So now it hurts and bothers me. I'm getting tired of usual shakes and soup. I have to find something to make me feel better.

The other thing I notice is that after I eat or try to eat something, my throat get swollen. Sometimes that leads to my ear plugged up. Maybe I have to eat very very slow, or very very little at a time.

Day 24 --- Doctor's visit #3

Things are good. The doctor changed my rubber bands to stretchy ones. Plus he said I could take those off when I eat. Yay! AND I could start soft food. Yummy! There is almost no pain, unless I have to talk a lot. My right ear was plugged, so I mentioned it again. He told me to try Sudafed in the counter, and in case that doesn't work, referred me to ear doctor. So on the way home, I went to pharmacy and got Sudafed 12 hours. I took it and shortly after, I can hear from my right ear! Yes!!! I have been waiting for this time for three weeks! I feel so much better. And I'm relieved that I don't have to go to ear doctor for that.

Day 19 --- Clogged ear

Most of things are going well and better. One thing that still bothers me is my clogged ear. It's been like this since surgery. Only right side for now. When I'm too active, that moves to both sides which is really hard for me to hear anything. The doctor said that will get better. Well, I hope so, and I hope that will happen soon. FIrst week or so, when I got up in the morning, even brief moment, my ear was clear. Now it is plugged all the time. I wonder what happened. When I clean my nose with NetiPot, there is less and less yucky stuff to come out. In fact, it's been clear for couple of days. Too bad I cannot clean my ear in the same way. I'm sure something stuck up there. I guess only thing I can do is to wait and my body heal by itself. In a mean while, I'll look around online.

Day 17 --- Second Doctor's visit after surgery

Everything went well. He checked me, and changed my rubber bands. I asked him to let me brush my teeth before putting another rubber bands, and he did. So I felt so much better! I also could open my mouth a bit more. That makes it a bit easier for me to drink soup and stuff. I'm a little sore, though. When I tried to open my mouth to brush, around my jaw joint hurt. I guess it's still healing. I could eat pretty well, some soup and shakes. But all my teeth are sore from brushing and swallowing. Maybe that's why the doctor said "next week, you can start eating some soft food such as mashed potato. You've been doing so well, so just wait a little longer" I guess over doing is always going backwards. I can wait. I thought I would loose more weight, but I only lost 4lbs. total, which isn't too much. Oh well. That's okay, I guess. I'm wondering now that things are settling down, if my bite will be really perfect, and my smile will look better than before? I saw X-ray picture of my teeth, and that looked pretty good. But my smile is somewhat not natural. Maybe I'm not used to my new shape of teeth and mouth.

No more Peanut Butter shake!

I loved to have peanut butter shake. But since I drunk it two days ago, little piece of peanut butter stuck near my throat and bothering me so much. If I could open my mouth, that's no problem. Since my mouth is shut, this is just annoying factor. I cannot swallow, and can't do anything! Next doctor's office visit, I have to ask him if I can brush my teeth before shutting again, then maybe I can clean this piece of peanut butter off from my throat! I really hope so!

Day 15 --- I gained weight!

It's been had not to be light headed, so I've been trying extra hard to drink whenever I could. Then look! I gained weight! Oh my! Before surgery, I weighed 111.45 or something. After surgery it went down to 104. Today it was 107! Well, I ate (drank) a lot today. I had probably 3 fruit shakes with banana and oranges. Then two servings of soup for lunch and dinner. V8, water and juice. I guess I had enough today. Oh I know the big reason why. I bought a new blender for one serving. And that is so easy to make smoothies, and clean and make it again. I'm happy that makes my life easier.

Good friend with blender

I have been getting used to liquid diet. The daily meal is like this:

Breakfast: Banana and Strawberry Smoothie.

Morning snack: Coffee or Juice, or vitamin water.

Lunch: Soup.. something like chicken noodle soup, of course without anything in it.
I tried to make Gazpacho and that was delicious, so far my favorite.

Afternoon snack: V8

Dinner: Curry soup.

Night time snack: peanut butter shake. Yum Yum!


My blender is working full time now. I was getting tired of bought juice and drink quickly, so this is a good and healthy way to keep up with my meal.

My favorite Gazpacho recipe is this:
2 cups chicken bouillon
1 large tomato, peeled, seeded, chopped
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic juice (I used garlic powder)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 drop hot pepper sauce
dash of pepper

So all in blender and ready to go!

Day 12 --- Drink, drink, and drink...

It was okay day. I haven't had any bad nose bleed. Since I washed my nose with NetiPot, my stuffy nose improved. Only problem I've had last couple of days is dizziness. When I walk around, I feel weak, and needed to sit down. Normally I'm pretty active, never describe myself as "weak".

I think that's because of how much I've been eating (drinking). I don't necessarily feel hungry. So sometimes I go a few hours without drinking anything. It is hard for me to keep drink and drink and drink, even though I could drink whatever.

Today, I went out with family for dinner. Of course, I ordered soup. Unfortunately, they only had Tomato soup. Well, I don't recommend anyone for Tomato soup. First of all, it will stain your rubber bands. The second, the one I had was pretty thick which I couldn't drink. My mouth is still shut. The doctor loosened up tiny bit, but all I could try was to stick my tongue out a little between my bite, which wasn't enough to pour my soup in. After some trial, my jaw started to hurt, or got tired of trying.

Before my surgery, I thought this drinking habit wouldn't be any problem. But I started to wonder if there is any local medical service that provide IV therapy. I know I should just keep drinking whatever, but it would be nice if they just give me IV for an hour and I feel much better.

Last impression: before and after

This is the first and last impression that my orthodontic dentist took. You can see how much overbite I had and all the teeth were over wrapped one another. Now, the right one is the new one. You can still see open bite. but when upper jaw tilted 4 mm forward, all lined up perfectly. Amazing!

NetiPot for stuffy nose

Today, I tried this for my stuffy nose. It worked better than Nasal Sprays, that's for sure. And I felt pretty good. It felt like all yucky mucus was cleaned out. But I still couldn't get rid of chunk that stuck behind the right nose. I guess that's the tough one. It might be scab or something. So I just keep trying and see if I could slowly minimize this. 

Day 11 --- Dizziness and diarrhea

Now that I feel stupid to be too active in the first week. I should have been recovering better, now it is taking long?? Nose bleed totally freaked me out. Even though doctor assured me that's okay to happen. It is not fun to deal with.

Since the doctor's visit, my nose are more stuffy. I think because I started to have nose bleed there, doctor cleaned it to look at it, which probably affected delicate area.

I was hoping to do minor grocery shopping today, but I wasn't feeling so good.
There was no more nose bleed, though. What a relief! But all day long, I felt dizzy, and had a many trip to bathroom. Well, I don't know what kind of stool I should expect from liquid diet, but it was all black! Probably because I swallow so much blood. Yuck! Sorry I probably shouldn't mentioned this, but in case anyone who go through same thing is wondering about others.. here it is!

Probably I've been dehydrated. I've been drinking whatever I feel like, but in fact I wasn't feeling like anything. So not enough drink, and too much went down. And that causing dizziness. I spend most of day sitting in my arm chair. I cooked dinner, but during that I started sweating just tried not to faint.

My nose is still stuffy so I'm a good friend with nasal spray all day.
I'm going to bed now, but hopefully, it will improve tomorrow. At least I didn't have nose bleed all day.

Day 10 --- First doctor's appointment after the surgery

I had my doctor's appointment in the afternoon of August 10th. After my nose bleed on August 8th, I was freaked out, so I was taking it easy for a day. But again, I drove myself to my doctor's appointment. Just because no one was available. In other words, I felt good enough to drive.

My doctor (surgeon)'s appointment went well. They took X-ray and my teeth were perfectly lining up! That's good to see. He changed my rubber bands for less, although my mouth is still shut. He said everything is going well, and I look fantastic. I thought I was in trouble driving there by myself, but the nurse said to me that "Great! that means you feel good!" So I was okay. Most of my swell went away, so if no one knows what happened, I looked pretty normal outside.

I asked about my concerns:

Nose Bleed: he said not always happened, but it happens to some people since my surgery was right below my nose line. He said it will all heal eventually.

Numbness: Same.. it will probably come back in a few weeks.

Ear plugged: Same.. as scar tissue heals, it will go away. Probably still swollen inside which might be pushing ear tube. So not to worry.

Okay, so nothing to worry. Good.


BUT. The same day in the evening, my nose started to bleed, and I almost fainted.
I had something in my throat that didn't go down. I was trying to swallow, then blood started to flood in to my throat. I pressed my nose but not too hard, because I couldn't swallow too much. That made more blood to come out. At the end, I probably lost too much blood. When I tried to get up, I felt really dizzy and had to lay down right there. I was also having trouble breathing. Because my nose were both plugged, and something in my throat, if I swallow, I felt blood came back up in my nose. So I panicked. My husband told me "you are breathing." but in my head, I couldn't breathe. Maybe because of that dizziness, I couldn't think it strait. After calming down, I just lay on my bed and slept for a while. I couldn't breathe through my nose, so I breathed through my mouth which was also hard.

In the morning, I was extremely dry. I drunk some water by the bed, still a little dehydrated. Because I had been drinking something at least every two hours, but after nose bleed around 8:00 at night, I went to sleep. I slept okay, though. Because I wasn't breathing through my nose, my nose were dried, too, which probably helped to close whatever opened up in my throat.

Day 8 --- Consequence?

Maybe I was too active too soon. The night of August 8th, I had a bad nose bleed, and didn't stop. I was freaked out! First, I felt something went down my throat. Some chunky thing that hard to swallow. Then blood started to flood out of my right nose. Yes, that stuffy nose. Not the nose with tube during the surgery. I quickly got up to go to the sink to wash, but just keep pouring which was scary. I woke up my husband to help me because I didn't know what to do.

He told me to plug it with tissue paper. I tried it, but blood was coming down so much so fast if I did that blood went down my throat. I couldn't swallow that much blood now I was gagging. It was hard to even gag with closed mouth. I couldn't spit out, so felt like I was chocking myself. After struggling sometime, changing bloody tissue paper every 5 seconds, it stopped.

At this point, I was freaked out. So we called the doctor. It was in the middle of the night. So on call nurse took our message, and that was that. The doctor's office called to make sure if I was okay the next morning. But already blood was stopped, so nothing was done.

But after this incident, more frequently I had nose bleed, and it was all bad. I got a little more efficient myself to stop it, but each time it scared me. Also, my plugged ear wasn't improving. So those are two major concerned I had for my first doctor's appointment.

Day 6 --- Outing

I don't recommend, but I was bad. I drove. Well, doctors and nurses told me "if you are taking medication, you cannot drive" and I wasn't taking medication. So that's that. And I felt good enough to drive for 5 min.

We went local kids program to run off some energy. Then we went Target to do some errands.
I could talk to my friends, they said I looked good. Still it was some difficulty talking too much, but I could still manage and wasn't too tired.

After the day, I had an evening nap for an hour, but other than that I felt like I was coming back to normal routine. My night sleep, though was tough. I couldn't get comfortable in sit up position, and woke up a lot during the night. Only good thing about sleeping like that was after the night sleep, my ear was clear for a short while. It went plugged again as I took shower.

Day 7 went more or less same way.
We had a play date for kids, and I chatted with my friends. I was tired a little, but feeling recovering well.

Day 5 --- August 5

Each day went pretty much same. I didn't have to lay around. Hey I mentioned that I had two girls, right? They are 7 and 5 and didn't let me rest. I have my mom helping me to do stuff around the house which has been great! But as soon as they saw me, they kind of expect me to act normal. I was feeling well enough to act 70% normal at this point. So we did some activities around the house, went for a walk and so on. By 5th day, my face looked more or less normal.. maybe 10% swelling to come down. I wasn't in pain anymore, and most of my antibiotic was gone.

Only problem I was having was sinus. It didn't seem to improve very much and Sudafed wasn't helping. Nasal spray is the same way. Afrin was helping slightly, but not too much. Still my right ear was plugged which made me hard to talk. 

Although my talking was improving at this point. My husband said I sound normal when he talked to me on the phone. I guess because swell went down on my lips and I could move my lips better. 

Oh I forgot to mention, my nose has been numb. I think my left nose which had tube in it during the surgery is normal. I could breathe, and I could feel. But the other nose is stuffy and numb, so is right ear. 

Other than that I was feeling really good, and kind of ready to do some activity with kids. Because they were home too much and going crazy. I knew I wasn't supposed to drive, but I was planning to bring them to a hour and half program 5 min. away (by car) next day. 

Day 1 --- Adjusting Home

I was discharged in the afternoon of August 1, 2012. Before leaving the hospital, I tried to drink vanilla shake and chicken broth. Surprisingly, I could drink out of straw, and cup. However, it was difficult, so I didn't drink very much of either drink.

Adjusting pain medicine was okay. The pain medicine seemed to work, although not as well as the one they gave me through IV. Probably because there was no steroid which worked wonderfully for swell.
I had a pain medicine, antibiotic, Sudafed for sinus, and nose sprays. I didn't like any of those tastes, but hey what can I do? One thing is that I wish Sudafed would work better!

I've had stuffy nose, and Sudafed didn't really gave me much relief. Nose sprays were the same way. I could feel it cleaned for a second, then went back the same way. My right ear was plugged which added some annoying factor.

Diet: I drank water, juice, v8, protein shakes, regular shakes, smoothies, broth, and anything that I felt like. Drinking wasn't too bad. Most of time I used a straw, but I could also drink from cup.

Hygiene: often I read "do not use Water Pic" but I asked my surgeon and he said it was okay. So I've been using Water Pic ... only for kids version which has gentle cycle to clean my mouth whenever I want with water and mouth wash solution. If feels pretty good outside, getting yucky inside.

The day of my surgery 03

A little after waking up in the recovery room, they moved me to my room. They check my pain in the level 1 to 10 which I was about 5. Huge ice pack was around my face, and humidifier over my mouth. They also put some sort of massage thing to wrap around my legs entire time up until next day. They said that would help not having blood clots. Goody, that was comfortable.

So after moving into my room, not much to do. They come and go to check on my and gave me pain medicine and new ice pack. I was pretty comfortable and not too much in pain. Only that was hard to swallow. But rested the rest of the day.

My husband came back after work late that day, I was still swollen, but talked through notepad.
The surgeon said that if I was feeling well, I could go home the next day. I wanted to go home. I miss my daughters, and worried that they might be worried about me. So I wanted to show them I was okay. Probably that thought gave me some good energy. So after the whole day of rest, I went home.

The day of my surgery 02

When I woke up, it was 3:15 in the afternoon. I was wondering what happened to my surgery. It should have only been two hours.

The surgery went well. What happened was, after slicing and placing my upper jaw to new position, the surgeon realized there was some waggle. So he had to take off screws and redo everything. That was one thing. Then, my jaw joint. He explained to my husband that normally there is a place where upper jaw and lower jaw click to fit. But for some reason, my bottom jaw was too shallow that he had a hard time finding the perfect position. Also, something happened and my surgery was bumped to 8:30. So those are the reason why I was waking up in the recovery room at 3:15 p.m.

I was feeling pretty good at the point. Only thing that really hurt was pulling out the tube from my nose. Other pain was managed through IV. My face was of corse swollen. One thing I didn't realize from watching other people's videos were my throat was swollen, too. And that made me hard to breathe and swallow. One point during this time, I felt chocked and panicked that there was no air way anywhere. My nose were stuffy, and my throat was swollen, and my mouth was shut. I struggled to call nurse. After that I don't remember. I think I was really panicked. I only remember I was moving arms and legs really hard to call attention to nurse. When I realized, I was okay. So I might have fainted or something.
That was the worst part, then after that was stable. They gave me steroid to keep swell under control and that seemed to work like a magic.

The day of my surgery 01

July 31, 2012. The day of my surgery. My surgery was planned at 7:30 a.m., so I had to go to the hospital at 5:30 a.m. I signed in, and within 5 minutes, I was guided to pre-operation area. I changed into hospital gown and socks. I realized I brought way too much stuff, clothes and stuff.. which I didn't need at all! There, some last minutes paper works, and check up was done. Soon my IV was in, which hurt, and anesthesiologist came to tell me what to expect. One of the things he told me was about tube on my nose. He asked me which nose is better nose to breathe! I have never thought of that. So I just picked left. Then he told me the tube would have to stay until waking up to make sure I could breathe. So I would feel a little pain to pull out. WHICH WAS COMPLETELY TRUE! Ouch!!! After meeting my surgeon, then without noticing, I was asleep. Next thing I know was watching the clock pointing 3:15.... 3:15??? Why? What happened? That's what on my head.

Pre-Op Preparations

I've having my braces for a year and 9 months. I started when I'm 42, and now I'm 44. First, I didn't think I would go through this jaw surgery thing. It was too scary as a mother of two little girls. But because I had an open bite, having braces doesn't fix all. Not only that, braces showed the worst look stood out! After several moths into this, I figured that I just have to go through all the way. It was a big decision. Also I had to change my insurance, and having taken four wisdom teeth which costed me $2,500. But I got time. So everything was ready for the day.

Also, because everyone wants to have surgery in summer, only two available dates were given to choose from. My orthodontic dentist gave me "go" the end of May, then I called dental surgeon right a way. They gave me either June 6th, or July 31. So I picked July 31, just because I had more time to prepare. If I didn't take either date, it would have been in September.

Two weeks prior to my surgery, I had a last check up with my surgeon. My surgery is upper jaw surgery, and expected to be done in about two hours. He took two impressions of my teeth, upper and lower, which weren't pleasant experience because I have really bad gag reflex, but it was done okay. Then again I saw him the day before to check up my hooks on my braces, and last minutes questions.
He was very calm meticulous type which made me feel good about my surgery.

Why I started this blog

Hi everyone, I'm writing this from my experience. I hope to help other people who will go through corrective jaw surgery,  as some of blogs, you tube videos helped me to understand what to expect.