Surgery with Arnett 10/11

[CK]

sucks about the stitch. i think i had one that had to be cut early as well. as far as nerves go, have you considered klonapin or something similar? just to relax i guess. the painkillers never worked for me, except for the morphine.

[funnybones]

Hi Antbee -

By looking at your morph I'm surprised at how subtle the difference is, at least compared to mine. I'm sure you notice all the little details about your face, but in the photos I mostly observe typical post-surgery swelling. Maybe as it continues to go down people will recognize you better? I can see why it feels strange to not be recognized right off. In everyday interactions, people don't stop to analyze.

As far as what someone might think during conversation, you are doing them a favor by helping them to get over themselves! If I had to interact, I'd just make it plain; "Hey, don't worry, I'm not on drugs. I'm doing my best to speak, but my mouth is numb and gimpy from jaw surgery".

[Kristen]

Antbee......thanks for posting pics.....really helps those of us in the pre surgery stages.... You really look great!   You could be a model.  Congrats and best wishes for smooth sailing in the future recovery stages.

[Lazlo]

You're actually very attractive --I mean you were quite attractive before, albeit with a longish face(sorry just pointing out the obvious, don't worry I freely admit I have a weak chin/jaw so opposite problem), and now that that's been quite obviously fixed, yes, you might possibly be model material when all is said and done. You should be tremendously pleased. I would say you've even got great tweaks to your nose and upper malar region --so everything looks great --and you already had great skin, lustrous hair and striking eyes. I'm too lazy to go back and read your entire thread, what exactly was the lip reconstruction you had done?

It looks like the surgery has greatly improved your lower orbital region as well, I wonder if the HA paste was used to fill in and augment that area as well.

Regardless, you should be ecstatic.

[CK]

how do your cheeks feel?

[Lazlo]

My cheeks are getting feeling back but feel kind of solid - that mask feeling has really hit me lately.

sorry a bit off-topic, are you like one of those e-news entertainment reporters or something? 

[Lazlo]

Yeah exactly but I'm not on camera. I just do print interviews.

oh that's awesome.  well now with your new look you could totally do on air stuff too if you wanted to (i mean you could have before though, but you're one of those lucky few who had all the right features to have come out of surgery with a truly stunning result(I mean you can even tell now). It's cause you had such delicate bone structure and sharp features pre-surgery. see my hyper-critical attention to detail is as focussed on positive features as much as bad...you're quit fortunate.

[CK]

I'm missing wearing sunglasses and not looking bizarre'y swollen

can you clarify? do you miss wearing sunglasses or you're missing wearing sunglasses? in other words, do the sunglasses have an affect on your healing, like touching your cheeks?

weird question, just curious.

[streo]

Wow you are beautiful!

[Marisama]

2. I want to write something on how people's significant others may or may not view their partner differently (emotionally) post-surgery. I noticed a few cases on JSB of women who commented that their partners felt they were different people or too alien now after surgery. I imagine this happens with both sexes, it just happens that it's been women so far who've mentioned it in posts I've seen. Either way, something about how difficult it may be when your partner's face changes really radically. I 'd need to find people willing to take part since I did this as a single person.

I'd be willing to take part.  I'm a bit worried about how my wife will react to everything.  I'm hoping that I feel better functionally and second will have some minor cosmetic benefits that she will only appreciate.  Only time will tell.

[CK]

also, your stomach shrinks from the liquid diet so you get full a lot quicker. you might get tired of the soups and creating blended cocktails (especially if you're the one doing it). in my case, i decided to just drink milkshakes almost exclusively and would throw in some protein powder every now and again. i still lost 20 pounds in less than a month.

[znewton]

Thanks Tri. Glad you're finding it informative. In the spirit of that, here's two pics from today. I wanted you guys to have a clear idea of how tricky it is smiling and closing my mouth. You can also see how my mouth wants to go to one side in the 'smiling' pic. It's so weird how my face is trying to adapt. All this is temporary as far as I know and I feel fine today in general. Oh and you can see how my nostrils widen when I smile. Some of this is down to the huge effort I'm making to pull up the corners of my mouth. I imagine it will improve.
Just met up with znewton. He joined me at one of my work events. Unfortunately it was a food fair! Sheer torture. Gourmet food stands everywhere. Everything from sushi to home made carrot cake to BBQ ribs and burgers from the Counter. We ended up pitifully drinking juices from Pressed Juicery. I mean they're good but I would have LOVED the cake. I have a huge sweet tooth. In fact just now I tried to placate myself by sucking on a tiny piece of chocolate. It took me about 20 minutes to finish one square. Haha. By the way I want to emphasise how incredibly helpful it is to find a surgery buddy to trade info with. Really helps to keep me sane when I'm worrying about something, struggling or bored at home while everyone else is out having fun etc. Having someone who gets what you're going through is great. Maybe this forum could do what archwired does and post a surgery buddies thread every so often.

Thanks for the post antbee She's most definitely right that the food fair was utter torture but we ended up having a few cups of some really good fresh juice. To reiterate - I had planned to do what she just discussed regarding how patients having various plans to continue eating healthy/raw/sugar free diets post-surgery. Really, I just planned on doing a ton of raw and fresh juice post-operatively for the first two weeks while I was on liquids only, and let me tell you, that was the LAST thing my body wanted. I ordered a ton of my favorite juices from a place here in LA that I like and took advantage of their delivery service so I could have them in SB after surgery. There wasn't an once ounce of me that wanted anything to do with that juice after surgery and if anything it made me sick to my stomach to even think about. It sounds like Antbee and I survived off the same stuff the first two weeks: ginger ale and apple juice. That's all I could really stomach and I don't believe I took a stab at tomato soup until close to the two week mark. I just wasn't ready for anything but the juice, ginger ale, and boost/ensure I would force myself to drink. At this point I'm least concerned with maintaining a healthy diet and more concerned with just getting the calories and protein in as Antbee said. I normally eat very healthy and am really into staying active whether it's running, hiking, or working out at the gym. I've had to abandon my usual diet as to just get the calories in to heal and prevent further weight loss (been holding at a 15lb post surgery deficit since week two).

I apologize for hijacking your thread, Antbee It was great meeting up with her today to share our stories and experiences thus far. It really does help to have someone going through this at practically the same rate as myself (she had surgery one week after I did). I never imagined I'd be making friends through the process of orthognathic surgery!

[znewton]

Hey no worries. Hijack away! Yeah we definitely agreed on the food/ juice thing. We made a right pair at my work thing, both of us with our acrylic-bonded braces explaining to my co-workers how we met through our matching surgery. Hahahaah. I got a kick out of it anyway.

I was secretly laughing inside while you were explaining how we met - that's probably the last thing he was expecting to hear! Definitely looking forward to (and not so much) the day I head to the ortho to have the brackets replaced and one single archwire attached!

[Antbee]

Hi everyone,
I really like how znewton updates to try and help others know what to expect so in that spirit I have come back here - I've been posting on the facebook group in the meantime - but I get messages asking questions so thought might be helpful to show my pics. I'll only leave them up for a bit though probably.

General points:

Appearance: I'm really happy with my results and Drs Arnett and Gunson are really happy. However, for now I find myself avoiding mirrors - not consciously - I catch myself looking away from them. It's a weird reaction to looking different. I assume I'll adjust at some point but for now it's taking way longer to get used to than I thought it would. Don't underestimate how strange this might be - even if you like your results.

Teeth and bite: Two of my front teeth died during surgery. I was a high-risk patient for this I was told and the segmenting of my upper jaw caused the roots to die. I'll likely need root canals and internal bleaching to get rid of my two grey teeth. I was not thrilled to say the least but the surgery was a million times worth it. My bite is almost perfect. A bit more ortho but that's it.

Airway: My airway is over twice the size it used to be. I am like a new person in that I am just not sluggish and tired like I was. Also I am breathing through my nose with zero issues and I have never used my nose before! It's literally incredible and has changed my life so much.

Smell and taste: My sense of taste disappeared for a couple of months and is slowly coming back now. Dr A says he's only seen it in five other patients and all of them recovered fully. My sense of smell is still bad. But I had a huge amount of work done inside my nose - nasal floor removed etc so I'm not surprised. Surgery still totally worth it and smell is very slowly coming back.

Swelling: It's still there next to my nose making my skin look stretched and weirdly lumpy almost - no one else notices it except me though.

Bones and grafting: I had extensive grafting to my cheeks and lower jaw. My lower jaw is a bit bigger/ heavier-looking than Dr A (or I) would like but Dr A says it's the bone's reaction to trauma and it overgrows then shrinks back in the course of about a year so that will improve. It's nothing bad though, it's a small issue.

Nose: My nose is only now going back to it's normal pre-surgery width. I am 5.5 months post-op. It's still a bit wide when I smile but otherwise great. It looks better than it used to  pre-surgery as the tip has lifted a bit.

Numbness: I am only now really getting feeling back in my chin and it's slow going. But it doesn't bother me much. My upper gums are numb in the center still. My cheeks are numb on the outer edge of the bone where the grafting is. But again it's slowly improving.

Work and speaking: I went back to work one month post-op. I looked horrendously swollen but I needed to go back. It actually speeded up my recovery I think because I had to get on with things. It made my feel better emotionally. Although the first time a friend didn't recognise me was like a slap in the face. It really did hurt. Speaking is still a bit hard when I'm tired but that's partly the braces and partly the scar tissue is tight and my lips won't close completely without effort. I do stretching exercises and it's improving fast now. Just this past week I found myself closing my lips without thinking about it. My chin dimples when I do this, but my face is changing so much still, the dimples are in a new spot every week. It's definitely working itself out.

No one really tells you that closing your lips and speaking as clearly as you did pre-surgery takes a bit of time to re-learn (or it did for me). The good thing is my old lisp pre-surgery has completely been cured.

Friends and family: My family were fine but not all my friends could accept it easily. One in particular seemed to need to believe I'd had plastic surgery. Basically if something improves or changes you not everyone is going to be comfortable so be prepared for some odd reactions. I think it's a bit like when people lose weight and their friends sometimes actually resent them for it. Also anything that makes you vulnerable, i.e. surgery, tends to be a time when you find out who your real friends are and that can be pretty tough to take. I recommend staying away from anyone but people you trust for a long as possible during recovery.

Eating: I can eat anything now except raw carrots and nuts and hard candy etc. I finally feel confident about chewing.

Overall: The recovery from this surgery has so many stages and there are feelings and worries that come up and play tricks on your mind seemingly every five minutes. I noticed i randomly freaked out about things I thought were problems some weeks and other weeks I felt totally calm about everything. It's great to have a surgery buddy during the first two months at least to text or call and share that with. (Props to znewton for helping me out!) Dr A's office were great though. My nurse, Lena, struck just the right reassuring note with me and she knew when to be firm and not let me panic about nothing too. I am beginning now to be able to imagine life where I have forgotten surgery even happened. It already seems so long ago and quite dim and distant. When I look back it's shocking that I went through all that. I feel as though my mind just went on a vacation while all of it was happening and at some point I woke up again.



NOw pics - there are two pre surgery ones and the rest were taken in the past couple of weeks:

BEFORE and AFTER:


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[Antbee]

forgot to add for those who don't know:
I had double jaw surgery with genio and HA grafting. My upper was moved up 5.8mm, forward 2.2
Lower rotated up 4.8mm and forward 2.4 also some realignment for asymmetry but not sure of the measurements.