Its hard to find a surgeon with a better rep than Gunson so you are good on that front. My experience was that physically this surgery isnt all that its hyped up to be. My energy levels were back to normal within a few days(but im used to getting s**tty sleep which you will the first couple of days) and I had very little actual pain to the point that I only ever had to use the ibuprofen(liquid advil) and never used the codeine that was prescribed. Even the ibuprofen I mostly took because it helps with the swelling. Your face will feel awful though, it just might not be very painful. There was a lot of stiffness and pressure. That didnt bother me though. What did was the fact that I was very congested and the blood that was causing that congestion was literally the worst thing that I have ever smelt in my life. I dont know if I had a brief/mild infection but I never want to smell that smell again. I didnt have instructions about not blowing my nose or anything(if you use Gunson you probably will) so I went to town with q-tips and tweezers to declog my nose and after about a week it wasnt a problem any more. They also give you decongestants to help. In addition the area under my nose would get itchy a lot but was totally numb and scratching didnt help. Obviously the diet sucks. Overall the first week is not great but I wouldnt classify it as hell physically speaking.
Now for me it was(and still is in some ways) awful mentally. I was very afraid of somehow compromising the fixation. Every little change I noticed or maybe a step up the stairs that I felt in my jaw, or a yawn with the elastics in, I was afraid of compromising the fixation. It didnt help that some of the brackets broke during the surgery without anybody telling me, so the teeth started to shift and without knowing that the brackets were broken I assumed I somehow shifted things out of place. I was convinced I was going to have to do revision until my first post op appointment a week later. Also after about a week you start to analyze your results and by 3 weeks a lot of the swelling is gone so you think you are seeing close to your final results but enough is still there to distort things. The worst for me though is that I feel like I am now just about 100% speech wise whereas I had to return to school a month ago.
In the end recovery is going to vary from person to person. I think if you go with Gunson you will have a different experience. I have read that sometimes his patients take a little bit more of a hit physically because he uses HA paste a lot and tends to do big movements. That being said mentally you have the peace of mind of knowing you are in the care of a rockstar and are probably going to come out the other side with the best results realistically possible. And I hear he is somewhat strict with the post-op routine which may seem like a hassle but helps mentally imo.
