Day 003: Thanksgiving....

Well I am currently in a recliner, that I have been in for roughly the last 48 hours. It hasn't been too bad, aside from sitting next to the kitchen where my family helped make thanksgiving dinner and took it to my grandparents house. Thank god, because it would've been awful listening to them all eat that food all night but I also did not want them to not celebrate Thanksgiving because of me.

I have not had an update since I got home so here it goes... I ended up getting a 3 Lefort I surgery done on the top of my mouth, which they pretty much split my upper pallet into three pieces to widen it, which in retrospect is kinda depressing because I had to use a spacer for at least year in middle school so I went through all the slow pain for nothing. My swelling has slowly gone up and down over the last few days. I have mastered the level of slowly drinking out of a syringe like a baby calf, as pathetic as it sounds, it feels great to drink something other than medicine and water. I have lost close to 10 pounds already but that is probably due to me barely scarfing down two protein shakes in the last 4 days. I honestly have no idea how I have survived doing that because before I could eat all day if I felt like it.

I hope my swelling continues to go down over these next few days since I will probably be sitting in class here in a hand full of days, that'll be quite the scene if I am still pretty swollen but we will see, I just cannot wait until I can drink out of a cup because it is such a hassle to drink minuscule ounces through a syringe.

I hope this rough feeling I have at the back of my pallet goes away over time, I assume it is from when they moved my upper pallet forward but there feels to be a big bulging scar coming from back there, I guess we will have to wait and see. Also. I think I have developed my own sign language with my parents for asking for different things since I have not been able to talk in about 4 days.... fun stuff.

Day 001: Just got home

Got released form the hospital at 8 pm. From what I was told everything went pretty smoothly during the surgery. I do not really remember much from the day of the surgery after the surgery.

I did wake up a few times in the middle of the night needing to pee but i couldn't since they used a catheter during the surgery. They ended up using another one on me later in the day because I couldn't pee which might have been just as painful as m jaw at the time. I took medicine and laid in bed all day.... exciting stuff. I am just ready to get these next few days over with, as I have read online that days 001through 003 are the worst.

Day 000: Surgery Day

Well today is the big day. I'm not too sure why I've got to be there at least 2 hours early just so I can put on a night gown and hook up an IV to me. Definitely going to be one of the longest two hours of my life.

I will probably have more information tomorrow when I arrive home from the hospital.

Day -001: Night before the surgery

It is really starting to sink in that the surgery is tomorrow. As weird as it sounds, it hit me when I went out for one last meal at my favorite restaurant, Scotty's Brewhouse, with my family for dinner. I am not allowed to eat after midnight tonight since my surgery is at 1:00 pm tomorrow and I probably will not be able to eat another "real" meal until mid-February from what I understand.

I am pretty nervous since it is a pretty big surgery involving my face but I trust my surgeon at IUPUI knows what he is doing and it will all turn out for the best. Many other blogs I have read all say it is worth it in the end so that is what I am telling myself to get through this, it'll sure be a long few weeks to start off.

I am curious to see how well I recover since I will be heading back to college classes about 8 days after surgery, I guess we will have to wait and see how that goes, I'm sure it'll be pretty entertaining for all.

Here are some before surgery pictures....

Back Story

My name is Ben and I am currently a Junior at Indiana University - Bloomington. I am about to undergo double-jaw surgery. In simple terms, I have a very bad underbite so they are moving my upper jaw forward and moving my lower jaw up and back to make it a "normal bite".

I've have never done this whole blog thing but I am going to try to document how this surgery goes for some people to follow and mostly for future people to read because I know reading these have really helped me mentally prepare for what I am about to go through.

I will try to provide pictures and details on how I am doing through most of the journey. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please leave them in the appropriate post and I will repspond to them there.

Just to give you some background, I am having double jaw surgery {Lefort I Advancement Bilateral BSSO (Bilateral Sagital Split Osteotomy) Setback}, which from what I can remember has somewhat been expected since I was in middle school but we have tried different things like headgear to help prevent surgery but it eventually became obvious that I was going to need surgery.

This is the second time I have had braces on, I had them on for about two years in middle school and I got them put on again during the Spring Semester of my freshman year of college (yes, braces in college are as much fun as it sounds.... not very). So now it has been almost two years that I have had braces on and the surgery is finally here.

I have never really known any different so it doesn't bother me much, I get comments from time to time about chewing gum with my mouth shut or ask how I even eat. It's something that doesn't really bother me, although I have wondered many times I've eaten with my mouth open and I didn't realize it. 

With my bite it is very hard to bite off food sometimes, for example me trying to eat traditional wings is hopeless, whenever I have tried I normally end up just eating the thin fried bread on the outside. Also, from what I am told, the way my mouth currently is could lead to giving me gingivitis since I sleep with my mouth open which leads to my gums drying out almost every night.