Orthognathic Surgery: the Before

The day before I went in for the surgery, I actually ate very little. I was too nervous to eat much of anything, and mom finally had to shove food down my throat. I think I had chicken and beans or something like that. I don’t really want to post pre-op pictures, but it doesn’t make much sense if I don’t:

Pre-op, my smile from the front

Pre-op, side angle view of my jaw

I have had braces since the seventh grade, if I remember correctly, and their purpose was to correct a stubborn overbite that only seemed to get bigger and bigger as the years went by, despite extensive therapy. I had a deficient lower jaw, causing a very pronounced tapering of the bottom of my face. From the side, my jaw protruded downwards rather than forwards in a smooth line. Combined with the lip protusion caused by the braces, my profile was not entirely attractive.

However I do want to stress that this is not cosmetic surgery. This is not about self esteem or how I look, this is about how I eat. I have had clicking in my jaw joints for years, my teeth don’t meet correctly and I have to eat pizza with a knife and fork. As a result, I have awful articulation and lots of digestive problems. In addition to the fact that I have a stomach the size of a bird’s, this condition is also partly why I weigh so little. I can’t wait to be able to eat like a normal person when this is all over. I can’t wait to eat an apple without having to reach for the chopping block, or a sandwich without having to pull everything out of it.

I first started discussing the possibility of Orthognathic surgery about three years ago, when my dentists at NYU Dental Center finally diagnosed me with idiopathic condylar resorption (ICR), a specific condition that affects the jaw joints and is most often prevalent in teenage girls. Ironically enough, it is also known as the “cheerleader syndrome” because it occurs most often in teenage girls engaged in stressful sports activities, like cheerleading. Seeing as I have a reputation for not going near sporting activities of any kind, well, this was altogether a pretty good divinely sanctioned joke.

The surgery that I was scheduled for was a Lefort I Osteotomy and Sagittal Split (and a bunch of other really really long words), which would involve moving and breaking the bones of both my lower and upper jaws. I was also to have my chin redone, but apparently my surgeon was so pleased with the results I ended up not having to do that part.  Currently I am camping out in my parents room, drinking fruit punch through a syringe and trying not to drool -my face is so swollen I can hardly make room for my own tongue. I was feeling pretty low about all this after I woke up and saw myself in a mirror. I actually started crying. My surgeon said that this kind of reaction was typical and that I would feel much better in about 2 weeks, which is the time at which I will get my rubber bands on. In the meantime my nose is full of dried blood, my face is numb and puffy, and I am dizzy as heck.

I spent the first two nights in the hospital, partially blind because no one had my glasses. All I could really do was annoy the nurses for multiple suction sessions, wonder how I was emptying my bladder without getting up (a catheter, I later learned), and try to swallow jello without choking. There was someone in the recovery room across from me who would wave occasionally, but I couldn’t do much but drool back at him. That and I couldn’t see what he looked like, thanks to my missing glasses. I later learned that he had been asking about me the whole time because apparently I would spend hours staring into the distance (a consequence of everything being blurry, actually) and fall asleep every few hours, slumped in my reclining chair. Tisch hospital is actually quite nice, and the nurses were very obliging, no matter how many times I asked for a washcloth for my ridiculously oily face. At least now I have no doubts about where my T-zone is.

I will edit this post with a picture tomorrow, right now I feel all drugged up on codeine and very sleepy.