Day 96 (October 27th)

I keep thinking of posting, but things have been so busy and just doing normal routine things that I just haven't had the time.

I went for my 3 month follow up with the intern on October 11th and had a good report. I saw one intern first, then he went to get the other one that  treated the infection, and I've seen for almost every visit, so he knows my case well. When that intern walked in, he told the other one that I am the first person in 3 decades that required a transfusion during the surgery and also talked about the infection and said that I was an "anomaly"! haha! I think he will remember my treatment then :)
He then checked things out and said that everything looked great. I was opening fine. The bite looks good, he is happy with the profile and asked what I thought about it. I said that I am still figuring out if I am happy with that. We talked about their reasoning for not doing the genioplasty and I knew that before the surgery-it depended on the measurements once they worked up the models and they felt that it wouldn't be beneficial to move it once they realized how little it would be moved after bringing the lower jaw forward. But I said that since I still feel like there is still some residual puffiness along the jaw line then it's hard for me to tell and I haven't taken a good profile pic to see what it looks like, I only try to angle the medicine cabinet mirror and look in the regular mirror.  Not the best method to see my profile, for sure!!

There is some scar tissue, especially along the top front part of my gums that pulls sometimes and I asked about that, the other intern said that it might go down with some more time or if not, then it can be revised (meaning, they do more cutting to fix the scar-not thrilled about that prospect, so I will live with it)

There is some popping on the left side that started once I was opening and chewing more and it hasn't gone away, but the Dr. said that it may go away eventually. He said as long as it doesn't hurt that they are starting to think that some of it is just normal in people and that about 40% of the population have some sort of popping, clicking etc. going on. If it turns painful then they will look into it more.

I also reported that there has been a tender spot on the left lower jaw line since the surgery that has been sore the whole time (the right feels fine now) it's also the spot that I had the infection, but everything looked good on the inside of my mouth. I figured it's just where the hardware is and would take some more time to heal on that side since I did have the infection there.

He knows that I drive a long way to get there (about 2 hours each way) so he said that he didn't think I needed to return until my braces are off. He did ask that I try to come back and get final records done (pics, xrays, etc) since I was "a good case."

Everything was going great with eating too, I was gradually working up to crunchier things since he cleared me at that point to eat whatever I was comfortable with. I was happy about that. I still haven't done too much hard or chewier things though.

I was relieved to get such a good report and was then so surprised, freaked out and worried when I woke up last Saturday (October 19th-a week after my 3 month checkup) and the left side of my face was swollen again. It was not horrible, but it was definitely getting worse as time went on.  I waited until the afternoon to call the emergency number for the surgeon and a nurse called me back. I was told that since I didn't have a fever, or redness to wait and if it lasted for 3 days, call and come in.

So, as the weekend wore on and I was getting more swollen and it was getting more painful, I was getting more worried. I am thinking at this point that I have a problem with the hardware and it needs to come out, etc! My mind was running worse case scenarios for sure! I could tell that my gums were getting more swollen as well, not just the cheek so I looked in there again and saw a white spot forming. I rubbed my gums and it got bigger. I took one of my little gum brushes for my braces and poked the white spot with it. And this part is gross, so you can skip it if you want to...it opened up and blood and pus came gushing out! It did relieve some of the pressure though. I got the salt out and started rinsing with that again and then tried to get to sleep since it was about 1:00 am!!

I called Monday morning but couldn't be seen until the afternoon, so I left work a little early to make the long drive up there. The surgeon and the intern couldn't believe that I was back with another infection! But the surgeon could see that it was draining, so after an xray to check the hardware, they numbed me up and opened it even more to irrigate and clean it out. That was a really torturous appointment. I was breaking out in a sweat. I was numb for the most part, but the shots hurt like heck, then I could feel the scraping on the bone and that was very disconcerting to me. She also reported that she could see the hardware and was pushing on the screws and nothing was loose. Also, the bone looked like it was healing well.  The good news is, no loose screws and bone is healed well, the bad news-she cut me open enough to see all that!! She also left if open so that it could keep draining-yikes.

I told them that I really like them and think they are great, but this is ridiculous!! The intern said that they don't want to see me back there but out and about-like at a bar ;) I said, "yeah-I can use a drink right about now!"

That was not a fun ride home, the novocaine was fast acting and was wearing off before I could get home with the antibiotics and get ibuprofen in me to help with the pain. Now I am still on antibiotics and softer foods until this heals up. I usually chew on the left side and because it's cut open, I was chewing on the right, which made that sore due to the braces rubbing on it and biting myself over there! I can't win I guess!!I also have to use a syringe to flush the open side with saline that she gave me a bottle of.

The good news is that the swelling was really down after another day or so and I think the spot that was so tender before is gone too. They thought the infection was from the other one that didn't resolve all the way the first time or is somehow related to the bleeding issue that I had during surgery.

I noticed the intern had given a refill on the antibiotics so when I called to update them on how things were going, I asked about that and he said that is "just in case". If I called in another month with something else going on, they would tell me to start taking it until I could get in and be seen. Since this one started on Saturday and I didn't see them till Monday, they don't want me to wait next time, I can just take it. I will fill it and keep it handy as insurance. If I have it then it won't come back right?!

So sorry for such a long post, I meant to update after the 3 month follow up and then the infection happened-so it's a combined post. Until next time...