Braces Off!!!

Sorry for not posting in quite awhile.  I just bought my first home and have been very busy with everything that goes along with that.  I just moved in this past Saturday and lucky for me I got my braces off the very next Tuesday!  I will just say briefly that when they removed them, it was not pleasant at all.  It was pretty uncomfortable and it did hurt a little.  If you get the ceramic or clear braces like I did, they apparently are made of glass and tend to break into pieces when they remove them with this tool.  Mine did break up into a few pieces and one little piece got stuck and it took some strength for him to get it off.  That part wasn't nearly as bothersome as when they shave off the rest of the glue.  It was just really uncomfortable and I didn't like the feeling it sent shocking up into the roots.  But I got through it and they feel fine now.  I was given a retainer after molding right there at the appointment.  It fits super nice and snug.  She said I'm supposed to wear this thing for 9 months, only removing it to eat.  I'm also getting another retainer I guess just for at night in about 4 weeks.  She said after the 9 months I can switch to just wearing the retainer at night and then eventually just a couple nights a week.  She said it's different for each person.  My teeth really weren't that bad to begin with though, it was mainly just my bite so I'm not sure I'll really have to wear these things to the extent they are saying.  It is probably better if I do though.

 I have to be honest, I am still partially numb from the surgery.  I really think it's still coming back slowly but I don't know maybe I'm just being hopeful.  I think I've already accepted the fact that it isn't coming back and it really isnt that bad.  Part of my chin is semi-numb but I can still feel the nerves like a spiderweb in my chin.  If i touch one part i can feel the web of nerves all throughout right to the root of my teeth.  It has no affect on my facial features at all though.  Well I think that is all I have.  I'll still receiving notifications if people find this blog and ask questions and I'll always respond.  I mostly did this for myself to put some thoughts down and read about other people's experiences as well, but if there were people reading along thank you for checking in.  Good luck to you all!

Almost There!

Hi,

I went and saw my orthodontist two days ago.  Again he was really pleased with where I'm at.  I had to be honest about how well I wore my elastics this time around and I gave myself a 6.5 out of 10 and even that was probably generous.  I know it's for my own good but this pattern of 2 in the back on the 2nd to last molars and then 2 triangles on the canines is just a pain to put on every night and they aren't exactly comfortable.  Anyhow I'm not sure if I talked about this in my last post but I my second to last molar on my right side seemed to be sticking inward more so than the left so I told him about that and he said I was glad I said something otherwise he would've overlooked it.  So he put a bend in the bracket to pull that tooth out.  And then he put another bend to pull the first tooth to the right of my front right tooth to pull that out a bit. He said he thought the arc was a little off on my entire bottom left and I guess he is rotating that around or something.  That's basically it though he and the assistant both said at this point it's my call, I can take them off whenever.  I'm just going to ride it out though.  My next appointment is 9/4th and then I already have a following appointment set up for 9/10th to have them removed.  It's pretty exciting just to have a date at this point and know that it is so close.  I just bought my first house too and I settle on that on 8/20th.  I have a lot of painting and flooring to put down so I should be moving in right around the time I get them off.  Talk about a life change.  No pics this time.  In fact next pictures will probably be when I get the braces off.  You can't really see any difference from the last ones anyway.  I love how all the blogs I was following seem to be concluding right around now with everyone getting their braces off so I'm a little behind but still very excited to be done with all this for good.

12/1/11 was the first day of braces and my last day will be 9/10/13.  My surgery was on 3/11th.  So braces removal was almost 6 months to the day after surgery and the total time was about 21.5 months. 

Orthodontist Appointment (New Pics)

Hey everyone,

I had my ortho appointment a few days ago.  He was thoroughly impressed with the job the surgeon had done.  He kept raving about it, it was kinda funny.  He kept saying he (my surgeon) made him look good.  He said that typically it takes 6-9 months of orthodontics after surgery to complete the job but he said in my case he is predicting that by the end of the summer I should have my braces removed.  WOOHOO!

My teeth are a little sore from the adjustment.  They put a power strip or whatever you call those things on the bottom teeth to pull them together and close any gaps.  He is turning one of my top teeth on my right side, the one next to my front tooth around just a bit.  He said he needs to close some of the gaps in the back but that mostly the rubber bands would take care of that.  So I'm having to wear 2 rubber bands on each side on the 2nd teeth from the back.  The other is a triangle pattern on each side around my canines.  Its kind of a pain so far even just to get them in and I can barely open my mouth at all at night when I wear them.  I only  have to wear them at night.

As far as surgery recovery, I'm on pace.  I can almost open all the way.  As far as the numbness, I'm still about 30-40% numb on my chin and lower lip.  Everyone keeps telling me that it takes a long time.  I have a friend who had jaw surgery as well and she said it took her like 6 full months before she got all the feeling back so I feel like I'm definitely on pace. My next appointment is on July 9th so hopefully that is my 2nd to last appointment for any final adjustments and then I'll be done by the end of August!  One last thing is I am finally completely done with any dental payments. Thank goodness.  I'll post again after my next appointment in July.

9 Weeks Post Op and Meeting With Surgeon

Hi,

I just returned back from another appointment with my surgeon.  He again was pleased at how everything has come along.  He said the numbness should fully subside in due time which is great.  I think I'm about 50/50 in my chin and lip now or maybe even 40/60 (numb/feeling).  He asked me if I was eating and I said yes pretty much whatever fits at this point as long as it isn't too crunchy or hard to bite into.  It was a short meeting, but he asked me what my orthodontist had said and I told him I was waiting for you to give me to go ahead to go back.  He said I was good to go.  The office is literally almost in the same parking lot so I rode over and made an appointment for next Monday.  He said he thinks I only have a couple months left cause there isnt much more work to be done.  I asked for an educated guess and he said he would let them tell me but he thinks 2-3 months.  That's pretty exciting!  He also asked me if I was still wearing the rubber bands and I just told him I ran out even though I didn't haha.  He gave me more and said wear them at night to be safe but once you go to the orthodontist hes going to give me a whole new pattern.  I think I'll just wait for that.  He told me to continue to do the stretch exercises 10 times a day for 10 seconds.  I think the best part was he said don't come back until your braces are off for your final appointment!  I'm really anxious now to get to my appointment on Monday and just ask my ortho straight up when he predicts I'll be out of braces so I can start planning on it!  Lastly I know I've sucked at posting pictures, I'll eventually get some new ones up but as I keep saying, nothing is really any different from the last ones I posted.

Day 50 Post Op

Hey all,

So I'm about 7 weeks post op.  Each day gets a little better.  I'm not longer wearing my rubber bands during the day.  I'm supposed to wear them at night but I gotta be honest I ran out of them.  I have weaker ones from my ortho that still do the job but I feel like its kind of contradictory to what he's asking me to do.  Plus he didn't give me nearly enough rubber bands to last like a full month.  Currently im have to put my thumb and forefinger into my mouth and kind of pry open my mouth and hold it for like 10 seconds a few times each day.  I have been pretty good about that.  The numbness has subsided quite a bit but its still there but I'm almost positive its all coming back which I'm pretty pumped about.  I can tell because there are no like super numb spots in any one area or side, its all coming back together.  The jaw stretches actually help cause when I get done I can feel more each time for a few seconds.  I feel like its what he said that as I start opening my mouth and chewing and stuff it would come back and it has.

Speaking of chewing, I'm basically eating now anything that isnt like rock hard or super chewey as long as it can fit into my mouth.  Since I haven't seen him in so long I don't even know if this is allowed but whatever its awesome.  I had a chicken quesidilla the other day and while it was still really sloppy and a little difficult I managed to get it all down and it was awesome.  Other foods are nachos, snacks like doritos, cheez its, salmon, pasta, veggies, etc.

My speech has also improved but it still inst where I think it will be once I can feel my bottom lip fully again.  I've seen a bunch of my friends who I haven't seen yet after surgery and there were quite a few who noticed the difference compared to before so that was cool.  Otherwise life is pretty normal.  I'm anxious to get back to my surgeon and get cleared for a normal dentist appointment and also an ortho appointment so I can get my first adjustment and hear his thoughts on the results and possibly how much longer he thinks I'll be in braces.  Oh and even though they don't really bother me I want to get these hooks off it just feels weird having them there sometimes pressed against my gums.  Not really in the mood for pics but they are probably pretty similar to last time except now I can open more.

I'll post again after my next meeting with the surgeon 5/14th.  I have a feeling it won't be that interesting or that anything will really going forward haha.  Just really for the readers I guess I'd wanna see what the final result looks like (before and after) and I'd want to know how much time until the braces came off after the actual surgery.

One last thing I forgot was I did get my bills, 2 different ones totaling about 1.9k.  One was for the anesthesia costs and the other was for the actual surgery.  Not bad at all I think.

1 Month Post-Op

I met with my surgeon today.  First I should say that I finally decided to weigh myself.  Before my car accident in November I was 152 lbs.  I had to go through 3 months of therapy and never really got back into a gym routine before it was time for my surgery in March.  On my surgery day I weighed in at 145lbs so I lost about 7 lbs of muscle.  I weighed myself yesterday and I was 137.5 lbs. YIKES! So I pretty much lost a total of 14.5 lbs since November and you can chalk up 7.5 of those to my liquid diet.  When I walked in to the office the first thing the secretary said was "Wow you look like you lost some weight."  Some of my friends have noticed too.  Oh and for most people this would actually be a good thing I should add but I'm skinny as it is and when I work out its much more of a challenge to gain muscle mass than it is to lose it.

To keep on topic with my diet, I have been cheating I guess.  I've been eating lots of pasta (spaghetti, mac n cheese, rice and ground beef mix  etc.).  I'll be honest though I did eat a pork chop and ham at two different meals already.  I just had to cut them into super thin pieces and once they were in my mouth I was able to chew just a little and mash the rest up with my tongue.  I kinda of feel guilty now talking about it because when I went in to see the surgeon I told him about the pasta and he was like well you dont want to be chewing at all still.  I guess I haven't really thought about it before but I had mac n cheese tonight and I focused on how I ate it.  I barely moved my jaw to chew it, I didnt really have to so I dont really feel bad about all the pasta.

Otherwise he said my bite looked terrific and my mouth looked nice and clean.  I tend to think quite the opposite since I haven't been to the dentist in forever it seems.  I had to reschedule yet another appointment that was set for next week because I cant open my mouth all the way and he said make it for at least a month from today.  He had me rearrange the rubber band on my left side into an identical triangle as on the right.  He said I needed to continue to wear them all the time except when eating and brushing.  He said after 2 weeks I can take them off and just wear them at night.  He also said at that time I can start doing this jaw exercise where you take your fingers and stretch your mouth open for 10 seconds at a time, 5 times, a few times a day.  He said I can start to attempt to chew at the 6 week point but to take it easy.  I'm not scheduled to see him again for a whole month.  I imagine at that time the healing process will be completely done and I'll be sent back to the orthodontist to finish up the last leg of the journey.

I can't remember what I posted before about the financial part and I completely forgot to ask if I owe anything today just as I'm saying this, buuut online my amount that I owe has been changing quite a bit.  Currently, the total cost of everything was about 20k. The fact it was in the network knocked it down to like 15k and then there was another discount applied I forget for what.  Anyway the amount I'm showing I currently owe is about 1.9k.  I don't think that's too bad all things considered.

Too tired to take any pics right now. I'll post some when I get the chance.  The infection is all clear by now and I think about 90-95% of all the swelling is gone.  Slowly but surely the feeling in my lip and chin is coming back so I'm really excited about that the most I think.  The past week and half I started really getting nervous thinking what if it never comes back.  I work with a girl who had the surgery done years ago by the same exact surgeon and she said she never regained feeling in her chin.  I hope my result is better!

Infection! Grossss

Hey guys,

So turns out all that leakage was an infection.  I noticed for the first time yesterday that the leakage had completely stopped even when I pressed on my face nothing would come out.  When I woke up today I was super swollen again on my left side.  Common sense would tell you thats because all the stuff that was leaking out, had no place to go anymore.  So when I got to the office for my appointment today, my surgeon knew right away something was wrong.  He told me to open my mouth as wide as I could and told me this might hurt a bit.  He stuck some scissors in my mouth and I guess cut one of the old stitches because nothing really hurt at all.  As soon as he snipped though all of this nasty ass pus came rushing into my mouth.  He was like yeah you smell that, thats an infection.  I couldnt talk because my mouth was full of it all but I wanted to be like smell it? dude that stuff is in my mouth.  So nasty.

So he put some guaze back there right away and I was able to spit everything out in another room where I waited for about half an hour until they came in and he put a drainage tube in the little hole.  He put me on an anti-biotic which I have to take 4 times a day for a week.  I'm going back in on Friday to have the tube removed.

On a good note, I feel absolutely no pain.  If anything I feel like all the tension that was on my left side is gone now even though im still a bit swollen from the infection.  I already feel like I can open my mouth a bit wider just from having all that stuff released out.  I'll update again on Friday after my appointment.

2 Weeks Post Op

Hello readers!

I am now two weeks post op.  I wanted to update and post some pictures to show my progression as far as the swelling is concerned.  I'm still mainly on a liquid diet.  I mostly am still eating different kinds of soups, oatmeal for breakfast, jello, ice cream, applesauce, and protein shakes.  I can open my mouth a bit more so that has made it a little bit easier to eat.  My lower lip is starting to get some feeling back in it although its not much but its enough that with the swelling going down as well, its much less messy to eat.

My chin is still numb and it might be the most annoying part right now aside from not being able to chew and eat normal food.  My chin even as I type this is like throbbing.  Its a mixture of pins and needles and I guess what your hand feels like after being in the cold for too long and then being in warm weather.  I think its gotten worse only because I think the feeling is coming back and the more I feel the more annoying it is cause its not all the way back yet.  I can feel the numbness if that makes any sense haha.

Other than the throbbing numb chin, my teeth still do hurt each time I re-band after eating and brushing.  I've been taking just normal pain medicine to help with the toothaches.  I'm sleeping completely fine and back to normal these days too, no issues.  I see the surgeon again on Wednesday and I'm kind of hoping he says I can stop wearing them to help work my jaw out a bit more and experiment with some other foods.

The stitches on my right side feel like they are almost completely healed, I just have some soreness when I touch my jaw.  On the left side its kind of the same thing as far as the soreness when I touch it, but the inside isn't as healed.  It feels like a fleshy bump and I'm still having that nasty leakage in the back.  I can press the outside of my jaw where the cartilage is built up near where the stitches were on the outside and press and all this stuff leaks out from the inside.  Honestly I still think its like food that gets back there into a little hole thats not completely closed, but it tastes like what a bad breath smells like.  Thats the best I can describe it.  I just hope that closes up eventually, I'm wondering if I'll eventually need another stitch or two to close it or if itll just heal on its on. I'm not tryin to have a hole in my mouth for the rest of my life haha.

Looking at these pictures up close is a bit gross because you can see how dirty my teeth are, and I took these right after brushing.  I had to push back my dentist appointment like a month and half due to the surgery so I should be getting a good cleaning 4/17th.

Meeting with Surgeon and Surgery Cost

Hey guys,

Just wanted to give a quick update.  I went to visit my surgeon again today.  He is again very pleased with the way things are coming along.  I can say between the last two days the swelling has reduced a bunch.  I still talk a little funny because my bottom lip and chin are still numb but everything else seems to be getting vastly better each day.

I told my surgeon about the leakage and he said thats probably due to just a small opening somewhere with the stitches but that its nothing to worry about.  He just said that I should really focus on applying the mouth wash to it with a Q-tip, and to make sure I brush my teeth after each meal to prevent any infection.  He told me I should be taking my rubber bands off for each meal to work the jaw a bit more and brush my teeth and re-band.  He told me that since I'm starting to get the tingling feeling in my lips and cheek (which is extremely annoying by the way) that I should have full feeling back in my lip and chin by next week.  So thats great news.  He didnt even mention the stitches on my face so I guess I can just go over them with a regular razor now and shave.

I told them I would be going back to work on Monday so they completed all the insurance work for me.  She actually told me I could have off longer if I wanted to but we both agreed that it wasn't really necessary and I didn't want to take advantage of the system.  So it appears that at least my 2nd week out of work was covered by insurance and the first week was fully funded by sick time for those who want to know that.

Last night I got an e-mail telling me that I had a new claim update on Aetna's site.  I'm still not 100% sure on this because it wasn't an actual bill.  But I'm pretty sure the total cost of the surgery was about $10,000.  That includes all the surgery itself, hospital bills, shots, medicine and anesthesia, all of it.  My doctor was in the network and I believe I got a significant discount just for that, then my insurance covered the majority of it from there.  Pretty much I think I'm only going to owe $655.  Initially I thought all this was going to cost at least $20k and then my insurance would cover 80% of that so I would owe 4k.  So $655 compared to $4k is pretty amazing, I just hope that really is the case!

I'm feeling a bit lazy and don't really feel like taking pictures right now, maybe tomorrow.  I do have an appointment to see the surgeon yet again next Wednesday.

Cheers!

One Week Post Op

Hello!

Today is the one week mark from surgery and what a week it was.  I still keep thinking back to the surgery day around this time when I was still feeling absolutely awful.  I'm proud of my progress to this point.  I haven't had too much pain the past day or two.  I still take the drowsy medication at night to help me fall asleep and I've slowly been working my way down from sleeping in an upright position.

My diet has also improved.  I went shopping again today to pick up some more stuff because I can now open my mouth enough to fit soup in.  I actually have been the last two days or so, but I just have to kinda mush up the chunkier chicken parts and once I get it into my mouth I'm able to just mush it up using my tongue.  For snacks I've still been eating jello, applesauche, drinking my milkshakes or gatorades and last night I just tried eating canned peaches which I was able to get down.  I bought oatmeal for breakfast going forward and that is awesome.

As far as my jaw, everything has been going well.  Today and I think yesterday are the first days where I really felt a lot of the swelling go down.  You can clearly see my left side is way more swollen than my right.  It feels the same way in my mouth too like there was alot more stitching that went on.  This is kind of gross but the past two days I've also noticed that if I turn my head to the right stuff like leaks out from the stiched area.  At first it was like dry blood it looked like but its weird because its like super minty, like the taste of mouthwash.  Not that it tastes good but it doesnt exactly gross me out.  I do this a few times a day and rinse my mouth out and then it feels like the swelling is even bigger.  The best way I can put this into words is it reminds me of a blister.  When you pop a blister all that clear stuff oozes out and then it really stings because theres no more lubricant between the skin and the blister itself.  I dont feel any pain when I do it but its just weird.  I see the surgeon on Wednesday I'm going to ask him why my left side is more swollen than my right.  My right side is hardly numb and doesnt really have any swelling at all, it even feels normal inside my mouth.

I'm still wearing the rubber bands, I take them out each morning to brush my teeth and eat and then I'll put new ones in.  The pain from those has gotten better as well so hopefully that means my jaw is learning to move into the correct position.  I've noticed now when I bite straight down, unlike before, everything seems to fit.  Before when I bit straight down my teeth still werent lining up correctly, I would have to shift my lower jaw to the left for things to fit.  I still have the rest of this week off and then I guess I'll be back to work next week.  I'll post again after my visit to the surgeon's office on Wednesday to see what the next step is!

The red mark is where the stitches are.  You can see the yellowish color from the swelling as well.

Whats up with the double chin? haha

I don't know what the white thing is back there but I just hope its not an infection of any sort?

Day 5

One of two things happened.  Either my swelling has gone down or the feeling in my lower jaw has come back some.  Or maybe both I think I can feel a bit more inside my mouth.  I took the bands out to brush my teeth today and was able to get some dry blood out from the back.  I put the bands back in and as I said I feel like the swelling has gone down at least on my bottom lip a little and I have just a bit more feeling in my chin than yesterday.

I'm still eating mush for food which is pretty bad.  I had mushed up hamburger helper last night and scrambled eggs this morning mushed up.  Neither was really too bad but I just miss the texture I guess its definitely not the same.

Sleeping is still a bit awkward because I'm trying to sit as upright as possible.  The pain hasn't been too bad but I take the pills at night to help me fall asleep and that seems to work.  I'm hoping the swelling really goes down over the weekend but we shall see.

Day 4

Hi everyone,

I just got back from my appointment with the surgeon.  Everything went really well.  Since the resident doctor at the hospital told me to keep that gauze wrap on my head I wore it to the appointment.  All the staff thought it was pretty funny and said they never saw someone wear that into the office.  Apparently the staff at the hospital was new or something and they said I only really had to wear the gauze for like a day.  They also said I should have had my X-rays done at the hospital.  I specifically asked the resident doctor about that when I was there and he said they would just take them in the office so who knows who was right.

The X-rays were pretty awesome to see though as you can see below.  I cant believe how off my jaw was.  Two of the assistants at the surgeons office were also in a bit of shock and said it was so hard to see that there was anything wrong from the outside but that things look great now.  Also the resident doctor said I only had 2 screws put in on each side when in reality it was actually 3.

My surgeon seemed awfully pleased with his work and he put some new rubber bands in.  I explained that it still feels like my bottom jaw has to move to the left to properly have everything fit like it should and he said thats normal.  He said that my jaw has been biting down like that, off center, all this time so its going to take some orthodontics to fix it and train it to bite down on center.  He said I won't be visiting the ortho until another 1-2 months though.

All the good news I got was that I don't have to wear the guaze warp anymore, he said no more ice, and he said the swelling should begin to come down from here on.  He said I could shower and also shave but just to be careful around the stitches I have on the outside of my face.  He told me to do my best to try to get my toothbrush back as far as possible and do super light strokes but just to help to avoid any type of infection.  They told me to try not to open my mouth when I talk so much.  I asked them about the surgical hooks since it didn't seem like he ever used them.  He said he used them for the entire surgery to hold the jaw where it needs to be when he screws everything in so that was good to know.

I'm scheduled to go back in a week to get the stitches on the outside of my face out.  Can't wait to shower right now!

 

 

 

This was post-op. Look at how straight the brim of my nose got haha.

 

This was the day before surgery.  Pretty crazy the whole shape of my face changed!

Day 3

Quick update for day 3.  Today was very much like yesterday.  I had applesauce and jello for breakfast.  A milkshake for lunch and a blended up chicken wing with gravy for dinner which was pretty tasty.  I did sleep quite a bit since I have been keeping up with my pills.  The swelling is kind of annoying at this point.  I finally took off that hairnet thing that was holding the guaze onto my stitches on the outside of my cheeks.  I going to try to ice it for just like a half hour so I get some direct contact and then put it back on before bed tonight.   I have my appointment tomorrow with my surgeon at noon so I will update after that.

Surgery! Days 1 and 2.

Hey guys,

I made it.  I really want to try to put this post together so as to not scare everyone who hasn't had theirs yet but I'm just going to tell you how things went for me specifically.  Unfortunately my version might not get you so amped for yours although I'm glad I didn't know going into it how brutal the recovery was for the first ten hours after or I would have been dreading this a lot more.

I showed up at 6a and didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes before i was called.  They strip you all the way down and all you wear is a garment they give you and then a robe over top.  You can see the pics below for an actual visual.  As I said before I was only really nervous about what I was gonna do in my down time in the room for so long and the results.  Those should have been the least of my worries.

I don't know what it was but in my head walking into the room where all the people are getting prepped for surgery getting their IVs started and "loopy medicine" going got me super nervous.  You get to meet everyone else who will be in the room other than your surgeon before you get rolled in.  I just compared that walk into that room though like a cow who was about to get slaughtered and had no idea what he was in for.  Thats a terrible metaphor I know but I think the thought of not knowing what was going to happen next just got me so nervous.  They tried putting the IVs in both my hands and the girl wasnt able to hit either vein.   The anesthesiologist said it was because I was so nervous and my veins were retracting.  Eventually she had to do it herself instead of her assistant and they got me going.

After meeting everyone, they roll you into the room and thats when you start feeling the first drug.  Honestly I hardly remember seeing my surgeon, I think I shook his hand and said we'll take good care of you and that was the last thing I remember.  They said I talked to him afterward too but I dont remember that either.

So they asked me if I was in any pain and I remember saying no my joints were a bit sore like a 5, 10 being the worst. They took me up and was so in and out of it.  I drank some water and it felt like I had strep throat.  This was by far for me the worst part.  I don't know if something was unique about my case and they just scratched my through or they had trouble getting it in, I really don't know but thankfully now its subsided to a bad sore throat.

I was being forced to eat jello in little spoonfuls which was also not fun since all I wanted to do was sleep and then after taking percasets about a half hr later I threw up all of it along with a lot of dark blood.  I stuck to morphine from then on and I had an oxygen mask on me to help me breathe cause I kept having shortness of breath and this machine would beep everytime I wasnt breathing in enough oxygen.  This didnt exactly help my throat.  The surgery was at 8a, at about 8pm my mom had already left so it was just the nurse and I and she had me sit up to use mouth wash.  I was able to use that and then the flood gates opened. I said I was going to be sick and she just left me in the room to do my business...I threw up a ton of dark blood I guess that was sitting in my stomach from the surgery.  After that I felt fine.  I'll be honest I wouldve preferred a really bad hangover than go through that again.

I was able to eat water ice and a crushed pennicilin in that at around 1am and I was in an out of sleep most of the night which was good.  Whether or not you want to, you will have to go pee every hr and half at least cause the IV pours in 100 mL of water into your body every hour so its kind of hard not too.  The nurses were greatly helpful though everytime and its vital to have someone there with you for the first 8 hours to help you everytime you want a drink or if you are being forced to eat something like I was. My mom was there for me.

So far I am obviously really swollen.  I have no feeling on my bottom jaw, chin, or lip.  I can feel just about everything else.  Most of the pain is coming from the joints/incinsions they made on the outside of my face to put the screws in.  Apparently they put in 2 screws on each side.  I should get the X-rays to see on Thursday when I go back to visit.

My bite feels great when I bite down like Im supposed to like everything interlocks and I can't stick my tongue out anymore haha. Right now though it just feels like I purposely have to move my bottom jaw to the left for everything to interlock.  The other resident doctor said that the orthodontics will eventually fix that and train my jaw how to bite down properly.  Hopefully this will fix my crooked smile that I had before.

I was able to scarf down breakfast which consisted of cranberry juice, apple juice, and cream of wheat and I had no sickness since that 2nd and final throw up.  I was not expecting it to be so bad from everything I've read but I'm just so glad its over.  Apparently the swelling is supposed to get even worse in the next two days and then gets better from there so we shall see how it goes.  I was able to check out of the hospital at 10 am today, the day after.  I'll have plenty of time to kill so I'll post once each day with pics to show my progression.  Let me know if anyone has any questions if you're reading this now or even a year or two for now.  Sorry if I scared anyone!