I had my final meeting with the surgeon today before my surgery. I had new X-Rays taken and I had to make new molds which always sucks to do. Once that was finished, one of the main secretaries came in to almost do a checklist with me. Did you schedule your physical? Yes. Did you schedule an appointment to get your hooks on? Yes. Did you call the hospital? No they called me and I have to speak with them again this Friday to run through my medical history. Any questions for me? Yes what is the deal with my insurance do I have to do anything further? No everything is approved and set up all you have to do is make sure there are no deductibles (which I dont think I do) and I'm good to go. They'll bill me for anything additional I owe since it covers 80% as far as I know.
Next the surgeon came in. He asked me right away if I had any questions and I said yes a lot. He said fire away and he was like half looking over my notes the whole time. My first question was simple, I said what are we doing with my jaw? He said hes moving it back about 3-4mm and every so slightly maybe 1mm to the right. The lower jaw is going to be turned counter clockwise up and under for the perfect bite. Well not exactly perfect because he says I still will have a crossbite but that will be fixed with orthodontics afterward. He said thats why they decided to only do the bottom jaw is because the ortho said give the post surgery position he would be able to fix it.
He showed me a model and this is how he will be doing the surgery. He said 3 screws on each side. Almost all of it done internally with just two very small incisions on either side I'm guessing for the screws. He said I should really see hardly any facial feature changes what so ever. He said I would not be wired shut, just rubber banded shut and that I would be able to take them off and put them back on each time to eat and stuff. He said itll be about a week on the liquid diet and then I would be able to start on soft foods. He said my recovery time is actually a lot faster than what a double jaw surgery would entail or even just the upper jaw. He said the movement is so subtle the recovery time might not be all that long. They said I would be out of work for at least a week but I already had the second one off either way for March Madness. I'm hoping my insurance approves the 2nd week though so I can save that week of vacation!
I work out and play indoor roller hockey so I asked him how soon I would be able to do either. He said after about a week as soon as I could get on my feet I would be fine for working out but he said hockey at least 4-6 weeks before any contact sport.
He said the surgery is 2 hours but I'll be asleep for 3. I'll be staying 1 night. I asked him if he thinks I'll get sick at all and he said nowadays its very rare. He did give me two warnings. One was that there is the possibility of permanent numbness on my chin and around my lower jaw line on my cheeks. The second was in order to prevent infection he asked me to brush 4 times a day leading up to the surgery. He wants me flossing twice a day and he wanted me back on the super strong mouth wash they gave me before for when I had my wisdom teeth out. Oh and he told me to shave haha. He said all of that was to prevent an infection of any sort. Otherwise he must've said like 3 times how impressed he was at the job the orthodontist has done up to this point he said my results should be really good so I was happy to hear that. If he only said it once I would've just shrugged it off and thought he was being nice but he actually did seem impressed.
So that's pretty much it. I have my pre-medical screening this Friday, then my physical next Tuesday and then the surgical hooks go on next Thursday, and then the surgery is on Monday March 11th. I have a follow up appointment on March 14th with the surgeon already scheduled as well. All I can say is I CAN NOT WAIT to get this over with and get to counting down the days until I can get these braces off. It's actually kind of funny sitting here thinking about how mad I used to get at not having an appointment for once every 6 weeks. But due to a car accident in November and the approaching surgery I've had an average of 3 appointments per week between ones with an injury dr, physical therapy 3 times a week, meetings with my lawyer, meetings with insurance drs, meetings with my ortho, and meetings with my surgeon... I am so sick and tired of having to be somewhere all the time. I'm actually looking forward to just doing nothing for 2 weeks except lay in bed and sleep haha. Alright that's enough for now I'll post again probably the night before my surgery.
