That's All Folks!
February 13, 2012: The entry on March 22nd was the last journal entry I made. Here is a general summary of what happened next...
I went off the pain medications after 2 weeks of being home. I went cold turkey, which was a bad idea, but no one instructed me to ween myself off of the pain medications. I think my body went into a little bit of withdrawal, but I worked through it!
I spent the next several months recovering from all of the side effects. I couldn't believe how long it took me to recover. And then in December of 2010 I had to have more surgery on my jaw. An MRI scan came back with some unusual spots on it, and I had been having signs of infection for a few months before that. The antibiotics were not helping, so they decided they needed to go back in. We later found out, after the procedure, that the screws holding the metal plate and my jaw together had come loose. Scary! Glad they fixed it.
The recovery from that procedure was much faster, and yes it did require a liquid diet...again. This time they wired my jaw shut while I was under for the procedure. My bite was off before this procedure, so they adjusted the fibula so that my bite would have 3 points of contact. They wired it shut to make sure it healed in the right place. The procedure to remove the wiring was quite painful. I cried, which then led to the oral surgeon offering me some novocaine. That definitely helped a lot. He told me that some people have the wiring taken out with absolutely no anesthetic, not even xylocaine, which is a topical spray. YIKES! I thought I had a good pain tolerance, but I couldn't have done that without any anesthetic.
Actually I'm still recovering from some post-surgery difficulties. Muscle atrophy in my leg and some fibrosis in my neck are causing me difficulties. I'm also now struggling with some sort of nerve compression or possible neuropathy in my arm. I'm in physical therapy to address these issues. Otherwise life is GREAT! I'm back in school and planning to graduate in December. :) Thanks for reading !
I went off the pain medications after 2 weeks of being home. I went cold turkey, which was a bad idea, but no one instructed me to ween myself off of the pain medications. I think my body went into a little bit of withdrawal, but I worked through it!
I spent the next several months recovering from all of the side effects. I couldn't believe how long it took me to recover. And then in December of 2010 I had to have more surgery on my jaw. An MRI scan came back with some unusual spots on it, and I had been having signs of infection for a few months before that. The antibiotics were not helping, so they decided they needed to go back in. We later found out, after the procedure, that the screws holding the metal plate and my jaw together had come loose. Scary! Glad they fixed it.
The recovery from that procedure was much faster, and yes it did require a liquid diet...again. This time they wired my jaw shut while I was under for the procedure. My bite was off before this procedure, so they adjusted the fibula so that my bite would have 3 points of contact. They wired it shut to make sure it healed in the right place. The procedure to remove the wiring was quite painful. I cried, which then led to the oral surgeon offering me some novocaine. That definitely helped a lot. He told me that some people have the wiring taken out with absolutely no anesthetic, not even xylocaine, which is a topical spray. YIKES! I thought I had a good pain tolerance, but I couldn't have done that without any anesthetic.
Actually I'm still recovering from some post-surgery difficulties. Muscle atrophy in my leg and some fibrosis in my neck are causing me difficulties. I'm also now struggling with some sort of nerve compression or possible neuropathy in my arm. I'm in physical therapy to address these issues. Otherwise life is GREAT! I'm back in school and planning to graduate in December. :) Thanks for reading !
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