Anything involving my jaw surgery has pretty much fallen to the back burner these days. Yet when I look at the stats of my blog, I noticed I get the most hits from my jaw surgery posts. Lately, a lot of people have reached out to me with questions about my experience. I genuinely love how random strangers will reach out to me with questions and tell me how much my blog has helped them. So I wanted to create this FAQ post about my surgery, just so people can have a reference or quick guide to my surgery. This does not mean I don’t want people reaching out to me anymore, I just thought this would be more organized and list a bunch of facts I don’t think I’ve ever talked about before. The major posts for my recovery and post-op experiences are here and here. If you ever have anything you want to ask me about my surgery experience, please do! I love talking about it.
Who was my surgeon? Dr. John F. Caccamese MD, DMD
Who was my orthodontist? Dr. Jeffery Jarvis of Pitrone, Sorkin and Jarvis Orthodontics
How long did I have braces? 9 months pre-surgery, 6 months post-surgery
Where did my surgery take place? University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland (luckily only 25 minutes from my house)
When did I get my surgery? May 26, 2017. I was 21 years old and it was 2 days after my spring semester of junior year ended. I had the whole summer (over 3 months) to recover in peace at my house with the care of my parents, so I would definitely recommend finding a window like this to get the surgery done.
First consultation? August 10th, 2015. I was 19 and about to start my sophomore year of college.
When did I get the braces on? August 1st, 2016. I was 20 and about to start my junior year of college.
What type of surgery? Simply putting it, I had an underbite and my bite was off center to the left. The proper and complicated terms for all the procedure are “Lefort 1 osteotomy (maxilla), bilateral sagittal split osteotomy (mandible) and a genioplasty. Basically, they broke both jaws, moved them both up and out so my top jaw rested correctly on my bottom jaw. They also shaved off part of my chin.
How did you pay for your surgery? I am still under my parent’s insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield) and just about everything was covered under insurance. We did have to pay for braces and a few other things.
How long were you in the hospital for? I was in the hospital for 3 days and 2 nights. I arrived to UMMC around 6 a.m. the day of my surgery and it took about two hours to get signed in and set up (lots of questions, peeing in a cup, IVs, etc…) I was in the ICU immediately after surgery and then got moved into my own room for the rest of the time in the hospital.
How long did the surgery take? Apparently it took 6 hours to perform the surgery, and then an extra 45 minutes to cut off part of my chin (which was a last minute creative choice). I was completely out due to anthesia and don’t remember anything after being wheeled out of my hospital room and waking up in an elevator while getting moved from the ICU to my room.
How long was my recovery? I can’t exactly pinpoint when I stopped recovering. The first week was the absolute worst. The first 6 weeks were the most difficult because of my all liquid diet. I think around week 8 I started to feel like myself again and started to look normal. Most of the swelling didn’t go away until after 3/4 months and I got my braces off 6 months post op. I chose to get my surgery immediately after school ended so I could spend the whole summer recovering and I am so glad I did.
How did you spend your time during recovery? The first week I just slept with my head propped up and watched TV. I’m lucky I had so many wonderful friends and family who were willing to come visit me. I went on walks when I felt well enough and tanned on my deck. I went back to work after week 2, but started with half days. I miss when I could take 2 naps a day. I didn’t start going out and such until week 3.
When were you able to talk again? I legit could not talk when my mouth was rubberbanded shut for the first week. I wrote things down on notepads and tried to do sign language. After the splint came out, my speech was very muddled because of the swelling, rubberbands and lack of feeling in my lips. I had to learn how to talk with this new face structure, so it took a while.
How did you eat? I strictly used a syringe the first week, then spooned food into my mouth when I could open my mouth after week 2. My syringe started to malfunction during week 5 which was a pain. Spooning food was very messy and I always got food on my chin, chest and clothes. But it got better as the weeks went by.
Was it painful? I was never in “pain”, just a lot of discomfort. My nerves were stretched out in my face so I rarely ever felt sharp pains or soreness. My throat hurt from swallowing blood during surgery, throwing up and this tube they put in from my nose to my stomach post surgery. My back hurt laying in the hospital bed all the time and there were moments of sharp pains in my jaw during the first 2 weeks.
When did all of the feeling come back into my face? Around 9 months post op, but I still can’t feel some light things on my chin.
What did I eat on the all liquid diet? I made a few blog posts about my all liquid diet here and here, but I basically lived of of Ensure, smoothie and soups. I had to blend up soup so there were no chunks and tried to mush up avocados and potatoes.
How long did it take me to learn how to chew again? I was surprised with how difficult it was to learn how to chew again. I’m 10 months post op now and I still have some trouble chewing and swallowing. Its a slow process, but you will get better. I was able to eat pretty normally around week 8 but there were a lot of gross open-mouth chewing that was pretty disgusting to those around me.
How long did you wear rubberbands? I had tight rubberbands on both sides of my mouth for the first 6 weeks so my jaws could heal properly. Then I went to one rubberband on my right side all day, and one across my mouth when I slept. Then I only had rubberbands on when I slept. See the hideous pictures below:
one side of my rubberbands with the splint in. it was the same on the other side of my mouth. You can see the surgical hooks and my splint. (that’s also blood coming out of my nose from the surgery)
the left rubberband stayed in all day after the splint came out and I slept with the one across my face. Rubberbands are unique to your own recovery and bite. (sorry for the blurry picture)
Do you miss your how you used to look? Not really, but it took some getting used to because I was so used to my long face and underbite. But I am so incredibly happy with how my face looks now and smiling is so effortless now.
How much weight did you lose? 15 pounds in the first 6 weeks. I gained most of it back by month 3 post-op.
Any scars or bruises? No scars because they performed the surgery inside my mouth. I had bruises on my neck the first week because of blood circulation.
What medicine did you use? I can’t remember what medication I was given through my IVs in the hospital, but at home I had liquid Tylenol, Motrin and Oxycodon that I had to take through a syringe. They tasted super gross. I had trouble taking my birth control the week my mouth was wired shut, so my period was out of whack.
When did you start driving again after surgery? I was able to start driving again during week 2 when I had stopped taking my pain meds.
When did you start working out? I started going to the gym again during week 5, but did very easy work outs.
When did I start drinking alcohol again? My doctor said I could drink alcohol again as long as I was consuming a lot of food. I was able to go out with my friends starting week 3.
Anything that surprised you? I didn’t know how much metal would be in my face forever and that the swelling would last for months. I was surprised by how the lack of feeling in my face actually felt and how much congestion I faced (I couldn’t blow my nose for 2 months). They cut the inside of my mouth so I don’t have those…muscle strand things that connect my lips to my gums (if that makes sense). I had no way of knowing how I would actually look post surgery, but I remember waking up from amnesia a few hours after surgery and being happy with my face before the swelling started. The syringes were hard to master and I had very little energy to do anything on the all liquid diet. My skin and hair suffered for a bit because of my poor diet. I also got migraines and had surgical anemia that would make me really dizzy. I definitely pushed myself too far during times of my recovery, so remember to take it easy.
Anything you would change? I would have gotten a dry erase board for when I was in the hospital and I would have been more patient with my parents. I also would have changed my color braces more often and documented post surgery swelling more. I also would have flossed more.
What keep you positive during your all-liquid diet and recovery? I had two mottos that kept me going: “every day is better than the last” and “embrace the suck.” Knowing this was all temporary and all this suffering was going to benefit me, helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Any advice? Stay hydrated, buy a dry erase board, keep yourself busy but don’t push yourself too far, be patient with yourself and with those who take care of you. Know in the end it is all worth it.
Any questions I missed? Comment below!
Thanks for reading! xx