It’s been almost two weeks since I had surgery to have the wires and arch bars removed, and some more stitching as the gum isn’t covering over some of the plates in the jaw. Where are we at now?
Each day the jaw gets more and more loose (in a good way, like I can open it more) and the teeth seem to feel better and better. The first day everything came out my teeth felt like glass ready to shatter, now most of them feel just like normal teeth. The first days I could barely touch them with a toothbrush without feeling like every tooth was going to fall out, now I can brush normally without any pain. There are a couple teeth that still have that loose feeling, but will have that checked out at my next appointment on Tues. Then we’ll also talk about the endo/orthodontist plans to get my hillbilly like lower jawline to look less, well, hillbilly like. Still have that one rogue tooth sticking inside my mouth, glad to get that sucker out of there. I’m also still a little swollen on the right side too, but they said that could take up to a few months to totally go away, but hey, it isn’t all that bad and better than what it was.
With the stitches in the mouth and still open wounds to the plates I’m sticking with the protein shakes (easy to clean out mouth after) but am getting in the cravings I had for so long when the mouth was wired shut. In this past week I built up from fried rice, to eggrolls, to pizza by the end of the week. I had the opposite experience with pizza this time, ate the whole thing in less time than one piece the day the wires came out. And best of all I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the beer chaser.
And the best part is the wicked X shaped scar on the right side of my chin. If you’re gonna wreck yourself, at least make sure the after effects are going to look cool.
Now, what’s going on with the back? Only good thigns I think. On the plus side, I got rid of the crappy neurosurgeon at UCSF and went and got a second opinion at Mt Tam Orthopedics (place that I had my hip surgery at) and was surprised at the difference in opinions. The quickest way at summing this up, one place cared about me and my healing, one place went “by the book” and cared about nothing. My experience with UCSF for my jaw and facial surgery is nothing short of amazing, my experience with the neurosurgery there is nothing short of disappointing. The neurosurgeon saw me for a grand total of 5 minutes over 8 weeks, and worst of all is telling me that I should be in my brace through at least Oct, which would equal 13 weeks. He also had me do a CT scan, in which he would review that same day and get back to me (me starting PT was waiting on the CT scan), a week later, after me calling everyday, sometimes twice, he called me back and said it’s healing but let’s “give it another month”, no apology, nothing for the delay. That’s when I decided this clown had to go. I went to Mt Tam Orthopedics where I had the exact opposite treatment. I had new xrays done, gave them all my exisiting xrays and CT scans, and had a new physical examination. He was surprised to see I was still in the brace after 8 weeks, and after seeing the healing in the xrays, and the fact that through the tests in the exam and not having felt pain, nor any pain in last 6 weeks. So first thing, ditch the brace, second thing, start PT asap. This is exactly what I hoped to hear. Back fracture is healing and I’m returning to a more normal life. I have a follow up in 4 weeks, he expects that if PT goes well and i continue to heal at this rate, I’ll be released to resume all normal activities, of course building up to them as I build strength back. As it is today, my lower back is sore by the end of the day from just holding my torso up.
But on to normal we go, going paddle boarding today with the dog, glad I didn’t totally miss summer!
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Hip (femoral neck) Fracture Recovery 