Hi! I;m new and having surgery in a few weeks!

[Guest guest]

I'm having both my upper jaw, lower jaw, chin and possibly lips

done. Has anyone else had all this work completed? I'm not worried

about the surgery but have been scanning past messages and have seen

some pestimistic comments and now am becoming more fearful. I plan

to take off about 2 weeks off work to recover. Is this relative to

the avgerage recovery time? or should I plan for longer? I generally

do not experience jaw discomfort, but my doc says it can lead to

future problems. ie, stomach, jaw . . . then am I messing with

something perfectly fine?

[Guest guest]

Hi Michele,

Why are you having your lips done? That's unusual.

Try checking out the geocities site at

http://www.geocities.com/orthognathicinfo under PERSONAL SURGERY

EXPERIENCES. I've posted a lot of stuff on that site - part of the

problem with the groups is that you tend to hear more about the

problems and not-so-pleasant experiences and less about the positive

ones (sometimes out of guilt, I suppose, for those like me who had

no problems and quick and easy recoveries).

I had upper/lower/genio almost 2 years ago. I took five weeks off

work, insurance would cover 6, my surgeon said he'd approve 6-8

weeks " since that's how long it takes the bones to heal properly " . I

thought I'd be able to go back after 2 weeks, but luckily my massage

therapist talked me out of it - she said at least 4 weeks. You don't

want to compromise the recovery process by forcing your body to do

too much too soon. You'll be weak from the experience, weak from

lack of adequate nutrition, weak because your body is calling in all

its resources to heal the sites, etc. etc. It takes a long time to

eat, a long time to clean up afterwards. You'll find talking to be

extremely tiring (facial muscles get sore pretty quick - I found

myself starting to slur as if I was drunk).

If you can take more time, I'd recommend it (my surgeon actually

usually recommends 3 weeks, but I pushed him as my job as a manager

can be stressful even though it's only a " desk job " ). It's more

difficult to take additional time off work if you go back too soon -

part of the problem is that because work is done inside the mouth,

you may not have any visible signs of what is pretty major surgery,

and most people don't understand what you're going through.

Your doc is right to consider what might happen if you don't have

this work done. Nervousness is normal, especially as you get closer,

even if you know more than when you started. Pre-op jitters are

normally worse than the actual experience.

I hope that helps. Also check out the other yahoo group at

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/orthognathicsurgerysite2 - lots

of well organized links, friendly folk, and tons of member photos.

> I'm having both my upper jaw, lower jaw, chin and possibly lips

> done. Has anyone else had all this work completed? I'm not

worried

> about the surgery but have been scanning past messages and have

seen

> some pestimistic comments and now am becoming more fearful. I

plan

> to take off about 2 weeks off work to recover. Is this relative

to

> the avgerage recovery time? or should I plan for longer? I

generally

> do not experience jaw discomfort, but my doc says it can lead to

> future problems. ie, stomach, jaw . . . then am I messing with

> something perfectly fine?

>