Removal of surgical wires- not surgical hooks

[Guest guest]

Hi, I am one week post op lower jaw advancement surgery. I have been

through my ups and downs, (all familiar to me thanks to this wonderful

site.) I am feeling more human today and have to go to my OS's office

to have some wires removed under sedation anaesthesia, they are

twisted wires that go around my teeth at the gum line and seem to poke

through my gum at some points, there are about 7 of them total. I have

surgical hooks and they are different. Why did I ever moan about

braces, I now have braces on top of braces on top of braces. I would

love to be back to just brackets and wires!

I just want to know why these wires are in and why they are being

removed now rather than at the end of my surgery? (I asked my surgeon

and he said that they put them on to avoid breaking my brackets off

during the surgery when they apply traction.) I am hungry, fasting

when you are already on a liquid diet is no fun! They had trouble

intubating me and the surgery took longer than expected so I think it

might just have been a time thing?

Thanks to all of you on this site, I was so well prepared for the

sugery. I loved my jaw wrap from the zip n squeeze site, to all

pre-oppers get one!!! the hospital ones are terrible, but that lyrca

wrap stayed put without hurting me. The baggies I only found helpful

to use as a kind of low power water jet for cleaning, then they kept

exploding on me. Maybe user error?? I drank one ensure, I am British

so I am living on sweet milky decaf tea and blended soups and fruits.

The Starbucks frappaccino bottled drinks are lovely too, as anything

too citrus stings my mouth so juices are hard to take unless very

diluted. A word of advice, do not try and blend pizza, I have never

seen anything so horrid, but pot pies work great!

My advice to anyone preparing for this surgery is to have someone with

you the night in the hospital. My husband being there helped so much,

the nurses were OK, but they used an intercom to ask me how I was when

I pushed the nurse call button- as I couldn't talk and didn't make a

noise, they didn't come to check on me, I had to resort to bashing the

bedrails to make a noise that they would hear over the intercom!!

Funny but a bit scary too. I was so relieved that my husband slept by

my side all night. My OS had to write an order to allow it though.

So glad to be on the other side, now the first few days are over each

day I feel better, and have a whole new face to adjust too as the

swelling shifts and changes. It is all an improvement on the pumpkin

head I was a week ago though.

Sure I will have more questions, but maybe I can help answer those

others now I am on the home stretch of this journey.

Thanks again to you all.

Clare