Re: Disheartened

[Guest guest]

Dear disheartened, I have not had surgery yet but what I can tell you

is that you need to giver yourself some TIME. You're only 9 days post-

op right? I am sure that most of the veterans on this site will tell

you that it takes time for your body to regenerate and start healing,

especially after such an intensive operation. I can tell you from

previous surgery that I had that it takes a while for the numb feeling

to go away and certainly more than 9 days. I would give yourself at

least two months until you start to feel normal again. I had a nose job

when I was 17 which is a much less intensive operation. The swelling

took about 6 months to go down but after about 1 month I already felt I

looked better. It also took a while for the sensation to come back to

my nose. I used to massage my nose every day to help my nerves

regenerate themselves. As far as concerns your friends who are

discouraged, I'm sorry if I come across as harsh but they should think

about the fact that you need support at this point in time and hearing

about their disappointment in your new look is not support in my book.

As time goes by you will realize every day as you look in the mirror

that your face is changing slowly but surely for the better. The

important thing is to stay positive. Keep posting on the website.

Sharing with others and talking about how you feel helps a lot,

especially because you are not the only one who is going through this

same procedure. You are in good company! Oh, and the pins and needles

in your lips is a GOOD sign, it means your nerves are waking up again

and stretching themselves out!

Sara

> I had surgery April 20 for upped and lower and chin. I googled for

> help

> in learning why I am still numbs and feeling pinds and needles and

> burning in my lips. I am so discourage by the various postings that I

> have read through. It appears many have never regained feeling in

> their

> face and still feel the tingling. I am not able to smile, dont look

> like myself, and my friends have been discouraged by my new look. I

> am

> most upset to learn I may never have the same sensitivity that my

> lips

> used to have. Isnt there a few good stories out there?

[Guest guest]

Please try to think positively and give yourself more time. I am 5

months post up from upper surgery and am still experiencing a little

numbness in the roof of my mouth. I should actually say " altered

sensation " because I can feel it but it just feels somewhat different.

It has been a slow process but I can feel a difference from one week to

the next. As best as I can remember it was probably around two months

post op that I felt I had the majority of feeling back but everyone is

different. My OS said that it could take six months to a year so I am

not fretting just yet.

Hang in there and remember that you are very early in the healing

process.

> I had surgery April 20 for upped and lower and chin. I googled for

> help

> in learning why I am still numbs and feeling pinds and needles and

> burning in my lips. I am so discourage by the various postings that I

> have read through. It appears many have never regained feeling in

> their

> face and still feel the tingling. I am not able to smile, dont look

> like myself, and my friends have been discouraged by my new look. I

> am

> most upset to learn I may never have the same sensitivity that my

> lips

> used to have. Isnt there a few good stories out there?

[Guest guest]

I'm 4 weeks upper/lower/genio post-op and have just started

smiling " normally " (with the splint, elastics, and numb lip and

chin). Smiling was a very gradual process. I couldn't control my

cheek muscles for about 2 weeks after surgery. I would test myself

once in a while by trying to smile little by little. It was baby

steps each day. Smiling involuntarily would hurt when someone said

something funny enough to make me laugh. I looked like an idiot

trying to stifle my impending laughter. I still do cuz I can't laugh

out loud yet. I can smile widely now, but it's stiff and my lower

lip doesn't move much because of the numbness. The point is that

there's progress in smiling, which you'll find soon.

I didn't have much numbness after surgery except from my lower lip

down to the tip of my chin. It's still completely numb and I don't

even feel pins and needles - just a constant pain in the chin bone

which is ever so slowly fading each week. I do get the very rare

(every few days) sensation of a hair or spider web stuck to my skin,

but when I check, there's nothing there, even after scratching.

Since I'm numb, I know it must be some nerve " illusion " , which gets

me all excited. From what I hear, it can take quite a while though.

I can sort of feel the very right edge of my lower lip which I think

is new...

Patience is definitely a virtue here.

Yann

> I had surgery April 20 for upped and lower and chin. I googled for

> help

> in learning why I am still numbs and feeling pinds and needles and

> burning in my lips. I am so discourage by the various postings

that I

> have read through. It appears many have never regained feeling in

> their

> face and still feel the tingling. I am not able to smile, dont

look

> like myself, and my friends have been discouraged by my new look. I

> am

> most upset to learn I may never have the same sensitivity that my

> lips

> used to have. Isnt there a few good stories out there?

[Guest guest]

Yes, there are many good stories out there. I am one of them.

I do think that people tend to have the surgery, and when things go

well, they move on to another part of their lives and don't tend to

hang around and keep posting. (I think that's one reason and I

still hang around, so long after our 2002 surgeries.)

I never had any numbness at all. My whole procedure was a great

success, and my periodontist tells me that it has probably saved my

teeth.

Now. If you just had surgery on April 20, you are, as I told someone

else recently, an orthognathic newborn still. Swelling alone can take

more than a year to go away. Remember, you've had a lot of alterations

in there. Your bones and tissues have good reason to be annoyed with

you for the gross insults you've given them.

But the chances are good that they will forgive you. You do have to

have some patience.

You may wind up with some, or a lot, of residual numbness. Or you may

not. I don't know of a lot of things you can do to direct that, aside

from insuring that you get good nutrition, good hydration and do as

your docs and/or therapists tell you. Your body will take its own sweet

time to heal.

The pins, needles and burning are probably all good signs, believe it

or not, that the nerves are beginning to awaken and repair themeselves

after some damage.

Please don't be discouraged. Most of us talk when we're troubled, or

hurting, and go on to other things when we're not. It's only human. And

you're welcome to do that, too -- that's one advantage of this site and

OSS2. The folks here and there understand when we vent and complain,

and sympathize with us.

Do cultivate patience, hard as it is. And remember that you would not

expect to be completely recovered from a broken hip or leg in less than

a month. Why should your jaws and face be any quicker? Not just because

we want them to, that's for sure!

Be of good cheer. Your smile will be back, I'll wager, and while your

new look may or may not be the same as the old one (and that can cause

some anxious moments, too), you will probably be more pleased with it

than you are now.

You may also be suffering some typical depression in the aftermath of

the steroids, anaesthesia, altered diet and limited movement. That will

pass, but if it lingers unduly long, ask your doc for some help with it.

Cammie

> I had surgery April 20 for upped and lower and chin. I googled for

> help

> in learning why I am still numbs and feeling pinds and needles and

> burning in my lips. I am so discourage by the various postings that I

> have read through. It appears many have never regained feeling in

> their

> face and still feel the tingling. I am not able to smile, dont look

> like myself, and my friends have been discouraged by my new look. I

> am

> most upset to learn I may never have the same sensitivity that my

> lips

> used to have. Isnt there a few good stories out there?

[Guest guest]

Yup, as Cammie said, I also had good results and am still around to

tell the tale.

Patience is the one thing you need for this recovery as it's long and

unpredictable. One of the commonest questions here is " when will the

numbness go away? " . Nobody can give you a precise answer for that. My

own surgeon said 5-7 years for full nerve recovery, which is probably

the longest estimate I've ever heard here, but I believe it. That's

not to frighten you at all, but to put things in proper perspective.

I had lower wisdom teeth extracted about 8 or 9 years before my

orthognathic surgery and found myself with a numb patch on my lower

lip (one of the teeth was impacted and the surgeon had to dig into

the bone to get it, disturbing the nerve). The recovery from that

took a long time, but it's true that I found change after 5 or 6

years. It's quite subtle but it was change.

So when I found myself with numbness post-op this time around, it was

much easier to deal with. Major numbness usually goes away fairly

quickly (and I had major numbness, numb from behind the eyeballs to

below the chin). Then things start to slow down, and slow down, and

slow down. Change was measured in days, then weeks, then months. You

need to just sit back and let things happen on their own time. Put

your focus elsewhere.

9 or 10 days post-op is relatively early on in the recovery process.

Again, that's not meant to discourage you at all, just to help you to

realize that you've got a ways to go and that you shouldn't expect

too much yet.

I hope that helps.

> > I had surgery April 20 for upped and lower and chin. I googled for

> > help

> > in learning why I am still numbs and feeling pinds and needles

and

> > burning in my lips. I am so discourage by the various postings

that I

> > have read through. It appears many have never regained feeling in

> > their

> > face and still feel the tingling. I am not able to smile, dont

look

> > like myself, and my friends have been discouraged by my new look.

I

> > am

> > most upset to learn I may never have the same sensitivity that my

> > lips

> > used to have. Isnt there a few good stories out there?