RE: Almost Week 5 Post-Surgery

March 13, 2005

Hi Maxie,

Thanks for introducing yourself! I live in Oregon and will be having surgery

w/Dr. Roger West in Seattle in about a year. I'm just getting started.braces

go on tomorrow morning! I can hardly wait to get these spacers out!

Hope things continue to go well for you!

Diane

_____

From: Margaret Jennings

Sent: Saturday, March 12, 2005 9:41 PM

Subject: Almost Week 5 Post-Surgery

Hi All,

This board is great! I've been lurking for 6-7 weeks as I had my BSSO

almost 5 weeks ago.

I had my lower jaw moved back and over to right. The first few days I would

wake myself up by accidently biting the tip of my tongue. Hurt so bad I

thought I would just shoot myself. I gues my tongue had to get used to

being in a smaller space.

I gave up on the liquid meals after about a week; my OS said I could have

soft foods after 5 days. It seems MY body really needed more substance than

liquid food. I have a gall bladder issue, too, so that really made it hard

to eat since I couldn't bulk up on the calories. I'm still on soft

foods--although I am trying to chew mostly for the exercise to my jaw.

I have numbness in the left half of my chin and my teeth meet more on the

left side than the right. I have to have a rubber band on the right side to

correct the midline a little. I have a tendency to open more to the right

than the left. I was at 24mm 2 weeks ago and I think I am near 28mm now. I

hope I can get more open before I see my OS and ortho in the next 10 days.

My OS instructed me on an exercise for my jaw--a stretch that I have to do

for a minimum 20 seconds at least 5 times a day. Hopefully I can get most

of my opening back--I'd like to be able to bite into a sandwich someday.

All I can get to right now is a banana--and that's a stretch.

I'm near Seattle, too, by the way.

Maxie

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