Guest guest Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 Dwilzen that all sounds positive, good to hear as you are allaying my fears with your posts. What a slow process to get back to " normal " but I guess a broken leg is hard to get over as is a broken jaw. Do you have any pain at all when you open your mouth to get a spoon in? How does that feel? Also was it possible to see all the rubber bands when you first had surgery, does it look a bit gross? DWILZEN wrote: Hello, Thanks for all the posts about the swelling and numbness. I just met with my doctor and thought I would relay what he said. I am now 5 weeks 3 days post op lower advancement and he said at this stage swelling is still 60 to 70 percent there and will continue to be there until 3 or 4 months. Even though I may not be able to see the puffiness all over in my face, it is still there. Around 6 months the swelling will be down to about 10% at this stage you will start getting a pretty good idea of the final result. I am still unable to chew, but that has not really bothered me to much. I have found that mashing food with a fork works wonders. I have been eating meatloaf, green beans, turkey, pastas. I feel it is not an issue anymore. He said maybe next week light chewing. The numbness I have in my chin is still very present. However, I have noticed signs of itching and on the left side of my chin I have slight feeling. Doctor seems confident these are good signs of nerve healing. He told me I needed to start working more on opening my mouth because if I dont improve I will need therapy. I am to work on opening often and hopefully by the time of my next visit (4 weeks) I wont need therapy. So far so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 I am remaining positive about the whole thing. I seriously doubted my surgeon for a long time but I have to say so far he has been right about everything. I know he is very skilled and have come to trust him even more. After all he is the surgeon. It is very slow, But you will get there. I cant believe I am almost 6 weeks already. When I open my mouth I would get to a point and it would feel tight in my jaw area. The more I try to open the tighter it would feel. It would feel kinda like a cramp feeling, It wouldn't really hurt but more like a muscle cramp. According to my doctor I should keep trying to open. I would not press it if it hurt, but I do think trying to open and close often is good to get the motion back. I only had two bands in my mouth after surgery and they were noticable but not gross or anything. I have not wore any bands for 2 weeks now. I can tell already I am getting better range in opening my mouth. I have notice after exercising my jaw I get to a point then when I come back to it I have to work up to that point again of opening. I think just working at it over and over will get it back. Vhurgo wrote:Dwilzen that all sounds positive, good to hear as you are allaying my fears with your posts. What a slow process to get back to " normal " but I guess a broken leg is hard to get over as is a broken jaw. Do you have any pain at all when you open your mouth to get a spoon in? How does that feel? Also was it possible to see all the rubber bands when you first had surgery, does it look a bit gross? DWILZEN wrote: Hello, Thanks for all the posts about the swelling and numbness. I just met with my doctor and thought I would relay what he said. I am now 5 weeks 3 days post op lower advancement and he said at this stage swelling is still 60 to 70 percent there and will continue to be there until 3 or 4 months. Even though I may not be able to see the puffiness all over in my face, it is still there. Around 6 months the swelling will be down to about 10% at this stage you will start getting a pretty good idea of the final result. I am still unable to chew, but that has not really bothered me to much. I have found that mashing food with a fork works wonders. I have been eating meatloaf, green beans, turkey, pastas. I feel it is not an issue anymore. He said maybe next week light chewing. The numbness I have in my chin is still very present. However, I have noticed signs of itching and on the left side of my chin I have slight feeling. Doctor seems confident these are good signs of nerve healing. He told me I needed to start working more on opening my mouth because if I dont improve I will need therapy. I am to work on opening often and hopefully by the time of my next visit (4 weeks) I wont need therapy. So far so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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