I think we have some bone!

I saw Dr. S today and the bone graft is looking good.  YEA!

I do need a little work on the soft tissue, which I had figured out already.  But that will just involve some Novocain in the office.   That will be some time after Christmas.

He took out some of the loose stitches, which was nice since they area annoying, but it hurt A LOT.  I felt like he was just poking me with sharp objects.  But now I can feel the roof of my mouth much better.

Also, I can eat regular food again.  I had pot roast for dinner!

I also saw Dr. F,  but you'll have to read about that later in the week.

The good, bad and the slow to post

I saw Dr. S last week, sorry it's taken so long to post.  I keep forgetting when I'm actually at the computer to post about it.  But I'm here now!

So the good news is that I have not lost any bone.  Yea!

The bad news is that he didn't seem to like how part of my gums closed up.  And I still have a small hole into my sinuses.

We're now at the "wait and see" stage.  Oh, I thought I was already at that stage.

I am still on a "very soft" diet, which isn't so great.

I also still have a little bit of pain at times, either that or I'm addicted to tylenol and advil.

1st Doctors Visit

I had my first Doctor's visit today.  I saw an associate of Dr. S.  He didn't do too much, did make me properly brush my teeth though.  Said that things were healing appropriately.  Moved me up to mushy foods - pasta, mashed potatoes, eggs...  Originally I thought I would be much more up on my feet at this point, but I'm not.  It didn't sound like they wanted me to return to work next week like I had originally planned, so I wont be.

I see Dr. S next Monday, I suspect I will learn a lot more then.

I also saw Dr. F, who basically did nothing.  The surgeon doesn't want to have my teeth put in for another 2 weeks until the swelling goes down more.  Dr. F decided not to bother putting the wire back in until then as it's not needed.

It seems like they're taking things very conservatively at this point, which is ok.  I'm not sure if after the bone loss last time they're feeling more conservative or if there were any issues with the surgery where they are feeling a need to be more conservative.  

I will say that today I have had a bit more pain then I have had in the past few days and I'm taking the same amount and types of pain killers.

Oh, and laughing hurts, no more funny sitcoms for a few more days.

Coming along

So I'm coming along, the swelling is down to a point where I don't look grotesque (or did my sister say I looked grotesque?  Ahhh, sisters!)  Well, I don't look that bad, but am still pretty swollen.  I also have some bruising on my neck and throat, but it's light and hard to see.  My mouth still hurts too, but I'm taking mostly just Advil and the Percocet at night to help me sleep.

This morning I woke up with a gross taste in my mouth and it seemed very mucusie mixed in with a bit of dried blood.  There also seemed to be bits of something in there.  I'm hoping it's just some particles from my smoothie last night, but I'll find out more today when I see the surgeon.  But after losing the bone last time I'm a bit nervous about anything that doesn't seem 100% right.

What day is it?

Since my surgery I have been a bit oblivious to my surroundings.  At times I'm awake and aware of things, and at other times my brain is mush.

My pain has been subsiding, but my swelling is up.  My head looks like a lopsided watermelon, my lower left side is swollen and my upper right is swollen.

On my lower right I noticed today that Dr. S removed the bracket on a tooth.  I don't mind seeing it go since it was the bracket that was leaving my gums irritated, though I'm sure Dr. F will be putting it back on.

I did have some nausea last night, which was cured when I threw up after taking the anti-nausea medicine. I'm not sure that's how that is supposed to work...

Surgery #4

Disclaimer - I'm writing this slightly delirious after surgery.

Last Friday I saw Dr. S and here is what he said he was doing during this surgery.  He was going to mix Bone Morphogenic proteins with a bit of bone from my jaw and something else.  He was going to open up the gums more to allow more blood flow and healing.  He showed me some pictures of another case with a similar problem and the mouth looked great at the end.  He did think he was going to have to take my one middle tooth out and asked permission.

Monday I saw Dr. F and he took out my wire and teeth, which felt really weird.

Tuesday:  Surgery was supposed to take 2 hours, it took over 3.  The anesthesiologist was able to get me intubated through the nose using the camera.  Though Dr. S had to move my tongue, which might explain why my tongue hurt after the surgery.  He did not take out my middle tooth, he said it had enough bone around it.  My throat hurts and it hurts to talk.  My jaw hurts from where he took the bone.  My parents are driving me nuts.  My face is very swollen.

I'm on clear liquids for 3 days, then liquids for another 3 days.

Not much going on...

I haven't written lately, because there just isn't much going on.  I'm just waiting for the next surgery in November.  I did go away to England and Scotland for 2 weeks, the food wasn't great, but I was able to eat it and that made me very happy!

This week I did go to see Dr. S, but there wasn't much to report from that.  He told me to keep doing what I'm doing.  That this sometimes happens with adults and he was confident the bone stimulating proteins would help.  I did keep some of the bone, so that's good.

One other good thing is that my primary care physician has opted not to have me come into the office for a pre-surgical clearance, he feels that I'm in good health and he can clear me without seeing me.  I think since he did one back in July too helped.  So I have one less thing to do before the surgery.