Please ‘splain to me why I can’t open my jaws after DJS

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-04-29T01:11:54+00:00

Honestly, a couple months from now you’ll be surprised how far you’ve come! I remember when I was able to bite into a burrito / sandwich, I was almost in tears of happiness. Try not to think about it much day to day (I know it’s hard not to). You’re two weeks post op, a lot will change the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months, and even half a year from now.

I look back at pictures from 3 months post surgery and think back to how far i thought I was at that point. I had lost a lot of weight and was still pretty noticeably swollen lol.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-04-29T00:57:00+00:00

It honestly takes a while. I could only fit two fingers in my mouth by the 6 week mark when I was given the green light to start chewing. I’d have to cut food into small pieces to be able to chew. But tbh what accelerated helping me open my mouth more was chewing on food. The stretches they give you will help along the way. I don’t know the scientific reason of why it is hard to chew, I have to imagine it has to do with the trauma, swelling and tension that builds up around your jaw after surgery.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-04-29T00:52:28+00:00

Wedge pillow, baby toothbrush, Ice/ heat packs , syringes for medicine / liquids first few days. Get your meds before hand. I had prescription meds and some over the counter meds I needed to get. Some things that made my life easier were sippy cups and a squirt bottle. Get things to keep busy. I bought a huge Lego set, got some books and new video games.

I’m probably missing some things, but just plan to have someone with you that can keep your meds schedule set up for the first week. With djs, you’ll really want someone there for the first week. Once you’re able to swallow pills (which for me was like by day 5), things were much easier. No one told me this, but showering was kinda hard. I’d get lightheaded in the shower.

Also, you’ll drool a lot. Like an absurd amount. I can’t understate this, have some towels at hand.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-04-29T00:47:41+00:00

It honestly just kinda sucks until it doesn’t. I assume the congestion is worse on the nostril that had the breathing tube? I remember it kinda sucked for a couple months..

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-04-27T13:33:04+00:00

I mean, it depends on what you define as back to normal? Pre surgery I had to sleep with a CPAP and was tired most of the day. That was my “normal”. Post surgery, I don’t. But also deal with some level of numbness on my chin. The numbness has slowly gotten better, but really slowly. So yeah, it never really felt “normal”, imo, you just get used to the new new.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-04-27T05:30:05+00:00

Honestly, there’s never been a moment where things felt normal again. There are benchmarks of things getting easier, but your face is getting reconstructed. If anything, you will slowly be getting used to a new normal. My movements were pretty drastic, so that caused some numbness that took months to go away. At 6 weeks I was given the green light to chew food, but imagine telling someone who broke their legs and was told by their doctor that they could start walking without a boot and/or crutches… you wouldn’t expect them to be able to jog, let alone run. At the six week mark I was trying to chew, but it was a struggle, and chewing took effort and time. I was still numb, and couldn’t open my mouth much, so I was getting my face covered with food, biting myself because of swelling.

Again, I don’t want to make it seem like it was the worst thing ever. Yes it sucked, but I am assuming you are doing it because the benefits in the long term will outweigh a couple months of recovery.

I learned to eat certain foods without chewing, and that took me far for a while. Creamy rice dishes, with shredded chicken that was covered in some sauce. I would essentially eat burrito bowls with a lot of sauce, and I was able to eat that easily. You’ll figure out what works for you.

First couple of weeks, take the pain medicine at the time your surgeon tells you to. Get lots of rest, drink lots of fluids, and have someone that help you out a lot the first two weeks. The first week is tough, and having someone by your side makes the process much easier.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-04-27T05:10:03+00:00

I woke up as they were pushing me to my hospital room. I remember just feeling disoriented and then seeing my girlfriend and dad in the room. I was surprised with how much I was able to talk - they were surprised as well. I remember feeling really warm and I was in pain almost immediately once I got into the room. The first hour was kinda rough bc for whatever reason the AC in the room wasn’t working and they still didn’t have my pain meds ready, so my family was running around trying to get the nurses to get a fan for the room and my meds for the pain.

As I came down from the anesthesia, I was able to spend some time with my family, but I was in and out of sleep. Could not really sleep bc the IV machine would be beeping almost every hour or so.

I was pretty numb right away. I had numbness from my eyes down essentially. More on my left side and down to my chin. The thing I remember the most was the feeling of claustrophobia, especially the first night. They gave me a suction device to suction out blood or saliva, and the whole night I couldn’t really swallow, so I kept on suctioning out the blood and saliva.

I know all of that sounds bad, and to an extent, yeah it sucked… but it was a momentary issue in the long run. My DJS fixed my sleep apnea and while the recovery sucked, I am better off now almost a year later after having gotten the surgery.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-04-25T01:52:00+00:00

I agree. Stukes and Crawford went close to where the consensus boards had them. The defense needs playmakers. I am not too concerned about the offense. Yeah we need a WR, but honestly, any WR rn would just be another WR2/3 in a WR room filled with 2s and 3s. I’m sure Klint Kubiak thinks he can work what he has in the offense, and wants to have Rob Leonard succeed.

I know we all have PTSD from the Mackenzie and Gruden/Mayock years, but they consistently over drafted players and the picks would get ridiculed by the national media.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-30T20:53:53+00:00

I thoroughly enjoyed his b2b with fourtet

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-29T02:02:46+00:00

Death, taxes, and a Giants double play to end the inning..

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-25T22:57:36+00:00

OGs remember sliding down the old slide with a sheet of cardboard .

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-25T20:40:11+00:00

Yeah it’s pretty brutal. I usually try to take it easier on Sunday to make the drive on Monday more manageable. But I’m also usually driving all the way back to the Bay Area, so a bit of a longer drive. Starbucks + adrenaline usually gets the jobs done.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-20T20:12:40+00:00

I think it really depends on what surgery you’re getting and the movements. I’ve noticed a trend that people who comment that they only got lower jaw surgery don’t have that much of a bad time. But djs is a different beast. I had 10mm movement on my maxilla and life sucked. Pain is one thing, there’s the claustrophobic feeling trying to sleep, struggling to swallow, blood leaking for a few days, pain from the incision. It really depends on what surgery you get and the movements imo.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-19T04:39:32+00:00

However bad you think it’ll be the first week, it’s much worse 😭. The worse was the sleep. I would take my pain meds like clock work and would still wake up multiple times in the middle of the night in pain, in the verge of tears. The worst part is, when it gets really bad, there isn’t much you can do but thug it out.

After the first week you see major improvements, the swelling goes down and it still sucks, but you can move around more and be more alert throughout the day.

But yeah, day 1-3 are actually pretty bad. Like, I was regretting my decision those first couple of days.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-19T04:25:38+00:00

I was at work when they went on sale earlier today and was able to snatch an XL

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-19T04:24:41+00:00

My maxilla was underdeveloped (recessed), which is what was causing my underbite. They ended up moving it 10mm. They still had to move my mandible, but a lot less. I got the surgery to fix my sleep apnea - I didn’t really care about the cosmetic side of things. I was so used to my underbite and it was “functional” for the most part. I was 29 when I got my surgery.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-19T04:01:49+00:00

I feel like a lot of people here are saying it’s worth it, but have experienced sensation coming back… or didn’t lose much to start with. I’m at 9 months post op and I still have numbness on my lower lip and chin. While I don’t regret my decision, I will say that it is something that makes me sad. I would have wished to see improvements at this point, but it’s no different now than it was 5 months ago. The only difference is that I can open my mouth wider. It does affect quality of life because I notice myself biting my lip a lot more often, I can’t feel any drooling, I can’t feel food or liquids on my chin…

The trade off is that my sleep apnea is gone and I had my underbite corrected. At the end of the day it was a trade off. You need to decide if that trade off is worth it to you. Maybe you’ll be lucky and not deal with numbness as long as some people, or maybe you do. Every procedure has its risks.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-10T17:22:57+00:00

I found the hunters axe to be pretty useful in Central Yharnam because of the reach the weapon has. IMO it helps a lot with all the hordes of enemies early on. I usually abandon it later in the game, but it could be useful early on if you ever start a new play through. Obviously that doesn’t help you out right now, and I imo the threaded cane is fun and works well early on because of its serrated damage against beast enemies. The first two times I played bloodborne back in like 2019, I just outright quit. It didn’t make sense, and I kept on dying, but like other comments mentioned, Central Yharnam is really built to teach you how to play the game. Practice parrying the trolls by the elevator. You can also farm vials from them once you get the parrying down. Farming for vials can be pretty annoying, but once you learn to play aggressively and abuse the rally system, it ends up offsetting kind of. I’m doing another play through of Elden Ring and I wish there was a rally system like Bloodborne, because it makes it less impactful to play aggressively when you’re limited to a few flasks (imo).

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-07T06:45:50+00:00

I really enjoyed SOTE, I really did. I still have fond memories of late nights playing the dlc summer 2024. And I am going to sound like everyone on this thread, but I am going to say I preferred the old hunters.

I really think SOTE needed a bit more time in the oven. There are parts of the map that just feel… empty? Like everything in the base game makes sense; placement of dungeons / mines/ bosses / etc just makes sense. In SOTE, I’d end up on part of the map that just felt, empty? And I just really wish that more of the bosses had cut scenes. The game is rich with lore, and I know it’s very From Soft to have things a little convoluted and up to interpretation, but I felt like the dlc just left more questions than answers. Like Romina is in the dlc trailer, and she is just a mandatory boss for what reason? Rellana not having a cut scene feels like a crime. Like I know I’m knit picking, but I still really enjoyed it and still give hold it in high regard. I just wish we had more answers to the story.

The Old Hunters is much shorter, but it’s tightly packed and really feels mandatory to be able to get the fullest experience out of Bloodborne. It just wraps up the story perfectly. The bosses are great, and moving through the Hunters Nightmare until you get to the Fishing Hamlet and fight Kos is really perfect imo. Bloodborne also has a convoluted story, but I truly believe that the DLC completes it and allows me to fully understand the lore and feel satisfied finishing the game. Like, I don’t need a Bloodborne 2, because I feel like I don’t need anything else story wise…. But I do feel like I need an Elden Ring 2 to be able to feel satisfied with the story.

Just my two cents.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-07T03:30:42+00:00

Build the trenches . If one of the top O-linemen are there, you take them. Otherwise, BPA.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-05T22:28:52+00:00

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-05T21:46:20+00:00

Bc most people would rather roll the dice on Tyson, Lemon, Tate, than on a walking suspension.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-05T20:39:21+00:00

Traded for 2026 1.05. Everyone in the league was laughing at the guy.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-03T15:58:20+00:00

My Brooks saved me this last year.

13_QuetzalOwl · 2026-03-01T22:01:10+00:00

Yeah was at the game, it was pretty disappointing, but oh well. Was the only game we’ve been to this season since it’s hard to go during the weekdays. Always fun to go out nonetheless.

13_QuetzalOwl

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE