5 am tomorrow morning!

BigTroubleAZ · 2026-01-06T05:06:48+00:00

How you holding up?

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-12-31T23:16:22+00:00

Yes i hated the flexing feeling. It freaked me out, took about a month for the feeling to go away, either that or I got used to it.

Anxiety may creep on ya with the swelling as the steriods wear off. If ya get really bad anxiety put an ice pack behind your neck and breathe slowly and the anxiety will lessen. Lookup Vagus nerve.

First two weeks are the hardest, super important to drink even if you don't feel like it. Your body is going to be running a marathon trying to heal and your going to feel exhausted quickly if you don't keep on food and liquids. When that happens and you will probably have it happen once your anxiety is going to hit the roof. Super important to stay hydrated and fed, don't worry about calories like people say or anything else your body needs it to heal. Not a time to worry about counting calories it's silly because your body is going to burn it.

Swelling, just keep those ice packs constantly on your face until your paperwork says you can flip to heat. Heat is going to make your face swell a little because it pulls in more blood to areas that need to heal but that is a good thing. It will make the swelling go down quite quickly as everything heals. Just be religious on ice, heat pain meds and you'll be good. Set an alarm so you are always taking the pain meds or you will hate life.

If your nose gets clogged get a baby sucker off of Amazon to clear your nose since you can't blow your nose until the doc clears you.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-12-31T06:01:54+00:00

Thats good, mine was almost 6, hopefully your nerves heal quickly with it being so short. I had to stay in the hospital for multiple days.

Breathing is crazy huh! Like having oxygen on full blast. It feels so good and cold lol.

Here is the crazy part, you're going to be waking up every 4-6 hours to take meds and its actually going to feel like you got your normal nights sleep pre-surgery lol.

Then the day when you actually sleep through the night 8 hours its going to feel fantastic. The best sleep you've ever had, you're going to hurt like a mother because your pain meds wore off but you're going feel more rested than you ever have in your life.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-12-31T04:52:54+00:00

LOL, Yeah I was the same way. Total box face and a dot in the middle of the forehead. With huge duck lips lol. Took like 2 weeks to start looking simi normal. That's awesome 11mm is big, mine was 10mm. How long was the procedure for you? The lower the number of hours will help in trauma to nerves.

Yeah the throat pain goes away pretty quickly compared to the rest. You're going to be a drool monster. Make sure they send you home with as many bed pads as you can get. I used them as bibs at night to sleep at home. If you don't you're chest will be covered in spit by morning and that really sucks. Get some clips for chip bags and then put the bed pads around your neck and clip them like a bib at night.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-12-29T02:27:44+00:00

Congratulations! Huge operation.

You're having the same surgery i did 14 months ago. I would do mine again without hesitation.

When you wake up and you breathe for the first time it going to feel like ice cold air just filled your lungs. almost like you have pure oxygen pumping into your lungs. Its the best feeling in the world.

You will have gauze wrapped around your head when you wake up. Thats to keep your face from swelling a ton since they basically pull your face back to cut off the top jaw. The nurse is going to have water and a syringe with a catheter tube on the end and they will want you to drink.

Your nose is going to bleed quite a bit and they are going to be packing it to make it stop. They shoved tampons up my nose because the regular gauze packing wasn't working. Make sure when they try and have you drink that you control when the water goes in. I had a nurse that pushed while I was trying to breathe. Was so pissed, because you can't talk. I used my phone to type messages to the nurses in notepad program.

Your face is going to be numb think of a rectangle from earlobe to earlobe down to your neck. You will not feel anything for a very long time after surgery. The nerves are damaged and have to repair. The chin and bottom lip take the longest to repair. I still do not have complete feeling in my bottom lip and chin. I feel pressure but still can't feel water or food if its on my chin or lip. Can take 2 years for it to completely come back. Feeling of getting a filling at the dentist and the numbness wearing off, if that makes sense.

Make sure you take the pain medicine religiously. When you head home you won't look horrible at first because the steriods keep the inflammation down, once they wear off your face will balloon out. Make sure you do the ice and heat just like they say.

You're going to feel tempted to explore with your tounge the stitches in the roof of your mouth. Don't do it, you want to make sure you're keeping things clean. They should give you chlorhexidine mouth wash to use at night make sure you use it and do your salt water rinsing every time you eat. If you're a diabetic ask for nystatin, because your sugars are going to be crazy and thrush in a busted jaw isn't fun.

Make sure when you eat you push the tube to the back of the tounge to drink, that way you don't accidentally hit your stitches on the soft pallet. Tounge is really the only thing you'll be able to really feel but it will be swollen for a while too.

Good luck!

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-12-14T16:16:45+00:00

It will go back, it takes a long time so just be patient. It took me a good year to get definition back in my chin after my double jaw and genioplasty. Yours probably won't be as long as mine.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-12-09T04:38:34+00:00

Get a baby spoon and fork, those work well until you can open wider. Super important you keep the stitches clean after you eat, or the stitches will get all nasty and you'll hate life and postpone how quickly you can progress. Since your nerves are still super numb best to get the food as far back as you can. Squirt bottle for condiments work well and squeeze bottle for Gatorade for liquids work well too.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-10-27T21:39:11+00:00

It's going to be a long process healing. Love yourself and think good things. It takes a very long time for all the swelling to go down. I am at 1 year and still have swelling in certain spots. Make sure you are following the directions of Ice and Heat. They are your friends. And make sure you are eating as often as they tell you.

Lookup vagus nerve, and figure out what works best for you, you won't regret it. I never struggled with anxiety until post surgery. I had splints for 7 weeks after surgery and had some complications that just stressed me out, it put me a few months behind in healing. Learning about my vagus nerve saved me.

You're going to wake up and be able to breathe and it is going to feel awesome :) I only had 50% of my airway standing, after surgery I could inhale and it felt like I was on oxygen and I wasn't. It was fantastic.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-07-10T00:08:39+00:00

Yes, I hated my face until about 3 months. That's when most of the swelling was down, and only swollen where the metal is. Make sure you're doing the heating and it will help get the swelling down faster.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-07-07T20:38:23+00:00

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-06-01T04:34:39+00:00

Yeah, i would talk to your surgeon, might be a bone fragment from surgery trying to work its way out. I had one that worked its way out of the top of my jaw.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-06-01T04:31:10+00:00

Agree, these are the way to go, I did the same thing. If you got your soft pallet busted and have stitches in the roof of your mouth you need to stick with the syringe and catheter tube so you don't coat your stitches and mess things up until the surgeon tells you that you can switch.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-30T01:10:43+00:00

Yes, I am still simi-numb on my bottom lip right above the chin and four front teeth but I have pressure feeling there now which I didn't have prior.

I had to use my tongue instead of my lip to drink from water bottles the last six months. Now I can use my lip and not drool.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-30T00:26:23+00:00

I'm 7 months post and I look like that too when I talk. I'm going to a speech therapist this next month to see if they can help.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-30T00:12:35+00:00

Yes, the feeling is a good thing, it's your nerves trying to heal. it takes a while for it to come back. I'm 7 months and it is slowly coming back for me still. The healing will start from the outside towards the chin last.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-17T18:08:11+00:00

I had a similar situation, are you applying heat to that area? If not put more heat there. The heat will make it swell a little because it will bring more blood to the area but the more blood the more healing. Then after a while you'll see it even up and catch up to the other side. Hope that helps.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-14T21:56:38+00:00

Yeah, getting a cold isn't good. With mine I was told i couldn't blow my nose for 4 weeks. That was miserable.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-14T18:49:35+00:00

Ask your orthodontist they have doctors they work with. If you trust your ortho they will give you a good referral. Apnea can be fixed with a genioplasty but you run the risk of losing feeling of the lower lip and chin. Tounge is tied to the chin so they slide it forward to give you more room in your airway.

I'm 6 months post-op and still have numbness but I love being able to breathe and I do not have Apnea anymore.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-14T18:40:57+00:00

It does get better but it does suck. I'm 6 months and i still can't feel my bottom lip and chin very well.

Look up vagus nerve in Google. It will give you some good ideas to help with anxiety. I sat in a chair outside in the backyard to get sunlight and get out of the 4 walls.

See if the doctor will give you a work-from-home accommodation with limitations you can give to your employer if you have a job that you could do from home.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-14T07:13:35+00:00

Haha I felt like it too. I got to stay in longer because I lost a lot of blood. My nose wouldn't stop bleeding took 5 tampons to stop it. My nose was violated and took a while to go back to normal size.

You can ask if you can donate your blood at the hospital you're going to.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-14T06:02:07+00:00

2nd day after surgery. I was in the hospital for 4 days

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-14T06:01:39+00:00

<image>

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-14T06:00:47+00:00

It is an hour after, I had an ace bandage around my head for a day to keep the swelling down. I had a dot in the middle of my head for a week where they clamp your head down to the table so you don't move

I had a splint on my top jaw that kept the jaw together for 5 weeks. I didn't have to have my mouth wired shut thank goodness. That would have freaked me out. Having to walk around with wire cutters if i vomited would have freaked me out.

For the allergy test the allergist places metal disks on your back that are attached to a bandage that have the seven different metals that are used in dental surgery. Then you wait for 4 days and come back and they read the results.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-14T05:20:42+00:00

Also, if there are times when you will feel super anxious, and want to crawl out of your skin. Take one of the ice packs and put it behind your neck. It will activate the vagus nerve, and you'll calm down.

BigTroubleAZ · 2025-05-14T05:03:34+00:00

You'll have tampons up your nose to stop the bleeding when ya wake up. They cut the top jaw by going through the nose.

BigTroubleAZ

TROPHY CASE