I don't know if I can take anymore. Yet I know that this is a necessary evil.
I was sick for the third time in two months with Vertigo, which is severe dizziness and nausea and vomiting. It is due to a disturbance in the inner ears. Since I received my lower restoration, my bite is very open and my back teeth don't touch. I think it may have changed the balance in my ears since they are all interconnected. Monday am, I woke up with severe dizziness, nausea, seeing double and puking. I lay in bed all day feeling like death. Finally at 4:00 pm, I was up and sitting up. I've eaten very little this week and still have some residual dizziness and those headaches. Oh those headaches. It's like having a hangover all week. On the advice of my doctor I've been taking Antivert and she prescribed me some nasal sprays to open up the passages to the ear along with some head exercises. Pray for me that this helps. If there is an possibility that I would have dizziness like this post surgery, no way would I do it.
Tuesday the Resident handling my case rang me and let me know that despite two different extensive mock ups, and meetings with my surgeon, prosthodontist, and orthodontist, they hadn't decided what to do. He also said I had to get the acryclic build ups (v. large) off my back teeth ASAP. These were put on by my Orthodontist (because my bite is so collapsed) to eliminate me biting off the brackets. They were added to open the bite more and then during my first surgery, added to again, so that I would not bit on the bone graft site. They are really, really high. The Resident also said we were most likely have to have an upper surgery too (I knew this all along) to get my maxillary rear molars into the proper position. This was pretty upsetting for me. I had pictured a BSSO, no splint, and a speedy recovery.
Thursday am I went to Orthodontist and received new wires and metal ties (yuck) along with three surgical hooks. They also did my before surgery pictures (it would have been nice to have had makeup on and to have done my hair that day), and I received the "pre-surgery" talk. She told me I may be depressed after surgery, but it will pass. Also clarified (I asked her to) that this was indeed the best course of action for me and really I didn't have a whole lot of alternatives left besides this.
I went into work for 90 minutes and then went to my 2nd appointment of the day - The prosthodontist. He is a very nice man and somehow got elected to spend 45 minutes drilling and scaling the acrylic build ups off my back teeth. . He also reduced the size of my back teeth. Apparently the backs of them are bulky? It was a pretty rough visit. Not from a pain standpoint, but from having your teeth be drilled on for 45 minutes straight. It may have even been more. we ran through a lot of drill burrs.
This morning I had to run back to the hospital to have another cone beam CT scan with the acrylic gone from my teeth. I talked to the resident on my case and I told him I hadn't been feeling well and just having a hard time getting my head around everything and having a two jaw surgery instead of one. He is really nice and he promised me that all would turn out well.
I'm really lucky to have some great professionals working on my case.
Aww sounds like you've been having a hard time recently! Hope you start to feel better soon. I originally thought I would only be having my lower jaw done too, and when they said about getting my top one done as well I was really scared and started to wonder if this whole thing was just going to be too hard. But then after I thought about it more I thought that if I'm going to go through all this, then I might as well do it properly and make sure I get the best possible result, rather than going through it all and then knowing that it could still be improved. Now I think I'd be disappointed if they said they weren't going to do my top jaw! Good luck with everything :)
ReplyDeleteYou poor thing! Hope all this misery ends soon and surgery is not that bad!
ReplyDeleteI thought I was having a rough day when I began the morning by spilling water over the keyboard of my Mac and watching the computer die. I'm so glad I stumbled onto your blog from the Archwired site. You've not only managed to documented the process, but you've made it very entertaining.
ReplyDeleteNot that you needed to hear you needed the surgery by the ortho (you already knew this), but in some way its calming to hear a professional confirm that you are making the right choice.
What were the bone grafts for? I'm curious since Dr. G wrote something on my chart about visiting a periodontist with the words possible bone graft. He also told me my teeth look like their on stilts.
Kristi,
ReplyDeleteSince I had no teeth in quite a few spots, I had severely recessed bone that would not hold an implant, or even a denture in place. The bone graft was nothing, they used bone from my chin and then in my 2nd surgery, augmented with Bio Oss (which is cadever bone or cow bone), I'm not sure.