Saturday, May 16, 2009

9 Months

I got my braces off, well most of them at least. I have 2 brackets on each corner of my mouth to hold my splint in at night. My range of motion is exceptional, actually record breaking at thr Piper Clinic. I'm so happy i got this surgery and I and greatly indebted to Dr. Piper for it. Thank you so much!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

3 months and 6 months post op

3 months after surgery: Nov. 4
I went down to the piper clinc and i got a CT scan again. I sat in the room for a while and then went into that tiny room with the monitors to tlak to dr.piper. He said I was maknig good progress and that i could start eating 3 meals a week where I can chew anything softer than a meatball. This would start in mid-december.

6 months after surgery: Feb. 16
i went down again and this time I had amazing news. My jaw bone is regenerating!! thats something that wasn't likely to happen at all but it is! Every week i add another meal where I eat soft food.

I LOVE THIS SURGERY. My range of motion is unbelievable. I can move my mouth more than I ever could before. I now only wear my splint at night. Theres been no pain what so ever.

Post Op after coming home

After staying in Florida for 2 weeks I came home to NJ.
Here it was summer vacation still so i'm very glad that I didn't have school. I mean I think it definitely would have been hard if I had school.
You are on a no-chew diet for about 6 months. I drank a good amount of Ensure after the surgery. I had many many liquids which is very helpful. What I ate when I opened my mouth (15 minutes, 5 times a day) was smoothies. I bought this thing called a Magic Bullet adn that was very very helpful. Another thing I learned to love was the simple potato masher. I mashed up everything and ate it. I had a lot fo pasta. I over cooked the pasta so it was very soft and used the potato masher to mash t up with lots fo cheese and tomato sauce. I mean its based on prefernce. Lisa told me about how there were some patients who blended up pizza and burgers and stuff. That is something i could never do.

Gradually, i got more time out of the splint. I added 15 minutes every 2 weeks. The first 2 weeks after surgery, I had 15 minutes - 5 times a day. Then it was 30 minutes - 5 times a day. and so on.

The Surgery

Ok I didn't know anyone actually read this so I never posted back on here.
I'm really happy to see that I'm being helpful to you guys!!


Ok so, I got the fat graft surgery on July 31st, 2008.
2 days earlier I got my braces on upstairs form Dr. Piper's clinic with Dr. Jackson.
These braces aren't normal braces they have more hooks. There is pretty much a hook on every tooth.

I wasn't too nervous the morning of surgery for some reason. I think it was Dr. Piper's calm attitude beforehand that kept my nerves out of play.

OK so the the morning of my surgery I went into the hospital and he nurse gave me a hospital gown robe thing. After wearing that and getting into the hospital bed, she gave me a bee sting needle to numb the spot where the IV was going to go in. She put the IV in. It doesn't hurt but it feels weird. Don't worry guys, when they put the IV in, its only a thin plastic tube gong in the needle comes out. You can feel that something is in your hand but its not too bad. Afterwards, my mom and my cousin came into the room to talk to me. It was relaxing. The anesthesiologist came in and had a small conversation with me and told me about what he was going to do. After a while, they took me into the room and gave me some injection through the IV. This made me fall asleep.

They did the surgery and when I woke up I had this big ice thing on my face. I woke up feeling good. There was no pain but I felt like a puffer fish cause my head was HUGE. I had also gotten my wisdom teeth removed at the time of surgery making my face look even bigger. Don't worry, the swelling subsided before i even got home. I stayed in the hospital over night. I was given a morphine pump but I didn't use it much. to tell you the truth, there wasn't much pain. Dr. Piper had given me steroids where they had done the surgery so it wasn't painful. I used the pump an average of 2-3 pumps every hour. DO NOT DO THAT. Use the pump. The time where I got the most pain was at night around 1 in the morning. I used the pump 27 times that hour. They had given me a tranquilizer because I was having a panic attack. The pain was unbearable because my meds had worn off and I hadn't used the pump. Don't worry this hopefully won't ha pen to you guys. Just do what the doctor says lol. That was probably the only time i had felt discomfort throughout the hospital stay. They also have a rule where you need to drink a lot of fluids. I forgot exactly how much you had to drink before being discharged. I had so much Ensure though post op.
The medications you take are crushed into the drink of your choice. I chose Ensure because it was the thickest and masked the taste the best.

Ok, I lied before. I think the thing that hurt the most was when the nurse took out this pipe that was placed into my jaw. Well it was placed about and inch and a half under my ear. It hurt like crazy when she pulled it out but the pain went away quickly.

After being discharged from the hospital (which for some reason I don't remember at all) They took me to the piper clinic. I'm sorry guys, but i really don't remember much about what happened that day. I was heavily medicated so I have some spots where I just don't remember things. I was most likely sleeping. Well anyways, I went to the piper clinic and then back to the hotel and took a shower. Then I went to physical therapy and they gave me a massage type thing where again I fell asleep and don't remember much.

That entire week after surgery, my medication kept wearing off around 1 in morning. Make sure to take your medications on time because it did hurt when I didn't take it on time.

You don't get to brush your teeth the first 5 days after surgery. The last day we visited the piper clinic, Lisa taught me how to open my mouth and unhook the bands from the splint. That was the first time I'd opened my mouth after surgery. It felt weird and i remember being scared my jaw would fall off lol. I brushed my teeth and tried to put my splint on again as soon as possible.
After surgery, you need to talk with your teeth clenched together for about a month. Try to bring a pen and notebook or a dry erase board so that everyone can know what you want to say.

Overall this surgery wasn't too painful. I mean of course there were time were it did hurt but it's not that bad.

If you guys have more questions on the surgery absolutely email me:
radhirules@gmail.com

I know the situation most of you are probably in before getting surgery if you are. I would Love to be helpful to you guys.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Initial Consulation

Last Monday, I visited Dr. Piper in St. Petersburg, FL. I was recommended by my TMJ specialist who said I needed a Fat Graft surgery. To tell you the truth, It sounded pretty scary. My specialist told me that I had to get a surgery where the recovery time was about 9 months! I would have to get braces again and he showed me a picture of a girl with her mouth bound shut with rubber bands. Boy, it looked like some new torture technique or something! Anyways, I went down to Florida and I had a thorough exam done at the office. I got a CT Scan, an MRI, some molds made of my teeth, and various other examinations. I also got a chance to talk to Dr. Piper several times during the day. Before the consultation, they sent me a folder with forms I needed to fill out and and very in-depth questions about my jaw and muscles and joints around it. They went over those forms and asked me about my answers on them. Later that day, we (my parents and I) sat down with Dr. Piper and he told us about the problems I had in my jaw and how I would need to have it treated. It turned out I did need a fat graft surgery on my left side and I also need to get my wisdom teeth extracted. I made the appointment for the surgery on July 30th.

The full day consultation costs $1800.00. Dr. Piper does not take any insurance and he makes that clear with his documentation which you have to sign the morning of your consultation.

I had a great first impression of Dr. Piper. He was very patient and never in a hurry. If you had a question he would make sure and thoroughly answer it. He spent as much time with you as you needed.