It has been 2 1/2 months since my surgery so I’m due for a update on my situation.
Overall, I’m doing well. My incisions have healed nicely except one in my mouth that hurts from time to time. My belly where they took fat grafts from (couldn’t they have taken a little more😒) still hurts which the doctor thought was odd. I told him I’m not sure if it’s because I’m head-butted, body slammed, or kicked there about 30 times a day by my rambunctious toddler, or just scar tissue. It looks perfectly normal but you can feel odd bumps there which I assume is scar tissue. My energy has finally returned. It took about 2 months before I felt back to normal. I still have a great deal of numbness in my face (cheeks, chin, inner ears, roof of mouth & back teeth) but I get tingling and itching sensations so I hope that means the nerves are trying to kick back on. There is still some paralysis in my lips, chin, and cheeks so it’s still a little difficult to speak clearly. It could take 3-4 months for the muscles to wake up so I still have time before knowing this is permanent. The muscles were completely severed and reattached so they went through a lot of trauma. At first, the area of my head about 2 inches back from my temples really hurt on both sides. I thought, “geez! Did they have my head in a giant clamp or what?” But it was just because all the muscles in my face were not functioning, so these muscles had to pick up the slack and were simply exhausted! That has mostly resolved but is still tender. Swelling is much better, but I still feel very swollen in my neck and face. We are working on this in physical therapy and trying to get my lymphnodes to drain the fluid like they should (but they may have been damaged in surgery).
I’ve been off of prescription pain meds for 3 weeks. I am not needing pain meds EVERY day, but still many days of the week. I’m slowly working back to only taking pain meds 3 times a week (to avoid rebound headaches). It still won’t be until December/January that I know how effective the surgery was. The muscles and nerves need more time to “reboot” and until they are stable, my bite (how evenly my teeth hit & how they distribute pressure) will keep changing, which can cause headaches. Already though, I can tell my migraines have improved. I’m getting less than before but still have one a week, though they are less intense. I hope as time goes on they decrease even more.
I’ve been blessed to be able to stay home with my son for 6 months but I’m starting to look for work again as the medical bills pile up. That’s one thing nobody really told me about before I decided to do this: the ultimate cost. We called the insurance company many times prior to the surgery and obtained a pre-approval. We were assured after we hit our max out of pocket, the surgery would be covered. Now, in the aftermath, they changed their tune. I’m now working to appeal their decision to cover only half of the surgical cost. It’s such a mess and I hate insurance companies. If you ever go into a surgery like this...talk to as many other patients as you can about how their process with insurance went. Actually, record every single call you have with them!
Below are some photo updates:
Left photo was today; Right photo was a couple weeks after surgery. You can see how much the swelling has gone down.
Overall, I’m doing well. My incisions have healed nicely except one in my mouth that hurts from time to time. My belly where they took fat grafts from (couldn’t they have taken a little more😒) still hurts which the doctor thought was odd. I told him I’m not sure if it’s because I’m head-butted, body slammed, or kicked there about 30 times a day by my rambunctious toddler, or just scar tissue. It looks perfectly normal but you can feel odd bumps there which I assume is scar tissue. My energy has finally returned. It took about 2 months before I felt back to normal. I still have a great deal of numbness in my face (cheeks, chin, inner ears, roof of mouth & back teeth) but I get tingling and itching sensations so I hope that means the nerves are trying to kick back on. There is still some paralysis in my lips, chin, and cheeks so it’s still a little difficult to speak clearly. It could take 3-4 months for the muscles to wake up so I still have time before knowing this is permanent. The muscles were completely severed and reattached so they went through a lot of trauma. At first, the area of my head about 2 inches back from my temples really hurt on both sides. I thought, “geez! Did they have my head in a giant clamp or what?” But it was just because all the muscles in my face were not functioning, so these muscles had to pick up the slack and were simply exhausted! That has mostly resolved but is still tender. Swelling is much better, but I still feel very swollen in my neck and face. We are working on this in physical therapy and trying to get my lymphnodes to drain the fluid like they should (but they may have been damaged in surgery).
I’ve been off of prescription pain meds for 3 weeks. I am not needing pain meds EVERY day, but still many days of the week. I’m slowly working back to only taking pain meds 3 times a week (to avoid rebound headaches). It still won’t be until December/January that I know how effective the surgery was. The muscles and nerves need more time to “reboot” and until they are stable, my bite (how evenly my teeth hit & how they distribute pressure) will keep changing, which can cause headaches. Already though, I can tell my migraines have improved. I’m getting less than before but still have one a week, though they are less intense. I hope as time goes on they decrease even more.
I’ve been blessed to be able to stay home with my son for 6 months but I’m starting to look for work again as the medical bills pile up. That’s one thing nobody really told me about before I decided to do this: the ultimate cost. We called the insurance company many times prior to the surgery and obtained a pre-approval. We were assured after we hit our max out of pocket, the surgery would be covered. Now, in the aftermath, they changed their tune. I’m now working to appeal their decision to cover only half of the surgical cost. It’s such a mess and I hate insurance companies. If you ever go into a surgery like this...talk to as many other patients as you can about how their process with insurance went. Actually, record every single call you have with them!
Below are some photo updates:
Left photo was today; Right photo was a couple weeks after surgery. You can see how much the swelling has gone down.
Left was today; Right was before the surgery. You can see how dramatically my profile changed!
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
Comments
Post a Comment