Pre-op Recap

My pre-op appointment went really well.

There was a problem with my upper molds warping or something, and so Dr.C called me last evening and asked me if I could go back down to Charleston for another set. Of course, I said yes, he needs those molds to set up the surgical models over the weekend, but golly, it's hard to move that quickly with two small children. I'm sending a shout out to my friend RT in Chas. for keeping my 3 year old during the appointment. I'll take Buttercup with me.

This little twist led to a rush of emotions last night. Lots of rushing around, big change of plans for my day, lack of trust in God that He does have all these details under control, anxiety about the outcome of surgery, etc. I was really feeling swell until about 10:00, then it hit me. I slept poorly and woke up at 4:30 am. Thankfully, this gave me time to blog here :) and pray about my day.

OK, back to the pre-op recap: Both Dr. C, the Chief resident, and Dr.T, the attending surgeon, spent several hours with me. Dr. T did an excellent job explaining the intricate steps of the procedures, the risks of making so many small cuts in the bones of the face, and what happens when "those littler arteries don't read the textbook". It was relaxed, overall, as Dr. T peppered his explanation with comments like, "Well, now I've been doing this surgery for over 30 years, and have never personally seen it, but this (inset really scary outcome) could happen..."

Humor aside, what helped me most was reviewing my ceph x-rays another time, talking about the molds, and hearing the various complications. Such as:

• if a patient experiences too much blood loss during the Lefort, they'll postpone the BSSO until later.


• if i wake up and my mouth is completely wired shut that means my bite was wobbly in the operating room, and they wanted to be certain the new bite sticks (usually due to thin jaw bones making for a more complicated BSSO)


• if at anytime I experience breathing /anesthesia problems, they'll halt the surgery, and I might wake up without having had the procedures, kinda of a better safe than sorry approach.


• what make a nose move and how this surgery will likely affect my nose

We took a bunch of molds during the appointment. Sadly, I came down with a cold on Saturday, and still couldn't breath well nasally, which lead to a whole lotta gagging during the process. It was pretty funny when I started motioning,"I cannot breath!", and the tech, two detnal students, and the surgeons all dashed in to rescue me. Trying to pry gooey, wet alginate off the back of my throat was actually a bit scary.

Here is the technical news: It was wonderful to finally have a plan before me. First, the Lefort I will remove 3 mm of bone from my maxilla, then the bone will be slid back into a proper position, and the lower jaw aligned. Because the mandible swings forward, the current plan is to move my mandible forward about 2-3 mm with a BSSO, for a total of 5mm movement. They not moving my chin. I was kinda hoping they would, but trust their judgement.

To be honest, when I first heard the number 3mm and 2mm, I thought, wow, this is a WHOLE lot of angst for a few mm. Then I remembered that the little 3mm movement will allow me to close my lips without strain...how cool is that gong to feel, I wonder?

Ah, my writing is so choppy today, but I wanted to share the other excellent news. Dr. T thought I only needed to wait 3-4 months post surgery to get pregnant. Yeah!!!! He was not at all worried about the bones shifting, and agreed that I should plan for adequate nutrition. He said soft tissue heals really well.

Oooo, my morning time's up. I'm off to wake up the babies for our morning drive to chuck town.

This is what my babies looked like eactly one year ago...my time flies.