Happy Birthday to me!

So this is a little unrelated but I celebrated my birthday today! Happy 27th birthday to me! One thing that we do every year for my bday is to go down to Harpoon Brewery in South Boston and grab a birthday beer and pretzel. PS: Harpoon makes the best pretzels. Just as good as if you were in Germany. No seriously, they are fabulous!

With everything going on with my jaw, it was really nice to go out and celebrate and have fun.

After the beer fun, we went and grabbed sushi (my favorite). After that, we hung out with friends and generally had a good time!

I really like beer, so what better way to celebrate than at harpoon?! Too bad next year my birthday is on a Monday. But, I am still going to harpoon, no one can stop me!

I ate real food!!

I ATE A CHEESEBURGER!!!! 

It was wonderful and probably the best burger I've ever had. It was the first burger I've been able to stuff into my face in months!

Recovery - TMJ Procedure

Well, it's been a little over a week since my surgery and I feel great! I got my stitches taken out today and I have to say that it was very strange. I've never had stitches before the feeling of them being taken out was totally bizarre! But it didn't hurt one bit which was good.

For those wondering about after the surgery, here's my advice!

• Before you leave the hospital where you had your surgery, make sure you (or your reliable loved one) have any discharge papers. My nurse in the PACU (or Post-Op area for those not in the medical field) put together a folder for me. Inside it were my discharge papers, my instructions on what to do and what not to do while healing, and my prescriptions. It also contained a card with my follow-up appointment on it and the time. 
• If your doctor tells you to do something (like physical therapy), don't blow them off and not do it. I followed my doctor's instructions for after surgery and I believe it is the reason why I feel so great only a few days into recovery. They know what they are talking about so make a strong effort to do what they tell you to.

Next, here is what I did per my oral surgeon's instructions after surgery. If you are having a similar procedure, you can expect to have to do something like this.

• For the first 48 hours, use the provided ice pack in 30 minute intervals. (Basically, when I wasn't sleeping, I was icing my face. Doing this was a major part of why I think I'm doing so well.)
• On the first day, do not take a shower. After the first day, you can take a shower and wash your hair being careful of the stitches. (You have no idea how difficult this was! I felt so gross after surgery that all I wanted to do was wash my hair and go to bed). 
• After 48 hours, switch to low heat using a heat pack or warm, damp washcloth. Do this in 1 hour intervals for 24 hours and then every 3 hours. 
• Do jaw joint exercises/stretches as directed by Dr.
• Do not chew any hard or chewy foods for first 72 hours (candy/hard crunchy vegetables/gum/steak/etc. You won't be in the mood to want them anyway.)
• Do eat soft foods such as yogurt, mashed potatoes, apple sauce, jello, pudding, icecream, smoothies. (I had my operation right after thanksgiving so we had tons of soft foods like mashed potatoes, squash, and pumpkin pie that I could eat which was wonderful! After the first 3 days, I started eating pasta like mac n cheese which was also good.)

My recovery time was approximately 10 days. However, I work in a hospital and my surgeon was concerned about germs (since it's that wonderful time of year!). He really wanted my stitches to be completely healed up before allowing me to go back to work. Getting an infection inside an open wound with direct access to a joint would not be fun. Most people can probably get away with 5-7 days for recovery. Definitely talk to your doctor and bring up your concerns about going back to work (if you have any). 

And now, here's a lovely picture of me after my surgery. My throat was really sore after because they inserted a breathing tube while I was out under the anesthesia. The PACU nurses were kind enough to give me popsicles! This is me trying to smile. Some of my muscles were still sleepy so it took a little bit for them to wake up. I'm also wearing my face bra, haha. On a funny note, my hubby got yelled at for taking this picture of me. I asked him to take this photo so that i could post it on the blog. Well, a nurse saw him taking a photo and yelled at him. His face was price less because he had to tell her, "She told me to do it." I guess nurses frown upon people taking photos of other people while under the effects of anesthesia. If you plan on talking any photos, make sure you clear it with a nurse first, lol.

And that's about it for this surgery! It really isn't that bad. If your MD or Surgeon suggests you get this surgery, it really is very minor. I'd highly recommend it! If anyone has any questions, please feel free to post a comment down below.

This was day 2 of recovery. You can see my drugs on my nightstand and my puppy keeping me company. I was very happy cause I had just taken a shower! HAHA.

Next time, I'll talk about the next stage of this journey which is braces!!

Bilateral TMJ (Arthroscopic) Procedure

On December 2nd I had a bilateral TMJ Procedure. A lot of people are curious about the procedure, what happened and how it helped me. I'll try to be as simple as possible!

The procedure I had was done on both sides (bilateral) and dealt with the TMJ area, specifically the joints connecting the top and bottom jaws. My oral surgeon made two cuts, one cut on each side of my face in front of my ear. From there, he used a very tiny camera to see the joint. The camera was no bigger than the tip of a regular pen (totally cool how advanced technology is). Then, he injected steroids into the joint to reduce the inflammation I had. After that, he stitched me up, wrapped my head in an ice pack (known in the TMJ Surgery world as a face bra, lol), and sent me off to PACU to wake up. The procedure was about 30 minutes (15 minutes per side). I was probably out for a total of 2 hours though. The PACU nurse taking care of me was very surprised that I woke up so quickly. Most of the time, patients have a hard time shaking off the general anesthesia. I saw Dr. Keith before and after my surgery. He even gave me some pictures of my jaw joint after I woke up. It was great to actually see what he saw. After I was awake and had my IV line removed, I was given my prescriptions and sent on my way.

My experience was pretty easy seeing as how I work in a hospital and most hospital OR/Surgical Suites function in the same ways. Here are some tips for people having surgery that I found helpful to myself:

• If you are having any surgery that involves general anesthesia, make sure you have a reliable person to give you a ride home. If you don't give a contact name with phone number when you register, they'll 100% cancel your surgery. My hospital was liable for my care 24 hours after I left. And if I decided to operate a car and drive myself home and then got in an accident, it would be their fault. I'm married so it was a no brainer to me. My husband just drove me home.
• Since I had stitches on my face, I needed to keep my head straight. I bought one of those travel pillows and put it in the car for my ride home after the procedure. It really helped to keep my head from bouncing around and banging my stitches. I also had a light blanket (I'm always cold so the blanket was for added comfort). 
• Wear comfy clothes to your surgery. You'll have to change into one of those uncomfortable and revealing blue hospital gowns but the clothes are for when you go home. I had pajama pants and a loose t shirt and a sweatshirt. There were some people there wearing tight sweaters and jeans and boots. I just can't imagine how they woke up from the anesthesia and put their clothes back on. I know I was barely able to pull my pants up, nevermind figure out boots. 
• Make sure you have everything before you leave. Refer back to the reliable person for your ride home. They can be your second set of eyes. This includes any prescriptions from your surgeon. I left with a whole folder full information along with my two scripts. But don't worry, the OR staff won't kick you out before you are ready. 
• The night before your surgery, have some soft food left overs on hand so you don't have to cook while you recover. Mashed potatoes, squash, apple sauce, jello, ice cream. My husband even made me a smoothie which was nice. 

I'll talk more about my recovery in the next post!

Next Steps, Surgery, and my doctors

It's been quite awhile since I've last posted. Within the last 2-3 months, my range of motion in my jaw decreased quite a bit. I was able to eat small pieces of chicken and a bagel (if i ate it one quarter at a time). But about a month an a half ago, it just became too hard and painful to open my mouth as wide as most foods require.

I was told by my oral surgeon that an arthroscopic procedure would really help with my range of motion and would help dub my pain down a bit. I was not sure I wanted to do it at first but once my condition got worse and I was told the exact same thing by a second opinion, my mind was made up.

I had a little hard time finding other blogs out there talking about the same procedure I was going through. I knew there must be a different name people were calling it cause there was no way that I was the only person going through this. Well, yesterday, all the nurses kept calling it a bilateral tmj procedure. Guess I know what the other name was!

Since I had such a hard time finding blogs about this procedure, I knew I had to write about it. Cause if I had issues finding stuff, then I knew other people must have as well. I'll go over all the things that I went through, the questions I had, the answers I got, and my recovery. In my next post I'll go over all that good stuff so that this post/disclaimer isn't super long.

It also occurred to me that people might want the names of the doctors/dentists/oral surgeon I dealt with. I'm from Massachusetts right outside Boston so I'm spoiled with the amount and quality of healthcare. I'll put their information here to not clutter up the next couple posts.

Primary Care: Wellesley Primary Care (781-431-2345) : I see Dr. Alan Glaser MD and Elizabeth Dewire NP. They are both wonderful and really care for their patients. Dr. Glaser actually called my phone one evening when I was really sick to check up on me. I really appreciated that he took the time out of his busy schedule to call me after my visit to see how I was doing. Really wonderful service. And Liz is just wonderful. She's so sympathetic and a great listener. I feel that some doctors hear their patients but don't necessarily listen. Liz does both which is great. 

Dentist: Wellesley Dental Group (781-237-9071) : Dr. Femina Ali and Dr. Ejaz Ali are a husband and wife team of community dentists. They are wonderful and are the people who realized that I had all these problems. They're committed to going on this journey with me and get my jaw working like normal. 

TMJ Specialist : Dr. Emad Abdallah : He is a part of the team at the Wellesley Dental Group and he has been helping me with my TMJ problems. He's actually one of the only dentists in the country that is also an orthodontist. He's great and will really tell me like it is. Doesn't sugar coat anything which I like. He's also very supportive of my decisions and is on board with my long term medical plan. 

Oral Surgeon: MGH Dental Group Danvers/Boston (978-882-6600) : I visit Dr. David Keith at the Danvers office. He is a world renowned oral surgeon specializing in TMJ and Orthognatic Surgery. He's super nice and again is a great listener. 

Orthodontist: MGH Dental Group Danvers/Boston : I've recently been referred to Dr. Katherine Klein by Dr. Keith. I've only visited with her once but she was extremely nice and knowledgeable. She also made a medical plan for me on my first visit which I liked. 

Ok, so that's it! If anyone out there wants to call any of these doctors and set up an appointment, I highly recommend any of these professionals.