Re: Re-lapse, Please help!!

[Guest guest]

Hi Julz,

I'm so sorry to hear that you had a relapse. I know how devastating

that is. I recently went through surgery #4. I was born with a small

lower jaw and that led to TMJ problems all my life. In 2002, I had

upper and lower jaw surgery (BSSO with distraction and upper jaw

impaction done in two stages) to correct my huge overbite (about 20

mm). Like you, I was so happy to finally have a perfect bite and

profile. My happiness was short-lived. The arthritis in my joints

became worse and the condyles deteriorated. Within months, it caused

me to have an open bite and an 8 mm overbite again. Last May, I had

a temporalis muscle graft into the left joint (the worse of the two)

which worked for a little while but then the bones continued to

resorb. In January, I had another surgery, this time to reconstruct

the condyles using distraction osteogenesis and a muscle graft on

the right to replace the cartilage. So far it is working. Next month

I will my final surgery to remove the distractors and " mold " my jaw

into the right position.

Do you know what kind of muscle surgery you will be having? The

muscle part of my surgery was actually the easiest and not bad at

all. Each surgery was different so the recoveries were different,

too. The fact that I had gone through it before did make it a little

easier since I (and my family) knew what to expect.

Do you know what caused the relapse? Do you know yet when your

surgery will be? I hope everything goes well for you this time

around.

> Hi

>

> I just found out today that I have had a relapse. I had upper

and

> lower jaw surgery 2 years ago. My relapse is moderate and I would

> have to go through surgery again but this time they will detach

the

> muscle from the bone and apparently the post op recovery is a lot

> worse. I'm so confused and upset, I've been crying nearly all

day.

> I don't know if I can handle going through with the surgery

again.

> The thought of using syringes to eat, swelling, hospital stay and

> not being able to eat solid foods makes me cringe. It is so

> disappointing, I spent years with orthodontic work and then had

both

> my jaws realigned only now to be back at square one. I was so

proud

> of my side profile (after having an underbite and receeded jaw

line

> all my life - until I had the surgery 2 years ago) but now it's

> nearly back to its pre surgery state. I'm so sad, I don't know

what

> to do, you spend years getting a perfect smile, face profile and

> going through all that pain. Having a relapse is so hard to deal

> with. I look forward to hearing from you all, any help would be

> greatly appreciated.

>

> Thanks so much

> Julz