Re: surgery recovery time...wedding coming up

[Guest guest]

Hi, I am 2 weeks and 2 days post op, I had upper and lower, and 80% of my

swelling is gone. But I still look like one of the Who's down in Whoville. I

think in six weeks you will look mostly like yourself, and remember you are

always harder on your own appearance than others are

deannazhang wrote:Hi Everyone,

I was originally scheduled for surgery on Sept. 14th, but due to some

heart condition, I had to see a cardiologist and get her approval

before the will approve me for surgery. Now they finally approved me

for surgery for Nov. 9th, however I had already set my wedding date to

Decemeber 16th. My question is will I have enough time to recover

before the wedding and not look like a chipmunk? How long does it

usually take to recover? BTW, I am only having my lower jaw moved

forward.

Thank you,

Deanna

[Guest guest]

Hi Deanna,

If you have anything residual by Dec. 16th it should probably be

minimal. I'm guessing you may have some minor residual maybe internal

swelling, but you will most likely externally look really good by that

time out from the surgery. YOu can start looking into options now

about really helping your swelling and bruising. My bruising was gone

by then and just about all of my swelling was gone (my bruising and

swelling actually was much less than my surgeon thought it would be).

But there are other things that do take their time. The naturalness of

my facial expressions such as my smile took a very long time to return

(it looked very stiff and forced and awkward and unnatural). There is

still a lot of numbness that you'll be experiencing at that point. I

know this might be really hard to consider depending on your hopes (i

went through a similar process of consideration of possibly having to

reconsider all kinds of other huge plans I had made for my life

because of my surgery). Anyway, you might consider putting the surgery

off until after your marriage. I had upper/lower/genio which is more

involved that just lower. But, lower alone isn't uninvolved and a

certain amount of recovery that we all go through isn't avoidable. I

don't know how much you will be able to enjoy your wedding at that

point after the surgery. I am thinking of so many things... weddings

take preparation and a lot of time and planning and energy the weeks

and days up to that date. I would not have had the energy required for

all of that several weeks post op. I was exhausted. Maybe the day of

the wedding would be ok in theory, but everything surrounding it

getting ready is also a consideration. I only returned to work full

time 4-5 weeks post op. And I'm wondering how much you would enjoy

such an important momentous day in your life. Are you having dinner?

Are you going to be able to eat it then? Maybe not.... I had a hard

time eating then and wouldn't have wanted an audience. And the

splint.. .I don't know if you'll have one, but they are gross and

awkward. I don't know. Maybe someone who had lower only can answer

your questions better. I would be happy to discuss it with you

further... I don't want to go on and on about it. Nor do I want to

crush your hopes and dreams. Just realistically speaking, the idea of

the wedding day 5 weeks post op worries me... for your sake. I

wouldn't want your big day marred by anything. Anyway, feel free to

email me further if you want to ask more questions. Also feel free to

ignore this post. But do discuss it with your surgeon. He can estimate

the best for you where you will be post op at that point. If you do

anything, discuss it with your surgeon please!!! And as horrible as it

sounds, think about putting it off another month until after the

wedding. (I dont' know how you would change the wedding date). I know

that sounds terrible but the stress of getting ready for the wedding

sounds like enough before adding it to trying to recover. You are

still recovering 5 weeks out. And search this site for remedies to

help with swelling. There is manual lymph drainage, and a med called

arnica that is supposed to help with both. I did not try them so I

cannot vouch for them or recommend them, but I read about them on this

site since other members used them. I will say that appearance wise,

you'd probabably look pretty good by that point, except for what I

said about smiling and facial expressions. The swelling and bruising

will mostly be gone, but in an honest evaluation of all other factors,

I would give the whole idea very careful consideration before

committing to it.

Lastly, I know I am going on and on... I had a similar situation in

that my surgery due to coordination with the surgeon was put off by

two months which threw off my studies at the time and also brought me

very close in my recovery to a study abroad program I was also hoping

to participate in.... my surgeon felt i would be recovered in time. I

discussed it with him prior. As it turns out, my recovery was delayed

with some complications. I still went overseas for the month and

everything turned out fine. The trip was nearly 3 months post op and

it was a very close call. It was a good 2 months before I was up to

speed energy wise.

Good luck and please do let us know what you decide. You'll be in my

thoughts. I know how hard all of this can be... wanting a specific

date and it getting delayed and that running into other important

plans in you life. It's hard!

Take care,

Katja

>

> Hi Everyone,

>

> I was originally scheduled for surgery on Sept. 14th, but due to some

> heart condition, I had to see a cardiologist and get her approval

> before the will approve me for surgery. Now they finally approved me

> for surgery for Nov. 9th, however I had already set my wedding date

to

> Decemeber 16th. My question is will I have enough time to recover

> before the wedding and not look like a chipmunk? How long does it

> usually take to recover? BTW, I am only having my lower jaw moved

> forward.

>

> Thank you,

>

> Deanna

>