Pre-Op Appointment!

Well I made it through the long pre-op appointment. Even though it was long- it went by super quickly. SO MUCH information. My brain literally hurt afterwards. Be prepared for a long blog post. 

One thing I knew for sure leaving the appointment- I could not have picked a better surgeon team. The chief resident (who I talked the most with) was super fantastic and answered all my questions and then some. He was so easy to talk to. Dr. Ochs- the main guy that is actually doing the surgery- was just as awesome as I remember him. I haven't actually talked face-to-face with him since August 2012! Crazy, I know. I just worked with him through my ortho.

I had to sign my life away saying I know full-well all the risks, yada, yada. And sign-off on the procedures. We started with two procedures on the sheet.... and then added two more. HA. The one is pretty minor though.

I took a pic because I knew I wouldn't be able to remember them! I can hardly pronounce them still, haha. One thing is I'm definitely getting DOUBLE jaw surgery. Not just upper. Which has its pros and cons I guess. Anyway:

Click to read it. 

1. The segmental LeFort 1 osteotomy is the largest movement for me. This will also push my nose up a bit so it won't look so large, which is a nice side effect.
   
2. The second one is for the bottom jaw obviously- mandibular rami sagittal split osteotomies! What a mouth full, literally. ;) Hahaha. I kid
   
3. The third procedure (not listed) is that they are going to "trim" the largest turbinates in my nose. I'm sure you're asking - what the heck is a turbinate? I was too! lol Turbinates, also called nasal concha are to support the 'air-controlling' and 'air filtering' functions of your nose when you're breathing in an out.
   
   After getting the CBCT scan - they both agreed that my nasal passages were so small that this will severely improve my breathing. The reasoning behind this is that they found that my ENTIRE left sinus cavity is completely blocked the whole way up to my forehead. Yay. No wonder I can't shake this cough/sinus headache. The post-nasal drip is killing me. I had to get Amoxicillian and Sudafed to help clear it up a little bit. He said they will clear it out for me during surgery, but they don't want too much bad stuff in there to begin with. Going to try a Neti Pot again, too. Ugh.
   
   The BAD part about this procedure is where they have to enter to get there.... Through my two front teeth... They will have to cut the wire and go up through there. There's always a chance of discoloring/or needing a root canal of any tooth during jaw surgery, but it would suck if it was the front one.
   
   AND I MIGHT have to get a arched splint for the front teeth. That would obviously suck and would have to be in place for 5-6 weeks. Making everything more difficult... but it is what it is.
4. The 4th procedure is unnecessary, but I agreed to it- they asked me if I wanted to suction off the fat patch under my chin. They I would be super happy with the results and they wouldn't bill me for it because it takes the shortest time. So I'm like... sure, why not?! You're there anyway. They hardly used this word but it's TOTALLY lipo-suction. That's hilarious.
   
   The only downside to this will be I will have to wear the compression neck/jaw/bra ALL the time for 2 weeks straight. Usually you only have to wear it at night with regular jaw surgery, but it will keep everything tight for me. I can live with this. :) I'm gonna be so stylish, haha.

Sooooooooooo along with taking a million measurements, molds, and pictures with and without the "fish-hooks" they took a CBCT scan (which I mentioned above). It's "Cone-Bean Computed Typoraphy" so they will digitally do my surgery before they do it on me. What a relief, haha. It's super intense apparently. You can google it, haha. 

Then they answered my one million questions. And as long as I'm taking the narcotic drugs after surgery- I can't breastfeed... so we'll see how long I plan on taking them. They recommend 4-5 days to keep me comfortable. Pumping and dumping sounds like it will be miserable. I have a good amount stocked in the freezer so I should be okay for up to a week. 

Then the intern took down my history and anything they might need to know for surgery. And I was out of there by 4:30ish. So like 2.5 hours. It was so informative and I never sat by myself for more than a few minutes. Very efficient. 

Although I wish I could have taken a pic of my face with these dots on. They needed them on to line up with the CBCT scan. I looked hilarious. 

Annoyingly enough- Amelia has been so fussy these past few nights. Last night was the worst. She woke up like every other hour. And she would just NOT settle. It sucked. She ate so much though. She hardly had anything at daycare so that may have been why. So I'm hoping this sleep regression or whatever it is goes away by go-time for surgery. It would suck all around.

Lastly- it was semi-amusing because the resident was the one who rescheduled my appointment stating that with the new obligation he wanted to make sure he spent enough time with me (2 hours is a while). But at my ortho appt on Tuesday I didn't know about the movement of the date. So I told my ortho it wasn't until Tuesday, which was true at the time. SO he had put that heavier wire on- causing my teeth to hurt/move. 

So that's only three days to give them time to move. Dr. Ochs wasn't thrilled, but he said the most movement is within 48 hours. He was about to chastise my ortho (in a joking way) but then the resident said it was his bad, haha. It was just an amusing moment. 

Okay that seems like enough for today. I cried a little bit in the car on the way home... just because it's becoming all too real for me. After I got pregnant it seemed like a world away... now it's less than three weeks away. Scary. 

Some selfies because I know I'll be mad I didn't take anymore.

A little blurry (hard to take a sideways selfie, lol) but it's a good profile shot.