So I had surgery a week ago last Wednesday to correct an anteriorly displaced disc in my right temporomandibular joint. (I keep wanting to call it the 'turbo'mandibular joint for some reason....weird) I've been having pain in that side of my jaw for a very long time now - on and off for a couple of years I guess. I think it might have all begun back when I smacked the side of my face into a metal pole on the boat dock at the lake house. Don't ask me how I did that - in too big of a hurry and unaware of my surroundings! Anyway, I didn't think much of it at the time other than it hurt! But looking back, maybe that is what started the downhill spiral for that joint. I finally started hurting enough a few months ago to get an MRI and a consultation from a surgeon. My dentist sent me to Birmingham to see the guy she calls the "Guru of TMJ disorders." :) And it's funny, because I remember saying a prayer on the way down that it would be extremely clear what I needed to do about this. I was afraid that this might be one more case with me of something where the doctor says, "Well, we can't find anything on your xrays or MRI that indicates anything is wrong, but...." (that has happened to me with some other aches and pains in recent years) Well, he took a look at my MRI, asked me what I was feeling, poked around for a second on my jaw and in my mouth and then sat in his chair and sad, "You need surgery... no way around it." OK, well, I guess that was pretty plain. :) Of course, as plain as it was, it still wasn't really all that good news to hear I needed surgery, except that he felt confident that he could fix the problem.
So here's a little diagram. That disc is supposed to be on top of the Condyle where the Retrodiscal Tissues are so that it cushions things when you open your mouth and bite down on something. Well, it's not doing such a good job when it's 'fallen off' like that and out of place. And it makes it quite painful to chew! So... that's what needed to be fixed. The surgery was supposed to be 'arthroscopic.' He described it to me like it was no big deal.... two little 'poke holes' on my cheek up near my ear, go in and move the disc back in to place, clean things up, and out. 20 to 30 minutes at most. He did add that if they got in there and things were worse than they could see on the MRI, that they might have to make a small incision just in front of my ear so they could do more work. I told him if they were going to do that, could he go ahead and add a little nip and tuck and get rid of some wrinkles and my double chin? :) I'm not sure he thought that was funny, but anyways -- he said that recovery time would not be bad except that I would have to be on a soft diet with no chewing for 3 MONTHS. Um.... excuse me? How long? That's a long time to not chew anything! I guess for obvious reasons he didn't want to dwell on that bit of information and I was done and out the door, left to think about what it was going to be like not to eat normally again until summer... blah.
Well, that was that and I started getting ready for surgery - mostly by starting to learn how to make and drink healthy shakes in place of meals a couple of times a day. That really wasn't too bad, but by dinner time I was ready to eat something! But I'm glad I at least got a head start on that before the surgery because it's been a big help in the aftermath. And I've learned a lot of cool things about creative ways to get fruits and vegetables into shakes and really enjoy them! :)
So it would be my luck that, not only did they have to cut a little bit of my hair in prepping me for surgery (don't mess with my hair!!! haha), but they also ended up finding a lot more damage to my jaw than they expected. The disc was out of place and there was cartilage that was all messed up, and bone scraping bone, and inflammation, etc... It was kind-of a nasty scene. So they did have to do the larger incision and a good bit more work to clean out all the mess. But it still only took him 30 minutes and I was awake and out and back in Huntsville by mid afternoon. Not too bad. I wish I could say that recovery has been that easy. It hasn't. I came home with some pretty heavy pain medication and that was great for my jaw, but not so good for my stomach with all of it's sensitivities. So surgery was on Wednesday and by Sunday I got really sick to my stomach and ended up in the ER for most of the afternoon dealing with that. I won't go into detail, but it was BY FAR the worst part of this whole experience. I will definitely be much more careful with pain meds and side effects in the future...
But since then, I have been steadily getting better. At my follow-up appointment last week, I found out that instead of 3 months without chewing, if I do my physical therapy and am really strict with my soft diet, then I might be able to start chewing after my next appointment on April 10th. That has me highly motivated to be good!!! :) So here is a little collage of all the interesting foods I've found that are healthy and that I'm trying to incorporate into my eating these days...
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It's definitely an adventure. A lot of these things I hadn't even heard of a month ago. :)
So as of today, my stiches are out (yay!), I'm still numb around the incision site so that feels a little weird, and the side of my head above my ear feels like it is bruised, but apparently that is normal. And I have this weird little green bruise near my chin that just won't go away... strange. The 'jaw stretching' exercises that I have to do 5 times a day don't feel too good, but they are critical to keep the scar tissue from forming, so I'm keeping at it. And aside from a little bit of aching now and then, I think it's slowly getting better day by day. I can definitely open my mouth wider than I could before. I'll let others be the judge of whether I need to be more of a 'big mouth' than I already am. :) I'm anxious to be able to start eating normally again because that will be the real test of how well this has worked. Time will tell... :)
Well, if you've read all the way to here, you are a trouper. I didn't think I was going to go this much into detail, but who knows, I might want to remember some of this stuff one day... or not. ha.
