#surgery2

So today I had my followup surgery. It went ok, all things considered.

It took them a really long time to find a vein and now I have needle marks up and down my arms, which is not a great look, haha.

Then, when they went in to clean up the exposed bone, they found that there was an infected chunk so they had to take out more than originally planned, and the whole thing took longer than expected.

They also needed to remove two of the pins in my titanium mesh because they were loose and were just irritating the bone and gum.

I have been so busy in this new year that I have had scarcely a minute to sit down and update this blog, so here come a slew of updates all at once!

I started a new job at a law firm at the end of January, and I am loving it. Everyone is very kind and welcoming, and I am really enjoying the work I am doing. I get to do a lot more in this position with regards to filing and sending out letters to clients, etc. I feel a lot more involved in the goings-on of the firm, and I really like it.

I am still not allowed to chew, as my gums have decided to heal open instead of closed. This means that there is a straight shot chasm from my open gums all the way down to my bone graft. The bone graft is taking and has blood supply to the bone, but is exposed. Typically, bones are meant to be on the inside of our skin, so you can understand that this is not supposed to be happening. It is very strange to be able to touch and taste my jawbone, and I keep getting food stuck in the pit. Because bone is porous, bacteria has been taking hold in those small pores and making my mouth taste rotten. I have been on antibiotics to combat this for about a month, and will continue to be for at least another two weeks.

We did another x-ray when I saw my specialist the other day, which I have posted to my Instagram account and will cross-post to this account later today. The x-ray shows that the bone up front where the implants will be attached is healing up quite well and is growing nicely. However, the bone towards the back is exposed and is not increasing in density as it is supposed to. Because of that, I will be going in for another procedure next Wednesday, February 20th, 2019.

They will be sedating me for this procedure, not as much as the big surgery, but probably similarly to when I had the biopsy done. The procedure will take place in the office, which is nice as the hospital was very intimidating and scary for me.

After sedating me, my specialist will be cleaning out all of the exposed and contaminated bone, packing in some more bone graft pieces because she may as well if she’s already in there, and then sewing my gums back together. She may also use a collagen membrane to keep my gum skin and bone separated for this section of the healing process.

I will be set back again to a liquid diet to be extra gentle on the gums as they heal. I’ve been doing pretty ok with most solids, so this is disappointing, but I understand that it needs to happen. I’m just not looking forward to being liquid-only again. I was so hungry all the time when I was last on all liquids, and I’m just really not looking forward to that being my life again.

I will also be missing a few days of work for this, which sucks a lot because I just started this new position. My bosses have been super understanding about it though, so that helps a lot. 

I’m also disappointed because we had originally thought that I wouldn’t need to have another surgery until the implants. This one is certainly minor compared to the last one, but it still really sucks. I haven’t fully recovered from the last one, and now we need to go in again. At least this one won’t affect my mobility the way the one in November did.