The chin pain has improved again. It's not bad in the morning and sometimes goes away. By the end of the day, it's worked its way up to being quite uncomfortable.
Other recovery stuff of note:
- More feeling in a few back teeth
- More feeling on the upper inside gums. The outer gums are still numb on the top
- More feeling on the outer lower gums
- Speaking is still a challenge. It's hard to enunciate words, and it sounds to me like I slur most of my speech. In addition, like many others, I've developed a slight drooling problem when speaking. As my jaw mobility improves, all these should clear up
Sleep:
I'm getting about 8.5 hours a night. Although I still wake up tired and usually without a headache, I think that I'm better off than before the surgery. Until the pain is gone and my sleep patterns are reestablished, I'm making no judgements on whether or not the surgery "worked." The way I look at it, it's worked either way.
Hi Pedals,
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment. Wonder why would you consider sugery "working" if your sleep quality has not improved?
Glad to hear that you are feeling better. I have been following your blog very closely since I too have been diagnosed with UARS and hope to get MMA someday. The CPAP and oral appliances have both failed for me. Your blog is extremely informative and I check it everyday.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to know that others actually read these ramblings...
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it, there are at least two aspects to the surgery working. The first is the physical airway, and the second is the psychological aspect of healing and managing sleep.
From a physical perspective, there is just nothing left to try. I expect to start sleeping better as the recovery pain goes away, and I reestablish proper sleep patterns, hygiene and adjust - I'm not there just yet. I'm sleeping more hours than I've ever slept before, so something has changed.
From the psychological perspective, it gets complicated, and my simplistic approach is this: should the physical changes not produce the desired results, I'm going to be satisfied in knowing that I've tried everything there is to try and move-on.
Framing things this way enables me to see a positive outcome in all cases.
The fact that you are sleeping in longer durations is a very good sign. With UARS sleep maintenance insomnia is common so maybe you're UARS is gone but I don't want to speak prematurely. It's good that you have a realistic expectation of the surgery. I think you are also very fortunate in that you got the best treatment option available for sleep disordered breathing and it was performed by a top doc. Very few people with UARS will even get MMA let alone surgery as many in the medical community are unaware of this problem or those who are don't take it that seriously.
ReplyDeleteI am the first Anonymous :-) However I am in the same boat as the second Anonymous ... but will probably get an MMA soon, perhaps this September.
ReplyDeleteNow I completely understand how you feel ... MMA is probably the last thing left to try having tried everything else. However reading the forum and hearing that 95%-100% voted that they were happy that they got their MMA done is a very very encouraging.