Hi Everyone,
I am in need of some good helpful advice. My daughter (17 yrs old) had both upper and lower jaw surgery on Feb 24 of this year, which took over 4 hours. She could only chew with her front teeth as the back teeth on both sides did not touch. The surgery was hard and she puked blood for two days - literally hour after hour. During the first few hours after surgery and a particularly violent vomiting episode, she said something had shifted. It was awful to see her in misery as she puked with her mouth wired shut. As a mother, it is the most painful thing to witness my child in pain and misery - and powerless to make it stop!
The next morning, we talked to the dr and told him about the potential shift. He looked at her wired shut teeth and said things looked "ok" and that he wanted to see her in a week. I began to question if this had been the right choice...finally on day 3 post op, she began to feel better and her stomach settled. She was so swollen but things began to get better. However at her 2 week checkup appointment they took xrays and her dr informed us that when my daughter had said something shifted, "she was right". Those were his words..."she was right" and that he needed to take her back into surgery to correct/fix the upper jaw! The bottom fell out from below us - start over again?!?!? I almost died and my daughter was so upset and scared. Also, she had a bad earache and so he prescribed more antibiotics.
At this point she has already lost 20 pounds and needed to basically begin the process all over again and had earache to boot. Five days ago (Mar 31), she had the corrective surgery to fix her upper jaw and this time around, no vomiting. Woo Hoo! How great and what a relief! However on day 3, she said her ear hurt alot and more than before. I called the dr office and they prescribed ear drops for an ear infection. Here we are on day five and she is in severe pain and crying. The pain in her ear is incredible and I called the dr. We just left the office (saw his colleague) and after taking an xray, he said it is not an ear infection but muscle spasms in her chewing muscles and jaw pain causing the referred pain in her ear. Apparently spasms happen in younger people more frequently than older patients. There isn't anything we can do but wait it out until next week when her dr may take the wires off. He said chewing muscles want to chew and when they are wired shut and not able to do their job, they can spasm. He agreed self-massage on the jawline and facial muscles may help, as well as motrin.
Has anyone else experienced this? If so, is there anything else to help ease the pain? How long does it last and will there be lasting effects? I am anxious to find some help for my daughter, which is not a continued process of narcotics. She hates the way they make her feel and unfortunately it only cuts the pain for 2 hours after a dose. She can only have the med every 4 hours but only a reprieve of 2 hours - any advice is much appreciated.
