Hi everyone,

This will probably be my last post on a subject that is probably boring everyone to tears by now. But in case you're interested in how everything turned out:

My daughter came home on Friday afternoon. We saw "before" and "after" x-rays of her mouth, and what a difference! Her teeth touch together. Yeah!

She went through quite the surgery. They broke both jaws, shifted bones around to line up teeth, surgically cut out all 4 of her wisdom teeth, and inserted a few titanium plates in her gums to keep the bones together. She's been talking since Day 1, and I asked the surgeon if that happens a lot. He said, "No"...and we all laughed. She has big puffy cheeks and around her jaw, but that's it really. Another doctor commented that it didn't even look like she had the operation!

She is still just as puffy today, but the swelling should be going down now. There are a couple of old-looking bruises on her jawline, and little ones at the corners of her mouth. She has a lot of heart palpitations, but they think that is from the narcotics. She's hurting, of course, but she's on 6 different meds here to help with pain and inflammation and her stuffy nose. And we have those lovely wire cutters. Yikes!

She is no longer on morphine, but instead she is taking Dilaudid (every 4 hours, so mum is not getting any sleep!!!!! LOL), plus another narcotic and the other meds. She has begun to drink now, too, which is GREAT. So far it's just been chocolate milk, and chocolate milkshakes from those little tetra packs. And she drinks a lot of water when she takes her meds to get the yucky taste out of her mouth.

I want to thank everyone for your insights and support throughout this procedure. I've never known anyone to go through anything like this, and I appreciate all that you told me. It helped me to understand it a little better, and not be so worried. You're a great bunch of people!!!! Now just 6 more weeks until she can open her mouth. YEAH!!!!!

God bless,
Sandy