So I've been expecting the wall of depression, the "what have I done" torture, but I don't know that it's going to hit.
I've been fighting to make this happen for a while now, and things finally clicked and came together a few weeks ago, and I got onto the OR schedule for 13 Nov 2012 in the morning. I'm currently in Boston, and am now 3 days post op from Dr Spiegel. The only thing that's been bad thus far is that I freaked out in the early hours Thursday morning (combination of couldn't breathe, overheated, dehydrated, etc.). I went up to the hospital and they were able to see me, checked everything out to be sure, said I was healing surprisingly well, and gave me a few pointers on what to do. The main reason for the breathing troubles is that I didn't quit smoking until Monday, so literally had the surgery just in time for my body to start producing massive amounts of phlegm, heh.
Anyway, even immediately after the surgery, before any swelling really started showing up, I was feeling along my face, and instantly noticed a few things, and over the last few days I've noticed some other things.
Now I know that everyone says you can't see the changes until way later, and not to dwell on how things look now, etc.
But has anyone else been able to spot positive changes this early?
For example, one of the things I liked about my jaw was the sharp definition it had, I just didn't like the wide square at the back. Dr Spiegel agreed and said he could easily retain the definition but take away the width and square shape at the back. He also was going to slightly narrow my chin. Now, you can't tell from looking at me right this moment, but that's exactly what happened. Before the swelling set in, I was feeling around my jaw and the jawline is still very sharp, but almost exactly where he said he'd start taking jaw away, it starts going squishy. I could tell just from the feel of it under my fingers that it was considerably different now than it had been. Same with my forehead. I could *feel* the difference with my fingers, and even see it. Can still see it quite a bit, which is surprising.
All in all here's what I had done:
Trach Shave
Brow Lift
Forehead Reconstruction
Mandible/Chin Recontour
Rhinoplasty
Lip Lift
I think that's it (if I've left anything out, I blame the drugs).
In just looking at everything though, I feel very pleased overall, and am excited as hell for the swelling to go away so that I can see the final product, but even just from what I can tell so far, it's already a massive improvement. Has anyone else experienced this as well? For those that had FFS and were very happy with the result, did you start that way almost immediately, or did you come around to liking it after weeks or months of healing?
Also, I knew and was expecting the top of my head to be numb.
Unfortunately for me, my chin and lower lip are also numb. This is causing a number of problems for me, heh. Anyone else have their chin/lower lip go numb? If so, how long did it take for feeling to come back?
