5 weeks Post Op DJS & Genioplasty. Sharing my thoughts/feelings.
Just sharing my process in case it helps anyone going into this surgery.
As weird as it may sound, the first 'mistake' I made personally, was going onto reddit and reading quite some posts about how terrible the experience was for so many people. Seeing the 1-3 day post op pictures doesn't help at all either. I read things about vomiting up blood, mouths being wired shut and it put quite a heavy load mentally on this entire process so I decided to not look onto this reddit anymore before my surgery and just experience it for myself without driving myself crazy with anxious thoughts. And honestly, the recovery wasn't as bad as I thought. Even though it wasn't fun either haha.
To keep myself calm, my main thought at the hospital was "I'm just here to sleep and when I wake up my recovery starts" and for some reason it helped.
Here's my main take aways (btw I wasn't banded shut, not sure if that made things easier food wise):
- It didn't really hurt. I was on heavy meds the first day and went home on day 2.
- I'ts probably good to have someone with you for day 1-3 to make your smoothies. Be sure to throw as much heavy calory ingredients in it as possible. My go to smoothie was: Oats, full milk, Ice cream, Banana proteine scoops and some cacao. Drinking is uncomfortable, but I just chugged the entire smoothies and drank them out of sauce squeeze bottles and I didn't lose any weight during recovery. Forcing yourself to get your calories in is important to recover quick and get your energy back I suppose. It also wouldn't hurt to check what your daily calory in-take is and just force yourself to drink that amount every day to stay the same weight.
- I got out of bed frequently to walk a few minutes, even if it's just a minute pacing back and forth. Laying down in bed 24/7 will not do you any good.
Peak swelling was around day 3-5.
After 1 week my swelling was down. I was walking daily for about 10-20 minutes.
Week 2-3 I started to excersice again, being very cautious with certain movements and not lifting heavy weights, in my case not more than 6kg dumbells and some resistance bands.
Weel 3-4 I was allowed to eat soft chew foods and started working out again in the gym, probably on about 30-50% strength also paying attention to not clench my jaws. It was super nice to make Macaroni/pasta with Bolognaise sauce and eat bread without crust. I'd also eat low calory icecream because I still had a bit of a weird taste in the back of my mouth.
Week 5 I'm working out again at about 80% strength in the gym, avoiding movements that strain my jaws or put any pressure on them. I guess this process is different for a lot of people because I read quite some people mentioning being able to soft chew foods at week 6-8 and going to the gym at week 6-8 or even later.
Looking back at the recovery, this entire surgery/recovery feels like a test of your mental strength.
By week 3-4 I was in a bit of a rut because I was so dopamine depleted from watching series and youtube non-stop. But I feel like I'm back into my rhythm again now.
I just wanted to share my thoughts because the time flies by during recovery and even though it's quite an unpleasant experience, it was by far not as bad as I thought it would be. I think this type of post would've been helpful to me personally to know that the recovery isn't always a heavy or bad story.
After my surgery I was on this reddit everyday and it has been a great help to know you're not alone in this process.
Wishing all of you all the best during your surgery & recovery!