It is Wednesday night at 7pm and I have been up for 60 straight hours now, except for a 3 hour nap from 3am Tuesday morning till 7am tuesday morning. AND... I started back to work this morning I had a two hour job and it took me three hours to do it.... I am not sure what exactly my problem is... I think some of it is the fact that I hav been weaning off using the pain killers at the same time I have restarted my ADHD med (Adderal) after a 5 day vacation off of it.
I was suppose to work tonite from 3pm till 8pm but decided that was not such a good idea. After watching my cousins twins for a couple hours this afternoon I layed down at 3:30pm and was going to take a nap to make me feel better and get me thru till bedtime. I layed there from 3:30 till 5:30pm yet not one second of sleep. Last night I had gone to bed at 10pm.. I layed there untill my alarm got me up for work at 5am. What the Hell is wrong with me?????
I need to sleep. And it is not just sleep. I was doing great with eating from Sat thru Monday I ate (or drank) often got rest and took care of my self. Tuesday started off okay, not enough sleep but okay and it all went to hell from there. I am barely eating, can't sleep. and I can't say I am in constant "pain", but the freakin pressure on my face and teeth is unreal.
I am asking those of you who have been through this SARPE surgery and expansion process to let me know that the presure I am feeling is normal. During surgery my OS cranked it a few times and got a little gap started and that has been it. It has been a week and it has not been turned since and will not be turned untill Sunday, BUT, the pressure on my teeth and face is freakin unreal and does not let up for even a second. It feels like my teeth are literally gonna pop right out of my head, and all the front top teeth are loose and wiggle. AND what is even weirder is that without cranking the expander even once since my OS did it in surgery I am almost completly positive that my gap has gotten bigger and feels like it is still growing? Is this posssible?
I know I am flipping out here, part of it is lack of sleep and nutrition and part of it is that I have an intense fear that my teeth are going to fall out during my expansion and my OS and my ortho will not say that it is not a possibility, that it is something that CAN actually happen.
PLEASE, sarpe surviviors I need reassuance or a reality check or warning to go bang on my OS's front door and beg him to save my teeth before they fall out. Someone HELP me!
7 comments:
You are totally normal! I had SARPE and Lefort I in July and experienced all of the same things, especially the face pressure and the loose teeth (freaked me out). I ended up doing 54 cranks (13.5 mm expansion) and had an 8mm gap between my teeth. I blogged for the first month, but then got lazy. For reassurance, check it out at www.annemariesortho.blogspot.com.
Hang in there and I promise it will be better -- how much are you expanding?
-- Annemarie
I will probably be expanding about the same as you. They haven't said for sure, bu the OS did mentio about 1/2 inch which is like 13mm... so it will be a big one. Thank you for your reassurance!
Diane, the lack of sleep is most likely due to going off of the pain killers. I went through the same thing. I woke up every hour throughout the night for about a week and couldn't sleep past 5:30 am. I didn't nap during the day, so this drove me nuts! Hang in there, it will get better soon.
Are you getting any more sleep lately? Meds really do wreak havoc on the shut-eye. Hope all is settling into more of a routine (read: less unknowns) than before.
Hang in there, you'll be done before you know it!!
Hey Diane, I hope your feeling better! I'm a little behind you - had SARPE surgery on 12/19 and started cranking away after my follow up with the OS on 12/23. At this point I'm pretty much completely off the meds, with the exception of Sudafed for my congestion and that nasty mouth rinse I have to use for a couple more days.
My biggest frustration is realizing that from the time I started cranking the RPE on 12/23 until I went in for a follow up with the OS yesterday was that for most of that time I was using the WRONG hole on the expander. I was able to access two different holes, one towards the back and one towards the front - I was using the one towards the back - did I mention it was the WRONG hole? - , so I was barely expanding for the week I was cranking away - how annoying! Now that I'm using the correct hole on the expander - holy crap - already you could drive a VW through this gap! The OD figures I've got to go at least 10 mm so I anticipate turning on this thing until at least the 8th of January when I go back for my next follow up.
Good luck with your recovery.
don
Just checking in to see how that gap is growing. Trust you had a good Christmas with all of your teeth still present and accounted for. Happy New Year! :)
I can't imagine the pain you must be going through. Hang in there! Just imagine the final result, it will be a reality sooner than you think. I know that days seem to drag on forever when you're in pain, but I found that working on a craft, or puzzle or some kind of project really did help distract from the healing, pressure, and pain.
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