Some Before and After X-Rays...

Had my second post-op appointment today and asked for digital copies of pre-and-post surgery X-rays.

Before. The dark stripe behind the tongue and soft palate is the constricted airway.

After. Don't have a good photo editor or I'd darken this. Basically doubled the space behind. Note the screws, top and bottom jaws. Soft palate is still swollen and nasal packages are still congested, or there'd be even more space. He's planning to take a third x-ray in another week or two once things have settled down. Hopefully that will show it better.

Dr. Jelic said something interesting and very telling today about the difficulties encountered in my surgery. He said that biggest blockages and most constricted space they encountered were in my upper airway, behind my nose and soft palate, to the point that they had trouble with threading the anesthesia and other tubes through my nose.

Know what that means? That means that if I had gone with the soft tissue options, like lingual tonsilectomy or tongue reduction, it'd've done little or no good. Missed the main problem area entirely. So I made the right call in this surgery, I'm happy to say. Almost sounds like it's the upper jaw advancement that does the trick as opposed to the lower, though I'm sure that doesn't hurt. But in the end, what does it matter so long as it worked?

The other thing he mentioned was that I was way ahead of schedule in regaining feeling in my chin; I've already got transient sensations and get these very odd feelings when I gently brush the area, which he said was something like the third of five stages of regaining nerve function. He said the surgery ran over because they took an hour and half to carefully free the nerves before advancing the jaw. If so, looks like it was worth it.

More happened today, but I'm tired. I'll post more tomorrow.