Pain

I'm pretty sure we all have had some of the same experiences dealing with pain, just not in the same situation. One of the most traumatizing times in my life I had to go through dealt with corrective jaw surgery. I was a junior in high school when my doctor told me that I had a severe overbite that needed to be corrected. I will let you all know right now that was one heck of a life alternating experience. The day before my surgery I had to stay at the hospital, they let me eat anything I wanted that was a good solid meal since it was going to be a long time (16 weeks mind you) before I was able to eat anything solid again. I was a junior at the time, so really to be honest I had no idea what I was in for. Actually, I don't remember much, only that early the following morning they gave me a series of injections, I'm guessing morphine and other things. Next thing I know I'm waking up late at night, doctors had questioned my sudden consciousness because I was supposed to be out till around midnight or really early the next day. Nope, not me, I woke up within hours after the procedure, they took the tube out of, at the time I thought it was mouth, but then again it could have been my nose since they had to break both my lower and up jaw, but it could have been my mouth. It was a very strange feeling because it felt as if my mouth was like a block of cement, I couldn't move it at all, couldn't even speak a word. Well, it didn't help that I started to feel nauseous and soon after started vomiting a lot of blood. It felt as if my lower jaw had fallen off, but because my jaws were wired shut, I was surprised to know that much blood came out of a tiny opening. To make a long story short, my recovery period went for twelve and a half weeks instead of sixteen, but for the first couple of weeks it was really brutal. I could rarely eat anything, everything had to be liquefied, it was hard not communicating vocally because the doctor had forbidden me from speaking or attempting to speak, and I was in a lot of pain constantly. Sleeping hurt, drinking my meals hurts, changing the rubber bands around my jaws hurt and the pain medication only helped a little bit.



This is the area where the doctors had to break in different places, and shifted it to the proper area.

This is the area where the doctors had to break on both sides to shift to fit in the proper area that would align it with the upper area.
I don't remember specifically in great detail what they did, but I hope that would explain a little of what they did. So imagine how much pain I was in.


I won't go into the whole nitty gritty of my experience with jaw surgery since the whole ordeal was really traumatizing, and painful, but hopefully you can see where I am going with this.

We learned that pain is experienced is caused by harmful stimulus, and it holds are attention for as long as the pain lasts.
There are many types of medications available to help control pain, like opioids (a drug with morphine like effects), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (used for relief in the areas where there is pain), and anesthetics (induces insensitivity to pain). By treating pain with prescribed medication after surgery can really help the person feel comfortable, and by doing so will help the body heal and recover from surgery faster. I think it would be common sense, because when I was in pain, I could feel my body tensing, shaking, and I would cry constantly, scream, which caused more pain, even though it was muffled since my jaws were sealed. After, I took medication, icing my face a lot, and started getting a little bit of rest when I could, I found myself recovering faster, I was able to walk around a few days earlier than expected, and even healed completely a few weeks earlier as well. When you feel less pain, you can start moving sooner and get your strength back more quickly.

The AAOS (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons) website goes into a greater detail discussing different ways to cope with pain after a surgery, here is the link AAOS they provide a really good explanation of how to manage pain, I highly suggest you read it. They provide different types of opioids, how they work, and advantages and disadvantages of using them.

This is a quick video involving two doctors that discuss pain treatments. Doctors Explain Pain Treatments
This video explain an Intensive Jaw Surgery similar to one like mine, only mine lasted a little bit longer than five hours. It is a graphic video, so if you do not wish to see the surgery please do not click on the video, I watched a lot of videos on it since I actually went through it. Intensive jaw surgery
I hope you guys enjoyed this post, I highly suggest you go to the AAOS website and read what they have there, and watch the videos if you want to see for yourself what I was talking about.