Sunday, November 11, 2007

Not much new on the jaw front, but SOOOO DIZZY

I am now officially over 1 month post-op! It's weird; it feels like my surgery was AGES ago, but yet at the same time it feels like it was just yesterday. But anyway...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been SOOOO sick! I have LOTS of stuff wrong with me, and it's been taking it's toll this week. I have been so dizzy and nauseas it's not even funny. I am pretty use to this and usually I just go about my day and ignore it. If I were to stay home from work every time I was dizzy, I would NEVER leave the house. Well, it got the best of me this week. I had to have my husband drive me home from work on Wednesday because there was NO way that driving was safe for me. Which of course meant that I had to skip class, and of course we are having a test on Monday. I even ended up staying home from work on Thursday and Friday. TWO DAYS!!! That's A LOT for me. I decided to call my doctor on Friday and go in and see her. I use to take a daily medicine for my dizzy spells, which one neurologist said was a type of migraine. If I missed just one dose of this med, within 2 days I was SO dizzy. Well, I have been off of it for over 3 weeks now. I have to go off of it in order to get pregnant; it's known to cause birth defects. So I decided to go off of it when I was home recovering so that way if I got sick, I was already home. The first 3 weeks were GREAT. A few slight dizzy spells, but nothing to even mention. Until this week.

So my doctor wants me to go back to another neurologist and have more tests done. At one point they said that I had Chiari Malformation. Basically, the way I like to describe it, is that my brain is too big for my skull and it pushes on my spinal cord. Then another neurologist said that he didn't think that's what it was, that it was a heart problem. So I went to a Cardiologist who of course diagnosed me with Posterual Orthostatic Tachacardia Syndrom (POTS). The fix for that... beta blockers, which of course lower your blood presure, so he told me to eat more salt (he said it was the first time he ever told someone to do that, usually cardiologists tell you to eat LESS salt). Well, that wasn't working so well, so they sent me to an Ear Nose and Throat doctor. Of course he had to diagnose me with something too. He said it was Menieres Disease. What's the fix for that... a LOW SODIUM DIET!!! Are you kidding me? One doctor tells me to eat MORE salt, another one tells me to eat LESS salt. Needless to say I had my fill of doctors, so I just stopped the beta blocker and try to keep an eye on sodium.

So now they want to do more tests to see if maybe Chiari really is the problem. Of course how do they fix that... Brain Surgery! And I was all freaked out about Jaw Surgery.

It also could be withdrawal symptoms from another med that I had to get off, Celexa. If any of you out there take that, when you go off make sure you do it SLOWLY! I did it in about 3 weeks, but after looking it up, it can sometimes take 6 - 12 MONTHS to get off of it without withdrawal symptoms. I can stay on that and get pregnant, but I would prefer not to be on any meds if I don't have to be.

Anyway, here are some pics from Friday. My sister turned 30 on Friday and her husband threw a surprise party. So of course I HAD to go even though I thought I was going to die (there was NO way I was going to miss my sister's 30th surprise party!). Oh, and of course they live 2 hours away!!! That was fun. Excuse the look on my face. I was holding my sleeping 4 year old niece. Right after these pics were taken, I had to give her quickly to my father and run outside. If I was the throwing up type, that's what I would have been doing. My mouth got all water and stuff like before you vomit, but it never came out. I probably would have felt better. Oh well.



I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't feel well!




So on the jaw front... It's actually doing pretty good. Nothing really new to report. Still doing my exercises. Still on a "no chew" diet, still using a baby spoon. I probably could use a regular one now, but it just feels so weird in my mouth now that I am used to the baby spoon. I have to go to the ortho on Tuesday for my first adjustment. That should be fun! I know that they are putting buttons on my upper back teeth, so I can just imagine what weird rubber band configuration he will give me. I will update you all then!

Thanks for listening to me complain about my dizziness!

Oh, just thought of this. My sister and mother were with some of my sister's friends on Saturday that were at the party on Friday. We are all scrap booking freaks, so they were at a scrap booking get together. I wasn't feeling well, so there was NO way I was making it. But anyway, my sister's friends were saying how good I looked. They couldn't put there finger on it, but that I looked different! My sister explained to them that since the jaw surgery I have a rounder face. I always had such a LONG face. They were all surprised at how much of a difference the surgery made and how great I was looking for just having my jaw cut apart! It was good to hear that others notice the difference. It's hard to notice minor things like that on yourself since you see yourself everyday, and since compared to some of your surgeries, mine was pretty straight forward and didn't make as much of a difference.

12 comments:

Shontelly said...

Ohhhh you looked so sick in that first pic!! I feel bad for ya. ;(
Not only are you recovering from major jaw surgery but also having to vomit all the time and dealing with nausea?! I'm so sorry Tara. That doesn't sound like fun AT ALL.

BUT! On a better note, you look FABULOUS! WOW. Your face shape has really changed.

I hope you get to feeling better.

Steph & Steve G said...

You look fantastic! Thank you so much for all your honest info. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it -- as I am pending surgery in a few months. Please keep us all posted. I love following your story!

Michelle said...

Man what an adventure with all the doctoral diagnosis! Im not sure that I could believe any of them after hearing so many different diagnosis.
Well I really hope they can get to the bottom of it all soon, I hate to hear that your feeling awful! You do look great! What nice progress you have made, so are you making an Ortho Scrapbook?

Tara said...

Yeah, it's hard to believe anything they diagnois me with after SO many. I think that they just want to feel that they did there job, so they give me something. I would rather they just took there time to figure out what was really wrong with me. OH well. I have an appointment with a different neurologist on November 28th. Hopefully he will be able to figure it out.

Of course I am going to make a scrapbook of the ortho adventure!!! I am going to have to ask my ortho if I can have copies of all of the pics he took!

And thanks everyone for all of the compliments!

Heather said...

I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well! :( I hope the docs can figure out what's going on--and that surgery is the last option for you. No more of that please!!!

You look fantastic!!!

Much love!!
xoxox

lace1070 said...

Hi Tara ~ I found your blog through a Chiari blog search. I have Chiari and vertigo and dizziness are some of my main complaints. Have you had an MRI done? I know of people who have very minimal Chiari herniations and they have lots of symptoms. I have some more info on my blog if you are interested ~
http://livelovelaugh-lace1013.blogspot.com/

~Lace

Brandyleigh35 said...

Wow Tara,
YOu poor thing! Sounds like things post surgery have been pretty sucky for you. Hey I feel your pain about the doctors. I just posted a big long post complaining about them myself. I tell you, finding out what is wrong with oneself is really hard these days. YOu pretty much have to do your own research and figure it out yourself. Everybody is so specialized and they give you a diagnosis then send you to another person, they give you a diagnosis, but then pawn you off to someone else. It is just maddening isn't it! I totally agree with you, everyone seems to be in such a rush these days. If they would just slow down, and listen, maybe they could really figure it out.

I do hope the appointment with the neurologist gets you some answers. Accurate ones not just a bunch of best guesses.

With that being said, you really do look great! Can't even tell you have had surgery! Your profile looks incredible! WOW! at least you have one thing to be happy about!

I hope you feel better soon! Wishing you well!

Brandy

Graham said...

Hi Tara. Your profile looks great, congrats! I have dizziness myself, and it was definitely a concern of mine at pre-op. Nothing too horrible has come of it so far but I can tell that it's still lingering. So far I am told that it is benign positional vertigo. I wanted to share with you about a type of therapy called Cranial Sacral therapy. It's like a massage for your skull, jaw, neck, and spine. It is very relaxing and very gentle. If your spine is being compressed somehow, this could help. For me the first treatment seemed to help tremendously, but I need to go back for more to come to some sort of conclusion for myself. Anyway, maybe you know of an RMT who can do it, or sometimes a Chiropractor can do it. There's really nothing risky about it and it is often used to treat dizziness. Worth a try and highly recommended.

Tara said...

Hey Graham. Thanks for the advise. I will have to ask my Chiropractor about that. He has helped me out a lot with the dizziness. I haven't been able to go since the surgery, but maybe I will give him a call and just have a "minor" adjustment.

Graham said...

I was thinking of seeing a chiropractor as well but was nervous about all the controversy about it causing strokes. Anyway, if you don't mind me asking, what exactly does he/she do to adjust you? Do you know if it would be the same for everyone or is it specific to you?

Tara said...

Hey Graham. The changes of you having a stroke from a chiropractic adjustment are SOOOOOO slim. Probably about the same percentage of you having a stroke from cracking your own neck by just turning it. They are trained to know how and where to put the pressure. I have a heart problem so I have to take meds before any major dental work or I could get an infection in the heart and die. The changes of that happening are greater then a stroke, and the American Heart Association just this year said that you no longer need to take the antibiotics. So the changes are SLIM.

But anyway, to answer your other question... everyones treatment plan is different. Both my husband and I go together, and we get adjusted completely differently. Usually they will take a medical history and do some x-rays. This will show the chiro where you aren't aligned properly and areas that the curves may need work on (when I started the curve in my neck was actually the wrong way from sitting in front of a computer all day, but it's back to normal now!).

My chiro usually has me lay on my stomach first and he feels the back and neck. If needed, he will adjust the neck then by applying a light force. Then I turn over and he gives me the "bear hug". If my neck is really off that day, he will then hold my head and relax the muscles and "twist" the neck. I was nervous the first time, but it actually feels really good. And it's amazing what he has done for me. I always use to think that a chiro was for back pain, and I didn't have back pain, so I didn't need one. But I admit, I was wrong. He helps with my shoulder too, and my husbands knee. If it's a joint, they can help. He even helped with my jaw! Before going there, I couldn't open my jaw much more then I can now after jaw surgery (less then 1 inch). After seeing him a few times, I had full range back!

Ok, now that I wrote a novel. Let me know if you have any other questions! If you want to e-mail me it's fudd8963@yahoo.com! Good luck!

Eva said...

Hi and thank you for your very interesting ad helpful blog! I found it searching for people wo have had jaw surgery. I had one 6 days ago and I'm swollen and in pain.. reading helps a lot. I also happen to be a scrapbooker btw :) Anyway you look amazing and your happiness after helps me cope with the pain I'm in now :)