9-22-2011 Thursday - Holly's Jaw Surgery...

Holly had her jaw surgery on Thursday in Santa Barbara. We stayed up there for four weeks with her initial recovery. It was not fun. Holly has a condition called Idiopathic Condular Resorption. Which basically means, her jaw joints are disintegrating and they don't know why. The surgeon says her jaw joints are basically junk and they need to be rebuilt. So that's what they did this. The surgery took 6 hours plus 3 hours in recovery. The surgery consisted of bringing her lower jaw forward 19mm, her upper jaw forward 6mm, her upper jaw cut across and ground down 7mm and then raised up. She had over 20 bone graphs added. The bone was taken from inside her skull to rebuild the jaw back to the correct position and bite. Yes - it was very painful, yes - she was very swollen, yes - she was on a liquid diet for 8 weeks, yes - she looks different but still beautiful, yes - she would do it again. No more pain like she has consistently had for the past 6 years has made it well worth it. She will be on medication for several months to possibly years still. She will be swollen for a long time yet. She will be fully recovered in a year. Sorry - no photos per Holly's request.