Jody’s Jaw Journey – Prologue

I’ve mentioned, briefly, about having broken my jaw and recovering from surgery to repair it. From the beginning to the end, each and every thing that happened must have been filed in the “make it a disaster” catalog of my life regarding it. There is a phrase people use that are the words “Cluster F–k”, and truly this whole event qualified as a CF. I’m going to be writing about the highlights, but it will take several posts, and I thought it might be helpful for me to provide some general information beforehand that will make the things I write about make sense to each reader. So that is what this simple post will do.

I ended up getting a full mouth of dentures about 4-1/2 years ago. From this experience alone, I learned valuable information about myself. The biggest learning process was realizing that I tend to trust authorities without question, specifically medical professionals. I don’t have their degrees earned with knowledge, and I have trust in the consideration that all doctors must take the Hippocratic Oath, specifically the part which states, “I will use my power to help the sick to the best of my ability and judgment; I will abstain from harming or wrongdoing any man by it”. When it was validated that some teeth needed to be removed and dentures used in place, I didn’t even think to question whether I would be having some or all of the teeth in my mouth removed. I ended up losing all of my teeth and having to get full dentures both top and bottom. The bottom denture has never stayed adhered to my gums, but I’d learned to not wear it unless I knew I would be going to be eating something that would require serious chewing, and then to take the loosened plate out of my mouth (discreetly, of course) when I was finished eating. I also always took my upper plate out at home.

That is important to know because it made a big difference in my fall and the events that came afterwards.

I mentioned in my post “Falling into Fall” that I had taken a fall. It is the second time that I had fallen like that, in the same location and the same way. I’d fallen at oh-dark-hundred hours on Christmas Day in 2020. That fall included some sliding along a wall, and the entire left side of my back ended up being black-and-blue as a result. I had a little goose egg on the side of my head, and a brush burn on the side of my arm from sliding across the carpet. As a result of that fall, my doctor and I have been talking ongoing about my problems with balance and what could be the causes and treatments for it. Unfortunately, there have been some other medical concerns that had taken precedence, so we have yet to form a viable plan.

This fall started in the same pattern but being aware of how I fell the last time, I adjusted my body into a more fetal position. When I fell, I hit a piece of furniture on the left of my forehead and crumbled down to the floor. It was again in the wee hours of the morning and long before daybreak. The pain on the side of my head where I hit the furniture was intense and unlike any pain I recall experiencing before. I grabbed an ice pack and laid my entire left face on it, forced myself to stay awake (I think the pain was the force behind it) for several hours, and immediately started taking 3 Ibuprofen every 3-4 hours to dilute the pain. I dozed on and off for the next 36 hours, and each time I woke, I grabbed the Ibuprofen and took another dose. It took those 36 hours for the pain to subside enough that I could stick to the every-4-hours dosage instructions.

And that’s the fall that started this whole CF…

Below, for your reference in the future of this story, is a photo of a perfectly aligned lower jawbone.