My nephew has had his face rearranged. Not via a facelift, nor a punch in the chops from this father, but via orthognathic surgery. This means that he had his upper jaw broken into three pieces and detached from his skull, then re-shaped and re-attached with the aid of titanium plates and a bone graft from his hip. The operation took 6 hours.
His jaws are now held immobile by a set of elastic bands and wire hooks and he is subsisting on a diet of custard and soup (not at the same time), half of which escapes down his chin since he has no sensation in the lower half of his face.
I can only speculate as to how I would have coped had I been handed such a fate at the age of 19. Even without such indignities, I had a chip on my shoulder, but my nephew's made of stronger stuff. Beneath his pasty, skinny exterior lurks a brave lad.
4 comments:
oh, man. but a full recovery is anticipated? this sounds so painful. my sympathies to him.
This sounds utterly horrid. Please send him my best. But would it be prying to ask why he's having this thing done? Can't imagine it's on a whim.
Bloody hell. Poor nephew, I wish him a speedy recovery.
Thank you for your good wishes.
Not prying at all to ask why he submitted to such a thing - his jaw was misaligned, which caused him problems with chewing and affected his speech.
A full recovery is on the cards, but it will take months to get full sensation back and a couple of years to be brace-free.
The plus side is that his beautiful eyes are now accentuated, so he's more of a babe than before (if you can get past the dribbling).
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