Pre-operative assessment

I went for my pre-op to the Leiceser Royal Infirmary's (LRI) Maxillofacial department.

First I got called in for an x-ray.

When I went back to wait to be called again, my boyfriend told me another nurse had called me and that he'd told her I was having x-rays taken.

After a while I got called again and the nurse asked me questions to fill in some forms. I had my blood pressure, height and weight checked.

Then I went to speak to someone else who had the consent form for me to sign. The x-ray taken earlier was already up and he had had a chance to look at it.
He went through the risks etc with me, then he had a quick look in my mouth and took notes.

He basically told me everything I knew, my top jaw will be brought forward and lowered, a hip graft is needed to fill the gap when the jaw is lowered.
The bottom jaw will be taken back.

He also told me how they do it.
The top jaw is broken clean and once moved is fixed with metal plates and screws. A slice of bone is taken from my hip and put in.
The bottom jaw is cut in straight vertical lines at the back and then moved back.
Because of the awkwardness of the operation all done from inside my mouth, they can't use metal plates to heal it, so the only way for my bottom jaw to heal is to wire my teeth shut as soon as I'm out of the operation!

He explained that they used to do bottom jaw operations differently and that that way had a 1 in 10 chance of patients having permanent lose of feeling to the chin, cheeks, lips, tongue etc.

The way they are doing it only has a 1 in 3 chance of lose of feeling.

I asked if they will cut from the outside of my face and he said they will only cut inside the mouth so I will have no scars.

He asked if I had a preference to which hip they remove bone from.
I said I don't. He said as I am having bone taken fro my hip I won't be able to walk properly for a few days.

After that I was just asked to go to the Blood Test Centre to have blood taken before I left the hospital and I would be done.

So my boyfriend and I went to the Blood Test Centre. We saw that there was an hour wait. My boyfriend got the number (they call numbers out so we know who's next) and we got a bite to eat and waited.

After just over an hour, my number got called and I had blood taken.
After that I went back to work.