An Introduction to my TMJ Replacement operation

Ok folks, so this is completely unrelated to my children's books, but I wanted to record what I'm going through in case it helps others.

2014 - I had an extremely bad few years from 2013 to 2018 involving horrendous health problems with my daughter who was rushed in and out of hospital with asthma, lack of sleep as I was up each night giving her an inhaler, and eventually loosing my job (of 13 years). After a brief stint supply teaching I began working at a new school and had a wonderful term covering a retirement. Unfortunately, the school liked me so much they asked me to extend my contract to the full year. I didn't know it at the time but i would then have 9 months of hell. In 2014 I went to the Dentist who gave me a mouth shield to wear at night as I was apparently grinding my teeth which was causing wear.

By 2015, I had lost a lot of weight and subsequently had various procedures to explore whether I had cancer. One of which was an upper endoscopy (via mouth). Not long after this I began to experience severe jaw pain and slight limitation of opening range. November that year my jaw was flushed out (they did surgery to flush out the loose bits of bone which had occurred due to sudden jaw arthritis and was causing my jaw not to open). During the procedure my surgeon realised that I had a massive whole in my disk.

In September 2017, I had my disk removed (arthoplasty & minesectomy). Following 3 months recovery I was feeling amazing! Still needed the mouth shield but no daily pain! Woohoo! I started a new job January 2018 and thought life could get no better (my daughter's health stabilised 2015); I loved my job, my family were well and happy, I had regained my fitness and weight... Then in March 2018, I went to a school for training and the heavy, metal gate sprang back unexpectedly, hitting me with intense force and causing me to need to be amulance'd to hospital in order that I could have my head glued. By May my jaw had begun to ache. This increased. I contacted my consultant who agreed that the impact of the gate may have negatively affected my jaw. Following scans etc we discovered that he was horribly right. By the end of the year (2018), I had been informed that I needed a new left jaw as it was disintegrating rapidly, causing intense, ever increasing pain. By January 2019, I had to hand in my notice to the job I adored as I could no longer cope; I was virtually passing out with the pain each day, despite only working 3 days a week. This was an enormous blow as I had loved the role, staff, children and families... I had finally fit in and was doing something I both loved and excelled at.

2019 saw days where I was in so much pain I wanted to rip my face off and could only communicate by writing or signing. I was able only to work on `good' days thus had to be a supply and had a very unsteady income. On the plus side, I was told that my operation should be less than 18months so I just had to hang on in there.

2020... well... COVID hit of course. Thus my surgery moved back month by month. On the positive side I managed to secure a job where I worked one full day and 2 half days only and taught using sign language thus not exerting my jaw. It was still hard (pain is very tiring, pain tablets knocked me out from 7pm and mushed food is not something you can have out with friends thus a quality of life had vanished years before). Even gardening (a hobby) caused pain after a while due to the effect of bending on my jaw. However, being the determined woman that I am, I kept on fighting. My job share quit due to stress early on in my contract, and luckily my school liked me and agreed to keep me on for the full year despite this; finishing me a new role within the school. Despite this, the contract had to run out summer 2021 and I knew my operation would have to come eventually. I had had my 1 year before consultation, when you sign paperwork agreeing that you wanted the implant in October 2020 and knew my work (and any employer) would be reluctant to hire someone who might need up to a year off of work recovering.

The next events happened in quick succession, but to reiterate and continue:

2015 - 1st operation at City Hospital Birmingham; flush out and discover the hole in my disk. It may be interesting to note that I had always believed that I would die before 40. I was 35 at this point so rather nervous and ensured I had written a will with a solicitor

2015-17 -Regular visits to City Hospital Birmingham (every 3 months?).

2017 - 2nd operation removing my disk at the QE Birmingham. Aged 38...

2018 - Head trauma undoing all of the good my surgeon had done and creating the need for a jaw replacement

2018- Pain. Increasing daily. Moving from paracetamol, to also having Ibuprofen, to increasing the dose, to using Ibuprofen gel, to trying pain suppressant medicines (did nothing but cause constipation and bloating) to steadily increasing levels of co-codymol, to despair...

October 2020 - Consent consultation - theoretically the operation would now take between 3 months and 1 year

Mid June 2021 - A telephone call from QE Birmingham hospital telling me my operation was booked for 1st July! Totally out of the blue / unexpected. I had begun to disbelieve that it would ever happen so when I heard that it would and that I only had 3 weeks I burst out crying. Following telling my boss that I would be unable to work the last 3 weeks of my contract (and miss Prom, leavers do's and the leavers assembly; all huge and important events in the life of a school and teacher as well as the student), I went home and updated my will. I also wrote farewell letters to my children, husband and Mum as, at 42, I was almost certain that this operation would lead to my death.