From undisplaced to displaced condyles (aka surgery #2)

In my last post I explained the treatment plan for my broken jaw, and after the initial surgery I was sent home with arch bars on my teeth and a no-chew diet to allow my condyles to heal hopefully in the right positions.  I went about 2 weeks like that, until I went to visit the oral surgeon again. My jaw had begun to heal to the left side - toward the side that was the most broken.  The plan to remedy that was to put elastics on the arch bars, from the top right to the bottom left, which would pull the lower jaw over to the right side.  He booked me in for that a few days later. 

When I went in to get the elastics on a few days later, we got a bit of a surprise. Dr M (my oral surgeon) put the elastics on to pull my jaw to centre and the pain was completely unbearable. My request for stronger painkillers than what I already have prompted him to question things.  Before sending me on my way with the torture devices (aka elastics) he sent me for another panoramic x-ray.  This came back with the awful news that my right condyle had displaced sometime in the past couple of weeks, which explains the migration of my jaw to the left.  Elastics was not going to be enough. Another surgery was in the cards.

A few days later, I went back to his office for the next surgery. This was about a month after the original surgery, which happened 3 days after the accident. The plan was to knock me out and manipulate my jaw toward centre, hopefully righting the displaced condyles (or at least one of them) to the proper position and wiring me shut for a few weeks. 

This time I was a lot more aware and lucid, so it was almost like going for the first time.  I wasn't nervous - by this point I had resigned myself to the fact that I had suffered a really bad accident and a lot damage to my mouth, face and teeth. What I wasn't expecting is the pain of the anesthesia! When he injected it into my hand, it burned like my hand was on fire and I really was just wishing to be knocked out as soon as possible to make it stop. It must have been less than a minute, but the pain was so intense it truly felt like 15 minutes. Not pleasant. 

When I woke up, as promised, I had 2 wires holding my mouth shut, and a series of elastics covering all my teeth in whatever pattern Dr M had deemed necessary. 

Here's what that looks like: