Have you ever had surgery? What for?

Yes. I have had 3 surgeries, both done in my teenage years. I guess you could technically say these surgeries were to improve my health. However, one of the surgeries could be viewed as cosmetic even though I did not seek treatment from a cosmetic doctor, but a pediatric surgeon.

The first surgery I had done was to improve my breathing. For as long as I could remember, I had always been a mouth-breather; a loud, very heavy breather. I couldn’t properly breathe through my nose. It was a struggle, & I never understood why until my family doctor, who was also my allergist, took my x-rays and suggested I repair the hard palate in my mouth.

Photo credits: Studio Dentaire Montreal

The hard palate is the cartilage that separates the breathing passage between the nose and the mouth. There was a small section of the hard palate in the back of my mouth, near the throat, that had a gap which was the cause of my breathing issues. I would inhale through the nose, but the air would exhale out the mouth. This caused me to not be able to properly breathe easily. So, I had a small piece of cartilage surgically placed in my mouth to cover the gap (i,.e. “plug the hole”).

Now I can breathe so much better. I can definitely inhale & exhale through my nose without sounding like a wheezing bagpipe. Sometimes, when I am deeply concentrating on something, others will point out to me that they can still hear me breathing heavily, but not as frequently as when I was a child. I also don’t sound as nasally as I used to when I speak.

The surgery only took a couple of hours, & I was home by the end of the day. I spent the next 3 weeks eating Jell-o & soft foods, throwing up all of my pain medication, & not being able to talk without feeling like I swallowed a grapefruit that got stuck in my throat. My sister expressed her envy that I would lose weight due to my inability to eat for 3 weeks, but I didn’t see it that way. I only thought of being able to breathe like a normal person & not always sound like a deflated accordion every time I breathed.

The second surgery I had was a few years after the first. I was still a teenager, & was going through the last stages of having braces, the old fashioned metal kind. My orthodontist explained to my mom that no amount of braces would ever fully straighten out my teeth. So, that bummed her out. It kind of bummed me out too. No amount of braces-wearing would make my teeth straight.

The orthodontist also explained that I had a severe underbite; my jaw stuck out quite a bit, causing my upper & lower teeth to not be aligned, which always caused food to get stuck in-between my teeth all the time. The orthodontist also said that my jaw would continue to grow until adulthood, which would push my jawline out even further. He suggested that I get surgery to push my jaw back, unless I wanted to look like a horse & never be able to fully close my mouth.

So that was that. I opted to have surgery to correct my underbite. Because I was only 17 at the time, I had to see a pediatric surgeon. I was in & out of the hospital within 3 days, & was instructed to only eat soft foods & ice cream for the next 3 months. Lucky me! I spent the entire summer eating my mom’s signature Chinese chicken soup rice porridge & chocolate ice cream.

I looked like a funny little chipmunk with my swollen face, & the only thing holding my jaw in place were rubber bands used for braces. I had a whole mouth full of braces rubber bands crisscrossing across my mouth, & I was scared that one day they would snap & my jaw would fall off. Lucky for me they didn’t snap, & I spent the summer learning how to talk with my teeth clenched & not moving my jaw. I tried learning ventriloquism, but I couldn’t get my lips to stay still.

The day I had my final post-operation check-up was the best day of my teen years. The nurses came in & one-by-one snipped off all the rubber bands with scissors. I could finally move my jaw freely. Then, & this is the best part, they took off my braces. One-by-one, each metal bracket glued to my teeth was removed, & at first, it felt very strange. I would run my tongue across the fronts of my teeth, & feel nothing there. When I closed my mouth, nothing was rubbing against my gums or poking the insides of my cheeks. I was finally free of anything obstructing my mouth & felt good. I could also go back to eating popcorn & chewing gum.

The third surgery, as you may already know, was a cesarian (a.k.a. C-section) surgery when I gave birth to my little bean. This little offspring of mine was no longer able to successfully grow inside of me, so the doctors & midwives suggested that she be delivered 2 weeks early. I was hoping that I could be induced into labor early, & push that little nugget out of my V, but alas, she was lying sideways, so that was not an option.

No, she was not in a breech position, she was in full lounging-on-the-couch position, which the doctors found very funny. We tried a cephalic inversion procedure, but my little offspring was not having any of it. She would not budge even a little bit. So, she had to be surgically removed from my body. I was freaking out like crazy, but once the C-section procedure was done, I was elated.

Jian really helped alleviate the whole situation with his humor. He was in the operating room with all of the nurses & doctors running around. After the little bean was extracted from my open flesh, the nurses cleaned her up & let Jian hold her for the first time. He immediately held her up over his head & started singing the first part of “The Circle of Life” from the Lion King movie. Everybody had a great laugh, & all the nurses gushed about what an awesome dad he was. I told Jian not to make me laugh until the gaping wound in my mid-section was fully stitched shut, & I wasn’t massively bleeding. Well, I still laughed anyway, so there.

I guess this sums up my story time about the times I had surgery. I didn’t have anything medically major happen to me throughout my life health-wise, & I feel extremely lucky & grateful for that. I am so glad that the first wo procedures I had done were mostly minor, & some would say, cosmetic. They did, however, drastically improve my quality of life & modestly improved my self-esteem. The third surgery brought my little nugget into the world, & that has also drastically changed my life for the better. Knocking on wood, I am not planning on having any more surgeries…& that’s all I have to say about that. Cheers, all.

Today’s song of the day: