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Guest posts

14 May

Today I received an email from somebody who recently broke his jaw and wanted to write some guest posts for this blog. I thought it was a great idea, so you’ll probably see some of his posts on the blog in the near future.

If you’ve broken your jaw and have something to share but prefer not to start your own blog, I hope you’ll consider guest blogging here. I’ll review posts before they go up, but only to make sure they’re reasonably on topic and uncontroversial. If that’s not okay with you, you should start your own blog. If you’re interested, send me an email, and we can discuss details of how it will work.

A dubious milestone

25 Apr

As of today, the WordPress.com statistics tell me that this blog has now received more spam comments (6,423) than pageviews (6,324).

Old news

19 Jul

On the right sidebar, you’ll now see links to my Broken jaw recovery guide and Recovery timeline. These are intended to condense information from the blog in a way that might make the information easier to absorb. They actually went up last weekend, but I figured they’re worth a mention here.

As always, suggestions or questions are welcome in the comments (or by email).

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What’s the first thing you should do after you break your jaw?

18 Jul

Start a blog, obviously. If you must insist, you can go ahead and seek medical attention first, but I do hope that you’ll consider publicly documenting your recovery.

When I first learned that my jaw would be wired shut for three weeks, I had a lot of questions about the road ahead. I wondered about things like how I would eat, how I could keep my teeth clean, and whether I’d be able to teach my classes. My oral surgeon and dentist gave me some answers, but I wanted to hear from people who had been in my position. I didn’t know anybody who had broken his or her jaw before, so I turned to the internet. Google turned up a few accounts, but these were generally either forum posts focusing on a single aspect of the recovery or summaries with only the most general information.

I started this blog because I wanted to document my recovery in a way that might be useful to others with similar injuries. I aimed to share everything that I learned and experienced through my recovery, just on the chance that it might help somebody else at a later time. Looking back, though, I didn’t do a particularly good job of it. Somehow, I neglected to take any pictures of my mouth while it was wired shut, and I wrote relatively little about food. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m a bad blogger and that this is a bad blog, but it’s a reflection of the fact that having a broken jaw can be overwhelming, and it’s not really possible for one person to write about everything that’s relevant to the topic.

It is also the case that people’s experiences with broken jaws will differ. Different people break their jaws in different places, recover differently, and have different daily routines that are affected in different ways. This level of diversity ensures that anyone with a broken jaw is uniquely qualified to add something to the understanding of broken jaws.

As for the practicality of starting your own blog, their are a number of sites that will run a blog for free. This blog is currently on WordPress.com. Another popular service is Google’s Blogger. These days, I’m also seeing an increasing number of blogs on tumblr, but my knowledge of that service is minimal. I honestly don’t really know how these three services stack up against each other, and I don’t think it matters much. All of them are more than sufficient for communicating information.

Finally, if you do decide to start your own blog, please send me the URL, either by leaving a comment or by email, so that I can add it to my blogroll.

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Eleven week billing update

22 Jun

I decided to consolidate billing-related posts into a weekly digest from now on. I’d like to be able to say that it’s because I’m too busy to write a new post every time a bill comes, but that would be a lie. The only reason I can offer is that I was tired of thinking of titles for posts about billing.

With that said, here’s what’s happened in the last week.

  • I received a statement from my oral surgeon. It was dated June 10, which was the day I had the arch bars removed. It was addressed to my father, but at my address, apparently a result of confusion over the fact that one of my insurance policies is through my father. The statement said that I had a balance of $1,963.18 which was “Due Now.” This number is apparently the $1,888.18 for the surgery left unpaid by the UC Berkeley insurance plus a $75 fee for the office consultation the day after the accident. I had expected my second insurance plan to pay something, so I was a little bit surprised to see the whole amount due now. The statement also stated that interest of 18% per year would be charged after 60 days and that my entire balance was 61-90 days old. This latter measurement apparently began from the date of service rather than the date of billing.I called the office of the oral surgeon to see if they had billed the second insurance company. I was told that they had, that I would receive another statement after the insurance had paid, and that no interest would be charged until then. The statement I received was apparently “just an updated statement,” which apparently means I can ignore the part about the balance being due now.
  • I also received a letter from Meridian Resource Company, LLC, on behalf of Anthem Blue Cross seeking to determine whether somebody else may be liable for some of the charges from the oral surgeon’s office. The only way I can imagine that this would be the case is if the road condition were such that the City of Oakland were liable, but I doubt that this is the case.
  • I still have a bill from Bay Imaging Consultants for $53.79. They seem to have not billed my father’s insurance, so I should get them to do so. I’ve been lazy about it, though, because the bill doesn’t have a due date.

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Loose ends, Part I

16 Jun

With my recovery nearly complete, my posts here will be less frequent than they once were. I’ll still be posting about billing and insurance when there’s news on that front. I’ll also post updates on any new developments with my injuries if and when things arise. Eventually, I’ll get around to posting about some of the things I’ve learned from my accident and its aftermath (including a guide for those who are recovering from similar injuries) and how my experiences have influenced my worldview.

In the mean time, there are a few things that I probably should have mentioned a while ago. I’ll post three here. I may include more in subsequent posts.

  • Some time after I returned from my oral surgery, I found an x-ray of my mouth among the things that I had carried home from the surgeon’s office. I have never had any recollection of the taking of the x-ray, but it was apparently done after I had my mouth wired, as the wires are visible. Here it is. Note that the left side of my mouth (with the fracture) appears on the right side of the image.
    x-ray
  • It seems that I’ve neglected to explain that the part of my jaw that I broke, the condyle (or maybe it was the neck of the condyloid process, just below the condyle) is located near the joint with the upper jaw, rather than near the teeth. I suspect that this made the recovery easier than it otherwise might have been because the pictures of jaws broken between the teeth look far more gruesome than anything I saw on my own face.
  • A few days after the oral surgeon wired my mouth shut, my mother mentioned to me that she had read that people who have their jaws wired shut often have to carry wire cutters for emergency use. I had no recollection of the oral surgeon saying anything to me about wire cutters, but I could not rule out the possibility that he had said something but I could not remember because I was still feeling the anesthesia. Furthermore, some research showed that my mother’s claim was correct. Moreover, I discovered a few days before my wireless upgrade that the instructions I received from the hospital said,

    If your jaw was wired shut, it is important that you be able to open the wires in any emergency that makes it difficult to breathe, such as vomiting, extreme coughing or choking. Therefore, you must carry a pair of small wire-cutters with you at all times. Be sure you know which wires to cut in case this is necessary. If not, ask your doctor.

    To be clear, this came from the hospital, and I had my jaw wired a few days later by an oral surgeon at a different practice. But I never carried a wire cutter. I’m still alive today. Go figure.

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New name and address

9 Jun

As of today, this blog has a new name (Shock and Jaw) and address (http://shockandjaw.com). The reason for this change is mainly personal preference. I have a weakness for bad plays on words, but I didn’t think of this name until some time in late May. A secondary reason is that it gives the blog an identity which I can take away from WordPress.com (a platform which I dislike more and more by the day). For now, the old URLs will work, though.

Caught up

23 Apr

I’ve managed to finish all of my problem sets, with the exception of one due tomorrow that I expect the whole class will be handing in late. At the beginning of the week, I wouldn’t have believed anybody telling me I’d have caught up by now, but some of the five problem sets I’ve finished the weekend have been easier than I expected.

This, of course, means that I should finally get around to writing about the first two weeks after the accident.

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Milestones

19 Apr

Today marks a couple of milestones. Roughly half an hour from now will be two weeks from the time of my accident. Early this morning was the halfway point of my time having my jaw wired shut. For the most part, the recovery is going better than I expected. I certainly wouldn’t have thought that after only two weeks, my face wouldn’t have any scars or scabs. There are a couple of spots that are a bit pink, but the most noticeable change is that I still haven’t shaved my chin near where I had stitches. The abrasions on arms, legs, and hands are healing, but a bit slower than my face.

I still have to get to work on writing about the last two weeks.  Unfortunately, I’m badly behind in my schoolwork.

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Introduction

18 Apr

Just under two weeks ago, I fell off of my bicycle and sustained a number of injuries, the most serious of which was a mandibular fracture. I plan to use this blog to share various musings related to these injuries, as well as things I’ve learned that might be helpful to other people in similar situations.

At various times, it may be helpful for a reader to know that I am a vegan and a graduate student in mathematics. I suspect that anybody who knows me and finds this blog would recognize that I am the author, but I don’t plan on identifying myself at this time.

Obviously, I’m getting something of a late start on this blog, with the accident nearly two weeks behind me already. I’ve been meaning to start this blog for some time now, but life has been busy. I have quite a number of entries that I’d like to write, and I plan on back-dating some posts according to when I first thought to write them.

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