11 months ago (close enough) I received double jaw surgery to correct my underbite and align my jaws. I also received a Genioplasty to sharpen my chin. 3 months afterwards, I received I an upper lip and cleft scar revision, as well as a rhinoplasty and a septoplasty. 

The journey was very physically and emotionally painful but despite the fact that I still dislike how I look due to a cleft lip, I’m warming up to the isolated results of my DJS. 

Even after exhausting all of my surgical options to the point where my surgeon told me that I’m dysmorphic, refusing to work on me again because I’ll never be 100% happy with anything done to me, I still come across people that echo what I’ve told myself in the mirror my entire life.

The sad thing is that I can eagerly wait 10 years to voluntarily break my entire face and put it back together in an attempt to fit in, but I still can’t escape the ridicule. It made me realize that it’s less about what people say, and more about if you allow it to hurt you. Nobody is perfect, some people are ignorant, and a lot of people only feel heard when they break everything around them until they find themselves on a self-imposed pedestal that overlooks a shallow existence.

I have done all that I can physically. Therapy will hopefully help me with the rest because no, I don’t have money laying around to fix myself past this point. 

I still don’t look “normal”, but I know I look better. If anything my 11+ hours of operations proves that. 

TLDR: Progress pictures & a bunch of rambling 



DJS: A year later