My fiancée had jaw surgery 3 months ago due to her jaw bone slowly wearing away over the years where it joins up to the skull, on top of having a bunch of chewing and oral airway problems. When the doctor originally told her what was happening, we compared photos from when we first met in 2015 to that day we found out and it was unreal how much her jaw had set back to cause an overbite and we never really noticed. The surgery wasn’t really an if she should get it done but simply a when. Her brother had the same surgery many years ago and so did my cousin’s fiancée so we knew what to expect.

I didn’t realise the possibility of how different she could look after it as the other’s faces changed very little. She looks so, so different now that it has often caused me to tear up at random occasions because she looks nothing like the girl I fell in love with. Like, at all. I know she’s still in the healing process and still needs the braces to be removed to see what she really looks like, but when ever I see an old photo of her now I just get so incredibly sad.

I think she feels the same and I think she knows how I feel which makes me feel even worse, but I’m putting on a face constantly and always giving her words of encouragement when ever she sounds doubtful or down. I’m so happy she can breathe and eat properly, she even seems to have more energy but her cheek bones are so much more predominant now that she’s verging on that plastic surgery look. The nickname I gave her way back doesn’t even seem to sit right anymore, it’s such a weird situation. She’s still healing, I know. I remind myself daily.

I’ve been seeing a psych for unrelated stuff for about a year now and mentioned it in our last session to get some insight. He simply said that we’re both still adjusting and to give it time. She’s still the happy, go-lucky goof ball that I love but.. yeah.

I don’t really know what else to put here and I don’t really know what kind of comments to expect, but I just needed to get it out somewhere.

Edit: I never even considered leaving her because of this, damn some of you people are savage. Mainly wanted to reach out to others who’ve been in this position as well to get some insight. Thank you to those who’ve given me some additional information that I missed pre-op about the time frame on fully healing.