A few years back Twist had committed a dramatic injury to himself. Taking a 12 gauge shotgun to himself.  He place the shotgun under his jaw and with no hesitation pulled the trigger. The blow did not kill him but instead blew his lower jaw right off of his face.  Over the last few years Twist spoke with hand gestures and pointing.  When he would speak to the people he trusted wouldn’t tease him it came out with disgusting gargling sounds. He had been communicating by whispering to his bodyguard RedFoot who surprisingly understood the clown.  Twist was fed up with trying to communicate to others in different ways. Once he seen there was the number one surgeon in the country he had to reach out!

Looking through the paper one Monday morning Twist seen a ad for reconstruction surgery with Dr. SpaceMan on the front of the ad.  This was the same doctor that Twist went to about his fatal depression disorder.  He had no idea that the doctor preformed these kinds of surgery.  Twist yelled for his bodyguard who came running up the stairs and into Twists room.

”What is it bossman? Are you OK?”

Twist waved RedFoot to look at the paper pointing at the ad.  RedFoot knew exactly what Twist was inquiring about.  He had mentioned multiple times to his bodyguard that he wishes he could speak again.  RedFoot pulled the paper and went straight to the phone to try to schedule the appointment.

”Hello, yes my boss would love to schedule a reconstructive surgery on his jaw.  He wants Dr. SpaceMan to do the procedure personally.  Does he have any appointments available?”

To RedFoots surprise there was a appointment available for Thursday which was three days from now.  He scheduled the appointment and proceeded back up the stairs to tell Twist the good news.  

“Boss they will be expecting you on Thursday at noon.  The first appointment will just be a consultation appointment, so the doctor can see what it is he has ahead of him. So we will be there a few days. It is going to take a couple days to drive out there so I think we should head out tonight and get our hotel lined up out there in Philadelphia?”

Twist nodded in agreement and jumped out of bed getting to packing his things for the next week or so.  After a few hours Twist placed his luggage into the box van and headed out with his bodyguard driving.  

A couple days later they arrived in Philadelphia and got all settled into the hotel they booked for the next week.  The next day was the day Twist went in to get checked out.  RedFoot drove him to the hospital that doctor SpaceMan practiced out of.  RedFoot approached the receptionist to check Twist in.  

“Hey, we are hear to see doctor SpaceMan.  The clients name is Twist!”

After the clown was checked in RedFoot went to go sit down next to him and realized he was nervously shaking.  Twist was scared for what the doctor may say about his jaw.  Twist impatiently waited in the waiting room for the doctor to call him back.

Spaceman passed through his office and entered the reception, followed closely by an assistant hauling a cart.  With his head buried in the charts on his clipboard, but he greeted his patient.

"Mister Twist!  I hope our office made it clear that since this is surgery that you should have arrived on an empty stomach, because we have a big breakfast waiting for y-"

The cart attendant lifted the lid, revealing a large spread of eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, freshly cut apples, oranges, coffee and grapefruit juice, but the damage had been done.  Spaceman looked up from his charts to see his patient.  No jaw.  The two men shared a pained expression as Spaceman turned to his assistant.

"Just uh.. just go."

The assistant slowly put the lid back over the breakfast platter and rolled out of view through the office exit, along with what felt like the air in the room.  Spaceman attempted to cut the tension and chuckled.

"Well, you didn't tell me you were on a diet!"  Let's get you back into the OR and make a mouth out of you."

The two men headed back into the operating room of Spaceman's medical complex and instructed Twist to sit on the patient chair as the doctor produced a nasal mask in one hand and a syringe in the other.

"Now, you have a choice.  Would you prefer to have this surgery performed under local anesthesia, or general anesthesia?  Local anesthesia will mean you are conscious for the entire procedure and may feel a small amount of pain, but will be a simple outpatient procedure that means you'll be on with your day before you know it.  General anesthesia will involve a spinal epidural and a heavy amount of sedation through nitrous oxide, which will render you completely unconscious and will require a few days of rehabilitation and recovery, and may result in some powerful hallucinations.. so I highly recommend it."

When the doctor and his assistant came out from the back Twist got really nervous. He doesn’t even remember the last time he could eat. When SpaceMan has a huge breakfast for Twist but quickly realized that Twist would not be able to eat it.  The whole situation was awkward until the doctor cracked the joke about being on a diet.  Twist didn’t take the meal personal but you would not have known that if you didn’t know him because he is unable to talk or show to many facial expressions.  Twist follows Spaceman back to OR leaving his bodyguard out in the waiting room.

After hearing about both anesthesia’s Twist decided to take doctors recommendations with the general anesthetic.  Besides Twist did not want to feel or see anything that was going to be going on.  The doctor had Twist go into the bathroom and change into a open back night gown.  Once he was ready the doctor called for his assistant getting all the equipment needed for the general anesthetic procedure.

The doctor had Twist lay on his side while he put the mask on the clown for the nitrous oxide. Once Twist began to fall out the doctor proceeded to begin the spinal epidural. First using a sterile razor type blade to cut toward the spine peeling away the skin layer.  Then inserted a pretty big needle into in between the vertebrates of Twist spine.

The last thing Twist remembered before leaving consciousness was the doctor asking him to lay on his side.  After about 2 minuets with the mask on his face he began to fall asleep.  Twist could not choose what happens after that as soon as he fell out the dreams the doctor was warning about began.

The doctor watched as Twist slowly slipped into unconsciousness from the powerful sedatives.

“Well, let’s get this puppy started.”

With Twist sedated, Spaceman got to work molding a sanitized dog jaw with filaments to attach to Twist’s mouth.  Badly damaged from past trauma, Spaceman filed down portions of what remained of Twist’s jaw as he began fusing the replacement into Twist’s mouth.  

“Sutures?” Spaceman directed to his impromptu surgery assistant, Rubix, who stared back unamused - perhaps displeased with the use of a dog jaw.  The dog slowly waddled to the equipment table and picked up a pack of sutures with his teeth, before walking back to Spaceman, dropping the sutures on the floor.

“Someone’s in a mood today!”

Spaceman picked up the sutures and carefully wrapped the sutures around the bones that connected the cheekbone and jaw, using them as a placeholder as he began the hours long surgery in earnest as he began fabricating a new jaw on Twist, who appeared none the wiser as the sedatives had knocked him out cold.

Hours later, Twist awoke in Spaceman’s patient room, finding part of his face wrapped around bandage - save for a small hole for his mouth. Spaceman looked up from his newspaper as he smiled.

“Well, hello there!  Nice to see you finally awake.  You’re going to feel very little pain for the next few hours, followed by.. well, a lot of pain.  We’re going to send you with some goodies to take to keep the pain down over the next few weeks."

Spaceman picked up a patient chart and began.

First thing’s first.. you’re going to be on an all liquid diet for the next few days.  The bones are still malleable and will need time to “take” for the rest of your mouth.  No jawbreakers for the time being.”

“Second, a little bit of extra skin was needed for the facial reconstruction surgery, so I  had to take a small sample from your body to make the skin for your chin and mouth.  You’re going to feel a little bit of pain from where I took the skin over the next few hours.”

Spaceman winced as his eyes focused on a bandaged, bloody area of Twist’s buttocks.  He didn’t need to know where he took the skin from.  Not now.

“Third, there was a small - nothing major - complication with the surgery. Your lips were reattached upside down.  To avoid a risk of infection, you’re going to be stuck with these for another 6 months before we can do a follow-up surgery.”

Twist’s eyes went from concerned to incredulous for a moment as Spaceman attempted to assuage his patient.

“..on the other hand, you may be able to speak now, albeit in a limited capacity.  This will improve as your muscle function increases.  Questions?”

As soon as Twist went out from the anesthesia the wierd dreams began. Twist was dreaming of flying through the city. Buildings to his right and left. At one point he was flying over the Golden Gate Bridge.  The wind was pushing through his hair.  He felt free, he felt unstoppable, he felt imperial.  Twist wanted to see how high he could possibly go.  He wondered if he was able to leave the atmosphere of the earth?  Once he got up at cloud level something seemed to has gone wrong.  His body seemed to have lost the ability to fly anymore. What ever was inside him and what ever feelings he had were gone. Twist just began to fall, and fast.  On his way Dow he remembered all of the bad things he did to people and families.  This was the first time he ever anything for any of his victims.  He was now getting closer to civilization and beginning to panic. Once he started falling between 2 sky scrapers he knew it was almost over. Right before he splats on the concrete below him his eyes opened.

The clowns face was wrapped in bandages and he was going through huge amounts of pain. He wondered what exactly Doctor Spaceman was going to give him to help treat the pain.  Twist knew he was going to have a rough time with the liquid diet he was used to eating candy from the carnivals.  He was willing to do anything to ensure he would be able to talk clearly again.  When Twist heard that his lips were put on backwards he was scared to see what they looked like.  

“No-o questions at the moment.”

Twist looked down at his hands couldn’t believe he was talking.  It had been so long since clear words had came out of the clowns mouth.  He was excited he jumped up still drowsy from the anesthesia and leaned toward Doctor SpaceMan and gave him the biggest hug the doctor has ever seen. This is the reason the doctor does what he does, it helps people.

”You don’t know how much I owe you doc. You saved my life.  I never thought I was able to speak clearly ever again. Thank You!  Considering my lips are upside down I look forward to seeing you in the next 6 months.”

On the way to the door Twist Twist had to stop at the reception desk and schedule the appointment for six months down the line.  RedFoot ran up to his boss asking him “did everything go ok?” 

Twist looks back at RedFoot after the receptionist told him his follow up surgery date and to get his medications at Spaceman’s pharmacy.

”Yes brother, I can talk again!  Now I can order my own foot at restaurants!”

Both men chuckled at Twist joke, the laugh hit Twist face a little bit but it will all get better. The two walk out of the establishment, happy and content.