Day 10 and Day 11 Post-Op

Well, it's Sunday evening and I have yet to get out of my pjs. I know, I know....L-A-Z-Y!!

Yesterday was day 10 post-op. This was a monumental day for one reason: I got to get off of my antibiotic that I had to get up every 6 hours to take! This is huge, because this means I MAY get a full night of sleep! Whoo hoo! I'm now not on any prescribed meds...just Aleve for the headaches and throbbing and Wal-Zyr (some Wal-greens sinus stuff) to help me keep from getting stuffed-up. Getting off of these meds also means that I get to sleep with Chris again. We've been sleeping in different beds since the surgery since I've had to sleep 'sitting up' and have had to get up so often at night for meds. I didn't want to keep him up all night when he had to work and all, so he's been snoozing in the guest room. It's been weird...and I'm glad I'll have him back next to me. Anyway, Saturday was great- Chris and I stayed in most of the day and watched movies. We managed to get out and go see a couple of friends..then we came back for more movies. It was great, relaxing day. Here's my day 10 pics:

Day 11 is the first day that I feel like I look somewhat normal. I'm not normal for me, but I do think that if I was walking in Wal-Mart people wouldn't stop and stare anymore. SWEET. I'm still really swollen in my cheeks and under my chin and on my neck....but hopefully that will go away soon. In my last appointment I asked the doctor how long until I looked normal again, and he said I should look like I did within 6 weeks and that I would be finished changing/adjusting within 12 weeks. I had the surgery on December 3rd, so if the doc is right I should be looking pretty decent by Christmas. Here's my pics for today:

The last picture (directly above) is the weird smile I was telling you about. That picture is me just trying to smile like a normal person...seriously. Certain muscles just don't seem to be working right now, but I've heard that is normal. I just hope the smile comes around soon...I feel so weird.

For those of you who don't know, I got a new job as a senior marketing/sales analyst for a company outside of Dallas, TX. They are going to set up an office for me here in Bentonville and I'll be traveling to TX several times a month. I start the job on January 5th...so I'm hoping to look normal by then! Until then, I'm working from home for WhiteWave Foods. I do feel blessed to be able to work from home for the rest of the month....I don't know how I would feel being in public every day.

Alright- soup time! Hope everyone had a good weekend. Oh, and thanks for the comments...I've never done the blog thing and didn't know how I would feel about putting all of this out there, but it's not that bad and I really do appreciate the comments.

Days 4 and 5 Post-Op

Day 4 and 5 photos are below. Nothing new to report, except that I am now alternating ice and heat on my face- and it seems to be helping with the swelling some. I no longer feel like my head is going to explode, although my skin still doesn't feel like skin.

I got my first night of sleep (6 hours off and on due to getting up for meds) on Day 4 and that alone made me feel so much better. Hopefully good sleep will continue...

Day 2 Post- Op

Looking back over the past few days, I would say that my second full day after my surgery was the worst. My face and lips were so swollen that I don't think my friends or family would recognize me on the street! At all times I was in pain..not only was my throat killing me, my nose and lips freezing and my jaw throbbing, but I also felt like my entire head was going to explode from the swelling. The pressure was tough....

Day 2 pictures below-

Day 1 Post-Op

Day One was pretty miserable. I was exhausted from a lack of sleep, my face was always freezing from the ice packs and the numbness from the surgeries, and I was frustrated with having no control over my lips/mouth. I had a lot of phlegm in my mouth, but I couldn't spit it out because I had no control of my lips. I couldn't swallow it really either, since my throat hurt so bad. So....I'd make terrible sounds trying to form a loogie on my tongue and then I'd try to stick my tongue out as far as possible and try slobber into a rag or something. It was so disgusting! Not to mention, every time I would lean forward to spit something out my nose would start to bleed! Pretty terrible day if you ask me.

Chris called the doc for me on this day, because the pain meds were just not dulling the pain for me AT ALL. Ends up, the pharmacy wrote out the instructions incorrectly and I was suppose to have been getting twice as much as I had been getting. Once the dose was updated, the pain was much better. I would feel 'ok' for about 3 hours...and then that one hour before I could have another dose was pretty miserable. I tried all day to get some sleep, but that didn't work out for me.

Below are pictures of Day 1 post -op:

Coming Out of Surgery

They took me into the surgery room after I changed into my gown. At that point, one lady started wrapping my legs up like a mummy while another guy started putting on different monitors. The IV came next, and I was quite thankful that he got the needle in the right spot the first time. I started getting really nervous at this point- I could hear my heart on the monitor...the surgeon and few assistants were just kinda standing around me with their funny hats on....my legs felt like I had tights on now....and I saw an instrument tray LOADED with scary looking utensils. The Drug God looked at me and said "It's time to go to easy street," as he pumped something into my IV. A minute or so later, he asked how I was feeling and I said "Relaxed now, thank you. I'm great." He put the oxygen on my nose and said to take two breaths...and that's all I remember of going under.

While I was under, my top jaw was sawed away from my skull and moved forward and then bracketed back to my skull with brackets and screws. My bottom jaw had a sliver of bone removed from each side and then was pushed back and bracketed/screwed into place.

Coming out was confusing and terrifying for me. I remember having a very vivid dream..and I awoke from that dream to nurses saying "she's coughing, she's coughing." Then, I opened my eyes as a bloody tube was being pulled from my nose. I tried to say something and couldn't move. Finally I figured out where I was. I had to pee really badly and I tried to tell the nurse, but she didn't understand me at all. Finally, after pointing "down there" repeatedly and muttering "eeeeeeee" she got it. I had to wait forever for the Drug God to unhook me from all of his devices, and I just kept telling the nurse "eeeeeee" and giving her the look that said "I'll do it! Don't make me pee my pants!" Two nurses and a wheelchair later I was able to use the restroom. Thank goodness. No time for modesty when you are the one peeing in a one-seater bathroom with three people in there!

I got back to the chair and laid down. I started hurting pretty badly, so the Drug God gave me another dose of happy meds and I just sat there for a while. The surgeon came back and said that everything went really well and then...finally..Chris got to come back and see me. I could see concern in his eyes, but he was great at being strong for me and telling me how great I did.

I have no idea how long I was in 'recovery,' but it seemed very short- maybe like 30 minutes? A couple of nurses helped me get dressed, then they wheeled me out and Chris loaded me up. After picking up my meds and dropping off a check at the bank, we made it home. I never got sick or anything, but I was very uncomfortable and being jolted around in the car didn't feel good at all.

Chris immediately got everything into a routine for me- he kept track of my meds, helped me take the meds (crushed pills, diluted gel meds into juice for me, etc), made sure that I kept drinking liquids (even though it hurt really badly and I didn't want to), walked me to the bathroom, set up the humidifier, etc etc. He set me up in bed so that I could sleep, which is all that I wanted to do, but my body wouldn't let me. I was still hurting too much and a little freaked out about having just gone through surgery.

Two things greatly surprised me the night after surgery- 1) My throat hurt SO bad from the tube they had down it to pump my stomach out and I could hardly swallow anything 2) I couldn't sleep at all. I assumed the drugs would knock me out, but they didn't and the pain kept me up for almost the first full 48 hours.

Below are my 'day of surgery' pics (note that I could not close my mouth and that I wasn't trying to give any "look"...I was just looking normal).

Morning of Surgery

Well, that's me...about 15 minutes before going under to have both of my jaws done. I had just finished crying and having a little panic attack with Chris- he calmed me down. The whole time leading up to surgery I was excited and nervous...but only right before the surgery did I truly get scared. So anyway, surgery was minutes away.

The below pics are just my x-ray right before surgery, as well as my profile.