Day 7 Post-Op

Day 7 = NOT heaven. Today was actually a pretty bad day. I didn't sleep much last night due to the new bands and a tickle in my throat. I may not have mentioned it, but sleep is pretty hard to get. I have several different meds that I'm on and I have to set alarms at night to get up and take them. For example.....I take my last meds at 11pm and then I get up at 3am for some meds...then 5 am for different meds....then 11am for meds..etc etc. So...when I get to sleep for 'long' periods of time (like 11pm to 3 am and 5 am to 11am), I really need that sleep. The new bands didn't let me sleep most of the night, and then Chris got up for work and woke me up and it took a while to get back to sleep...and then the dogs wouldn't go to sleep and finally forced me out of bed. =( When I did manage to get up and around, for some reason I was really nauseous. I ended up getting sick a couple of times, which was REALLY not fun since I can't really open my mouth or anything. This ended up making me cry....which clogged my nose up....and it was just a disaster. Not to mention, the dogs got in the mud yesterday and had to be bathed TWICE just to get back into the house. NOT FUN.

Around 5pm I started feeling a little better. I managed to eat a pudding cup and a little bit of applesauce and keep it down. Chris made it home and we just laid around all night...hopefully tomorrow will be better. Here are Day 7 pics:

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).