Surgery! Days 1 and 2.

Hey guys,

I made it.  I really want to try to put this post together so as to not scare everyone who hasn't had theirs yet but I'm just going to tell you how things went for me specifically.  Unfortunately my version might not get you so amped for yours although I'm glad I didn't know going into it how brutal the recovery was for the first ten hours after or I would have been dreading this a lot more.

I showed up at 6a and didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes before i was called.  They strip you all the way down and all you wear is a garment they give you and then a robe over top.  You can see the pics below for an actual visual.  As I said before I was only really nervous about what I was gonna do in my down time in the room for so long and the results.  Those should have been the least of my worries.

I don't know what it was but in my head walking into the room where all the people are getting prepped for surgery getting their IVs started and "loopy medicine" going got me super nervous.  You get to meet everyone else who will be in the room other than your surgeon before you get rolled in.  I just compared that walk into that room though like a cow who was about to get slaughtered and had no idea what he was in for.  Thats a terrible metaphor I know but I think the thought of not knowing what was going to happen next just got me so nervous.  They tried putting the IVs in both my hands and the girl wasnt able to hit either vein.   The anesthesiologist said it was because I was so nervous and my veins were retracting.  Eventually she had to do it herself instead of her assistant and they got me going.

After meeting everyone, they roll you into the room and thats when you start feeling the first drug.  Honestly I hardly remember seeing my surgeon, I think I shook his hand and said we'll take good care of you and that was the last thing I remember.  They said I talked to him afterward too but I dont remember that either.

So they asked me if I was in any pain and I remember saying no my joints were a bit sore like a 5, 10 being the worst. They took me up and was so in and out of it.  I drank some water and it felt like I had strep throat.  This was by far for me the worst part.  I don't know if something was unique about my case and they just scratched my through or they had trouble getting it in, I really don't know but thankfully now its subsided to a bad sore throat.

I was being forced to eat jello in little spoonfuls which was also not fun since all I wanted to do was sleep and then after taking percasets about a half hr later I threw up all of it along with a lot of dark blood.  I stuck to morphine from then on and I had an oxygen mask on me to help me breathe cause I kept having shortness of breath and this machine would beep everytime I wasnt breathing in enough oxygen.  This didnt exactly help my throat.  The surgery was at 8a, at about 8pm my mom had already left so it was just the nurse and I and she had me sit up to use mouth wash.  I was able to use that and then the flood gates opened. I said I was going to be sick and she just left me in the room to do my business...I threw up a ton of dark blood I guess that was sitting in my stomach from the surgery.  After that I felt fine.  I'll be honest I wouldve preferred a really bad hangover than go through that again.

I was able to eat water ice and a crushed pennicilin in that at around 1am and I was in an out of sleep most of the night which was good.  Whether or not you want to, you will have to go pee every hr and half at least cause the IV pours in 100 mL of water into your body every hour so its kind of hard not too.  The nurses were greatly helpful though everytime and its vital to have someone there with you for the first 8 hours to help you everytime you want a drink or if you are being forced to eat something like I was. My mom was there for me.

So far I am obviously really swollen.  I have no feeling on my bottom jaw, chin, or lip.  I can feel just about everything else.  Most of the pain is coming from the joints/incinsions they made on the outside of my face to put the screws in.  Apparently they put in 2 screws on each side.  I should get the X-rays to see on Thursday when I go back to visit.

My bite feels great when I bite down like Im supposed to like everything interlocks and I can't stick my tongue out anymore haha. Right now though it just feels like I purposely have to move my bottom jaw to the left for everything to interlock.  The other resident doctor said that the orthodontics will eventually fix that and train my jaw how to bite down properly.  Hopefully this will fix my crooked smile that I had before.

I was able to scarf down breakfast which consisted of cranberry juice, apple juice, and cream of wheat and I had no sickness since that 2nd and final throw up.  I was not expecting it to be so bad from everything I've read but I'm just so glad its over.  Apparently the swelling is supposed to get even worse in the next two days and then gets better from there so we shall see how it goes.  I was able to check out of the hospital at 10 am today, the day after.  I'll have plenty of time to kill so I'll post once each day with pics to show my progression.  Let me know if anyone has any questions if you're reading this now or even a year or two for now.  Sorry if I scared anyone!