I'm happy to say that I had surgery at 11:30am yesterday and feel well enough to recap. :-) Here's how it all went down:
We arrived at the hospital at 9:40 (10 minutes late due to a car snafu - I left my headlights on the night before and my battery died - DOH!). Realized on the way to the hospital that I forgot my phone. Can you say nervous??? Not scared, just nervous and excited.
The hospital was expecting us at 9am - I'm not sure why since the paperwork they gave us said to arrive at 9:30 - and we got dressed down by the nursing team lead for being late. I was able to channel some of my nervous excitement into annoyance and indignation at the lecture, so thanks nursing team lead for taking my mind off things! Thanks also for passing us off to a nicer, more friendly member of your team!
Things progressed pretty quickly once our nurse came in. He checked us in, reviewed the risks, ordered 2 different anti-nausea meds, got the IV started, etc.
Anesthesiology came in to review my history and my biggest concern was post-op nausea and vomiting (which I have done after EVERY other surgical procedure in my life). I really didn't want to be puking with a mouth full of open incisions. They decided to do complete IV anesthesia and gave me a bunch of anti-nausea meds in addition to that, and it WORKED! I didn't get sick. Not even one bit of nausea. So for anyone out there who barfs after surgery, ask for total IV anesthesia. I'm getting ahead of myself here, so back to chronological order.
After meeting with our nurse and anesthesia, my surgeon and his assistant came in to review the plan one last time, answer any outstanding questions we had, etc. Once that was done I said goodbye to my husband and gave him a good, long kiss (sorry to anyone who was in the room at the time - I'm not normally a PDA kind of person, but I knew it would be awhile before I could kiss him again).
Then they wheeled me into the operating room, had me scoot onto the surgical table, and I remembered looking around the room at all the people buzzing around (there had to be 6 or 8 people in there), the huge lights, etc. The surgical table was actually comfortable which surprised me. My surgeon took a picture of me right before they put me under.
Next thing I remember was waking up in the post-anesthesia unit, very sleepy, but asking for my husband. I must have asked for him 10 times and probably annoyed everyone until they took me into recovery where I could see him.
We stayed in recovery for about 2.5 hours. The nurse came in to give me a steroid shot which took down my facial swelling immediately. Hubby took a picture of my new bite and I started to cry with joy when I saw my upper teeth overlap my lower teeth - it looked just like the models we saw at the surgeon's office. What a feeling! I also noticed that I had a ton of room for my tongue despite the splint due to all the expansion (2 mm at the back and 5 mm in the premolar area). I could also breathe through my nose which was an incredible feeling and a big surprise. Most other upper jaw patients I've read about are not able to breathe through their noses for a week or more. I drank some water through a syringe and peed and they released me to go home at 6pm. The nurses who took care of me in recovery were very nice.
Got home at 6:30 pm and took a nap for a few hours, then took some pain meds and started eating. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could open my mouth wide enough to get the tip of the syringe in, so anything that could go through the syringe was fair game. So I ate some soup. And yogurt. And juice. A smoothie. Water. I think I will be the only person on this planet who has jaw surgery and doesn't lose any weight. Figures.
After my eating frenzy I slept some more thanks to my friend hydrocodone. I didn't have much pain, just a bit of discomfort, but I didn't wait to see if it would turn into pain. Much better to stay ahead of pain than to chase it. I also iced my face constantly all day and night after surgery to help with any pain and to keep swelling at bay.
My husband has been a tremendous help and is taking such good care of me. :-)
Thanks for posting on my blog! Im glad I found your blog too! I have the same issue with anesthesia as well, so that puts me at ease that they were able to make you not throw up. How was your pain in the hosital? Were you able to use the narcotics there? My doctor said because of my sensitivity to pain killers that they would have to figure out something.
ReplyDeleteI hope your recovery keeps going well. I'm interested to see how you make out with the accupuntcure....
PS-That's so wonderful that you help find homes for greyhounds, they are such special dogs!
Nikki, I had no pain at all in the hospital. I was completely numb for about 12 hours (they use very long lasting local anesthesia in your jaws) and after that wore off, I was still 95% numb because they cut all the nerves during surgery. I didn't really have any discomfort until the 2nd or 3rd day when it felt like the back of my palate was swollen and a little sore - and even that wasn't bad enough to need narcotics. I took them anyway, just in case the pain increased - better to stay ahead of pain than to chase it. On day 3 I started taking Tylenol for little aches and it worked just fine (and it normally doesn't work for me - go figure!). I hope your doctor can find a good solution for you.
ReplyDeleteThe acupuncture has helped tremendously with my headaches, and it seems to be helping with the swelling as well. I had my 2nd treatment today. The headaches aren't gone completely yet, but they aren't as severe. Really the headaches have been the worst thing about surgery. I expected some discomfort and inconvenience, but not disabling headaches.
I'm so grateful that I didn't have any nausea after surgery. In addition to the total IV anesthesia they gave me some other anti-nausea drugs - it was probably overkill, but to wake up and not be sick was priceless. I'm so glad that it was possible and hope you sail through with no issues.
Feel free to email me at bali.hooligan@gmail.com if you'd like to talk privately.
It seems funny to say, but I'm hoping that I am as numb as were after surgery!! I hope I will be able to manage my pain with just over the counter pain meds as well. I get so nauseous from pain killers, it's almost better to just deal with the pain. I am definitely going to have a long talk with the anesthesiologist about what they can do for me. I have had 3 prior surgeries where I have gone under general anesthesia and each time I wake up so sick, it's miserable.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear the acupuncture is going well and is helping with your headaches. I hope you continue to get relief from it, and that your discomfort goes away. I am very interested in holistic/alternative medicines and how they factor in to the recovery process for jaw surgery patients.
I really appreciate you offering your help, thank you very much! I'm sure closer to surgery I will have a lot of questions. Now I am just dealing with trying to get in touch with the surgical coordinator...it's a lot harder than I thought! :)