Surgery Recap: Surgery day->Day 5 Post Op

Hi everyone. I'm sorry that this is INCREDIBLY long. I tried everyday to sit and write a post, but I couldn't get past 2 sentences or so before I got too tired or the swelling seemed to intensify. I'll recap:
Surgery Day

Woke up at 6:15 and checked into the hospital at 7:30am. We were called back to the prep area at 9:45am. They went over all my history and I met with the anesthesiologist and a few nurses. I have always had problems getting blood drawn and IVs placed; my veins are small and always seem to "roll." Well, they put one in, and I started to get a lot of pain in my arm. They checked to make sure the IV wasn’t infiltrating. Apparently it was “fine,” although it still hurt in my forearm. They gave me some medicine to relax, and let me tell you, it had very surprising side effects!... but those were gone within 5 minutes. They told my parents to tell me goodbye, then rolled me into the OR. The last thing I remember is that 3 people were standing over me and told me to take a deep breath, I think I struggled for some reason and said “No, not yet.” Ha, don’t know why I, but I wasn’t ready to go under!

I woke up in recovery and I remember asking the nurse a lot of questions, and heard her mention that to someone. I definitely remember asking how long the surgery took (3.5 hrs) and if they ended up having to do the genioplasty (which was a slight possibility; and they did not, thank goodness!)

Next thing I knew, they were rolling me down to my room. I think the man rolling me tried to comfort me and said how pretty I looked. Haha, he could have said anything at that point.

I’m not sure what span of time passed, but eventually my parents were brought in, and my nurse gave me the pain meds, Roxicet (which is the only time I’ve taken them, surprisingly.) That night was pretty horrible. At first I was in a room with a lady who must have been delusional, she would scream for a nurse about every 5 minutes but never seemed to need anything. They eventually moved me to a private room, where I ended up vomiting up large amounts of blood twice. Now, I truly respect nurses and the jobs that they have to do (I’m a nursing student). However, my nurse that was pretty bad. There was somewhat of a language issue, but it was mostly that she hardly ever asked any questions, and basically only came in to check on my IV the whole night. When I noticed my hand was swelling, I told her and she called the Stat Nurse to come re-do it. I don’t know what’s wrong with my veins because I have had problems with every IV I’ve ever had. The Stat Nurse came to change it, because of all the nurses, she is the most experienced. It took her 2 more times; she thought I was on blood thinner because I bled way too fast, so she moved to the other arm. We asked the doctor and he said that they had not given me any blood thinner, so who knows. Then at about 4am, one of the surgeons that was still in the hospital came by to check on me and said “Now, I see you have only drank about 600ml of fluid so far. We need to get you drinking more than twice that before you can leave tomorrow.” I looked at him, very confused, and said “The nurse has never checked to see what I have been drinking and has not told me to drink a certain amount.” At that point, I had barely at 100mL of water. She also dropped my syringe tubing in the sink that was used to washing hands, and proceeded to put it back on the syringe I was using to drink. My mom saw her doing this and asked for a new one. The next shift that morning gave me an amazing nurse; she was really on top of things.

By that afternoon, I was drinking enough to go home. So they sent me for X-rays, then released me.

Days 1,2,3, and 4 Post Op

I’m grouping these together because that’s how I remember them. Pain never got too bad during these days, so I never took the pain meds (worried they would make me nauseas.) I have taken the phenergan a couple of times though, helped me sleep through the major discomfort. You feel like there are pounds and pounds of pressure on your face. I’ve had a hard time with my throat. It felt like I got my tonsils out (again). It doesn’t really hurt anymore, but it itches like crazy and makes me gag and cough about every 15 minutes.

I’m feeling better right now than I have since surgery. When people say recovery is slow, they are RIGHT! I wake up and touch my face to see if any of the swelling has gone down, and of course, it hasn’t. I’m just as swollen today (Day 5) as ever, but my coloring is a little better. I’m starting to bruise, but I think that’s good… shows I’m healing.

So far I’ve found a few numb spots:

-about a silver-dollar sized area right below the right side of my mouth is completely numb

-the right half of my bottom lip is numb, but the tingly type

-strangely, a part of the left side of my neck is numb.

I haven’t taken off my “jaw bra” except to fix my hair, so I’m sure when I do, I’ll find more.

I managed to get down 2 motrins today, so I’m hoping it might help a bit with the swelling.

Eating/drinking has been the biggest challenge yet. I’m NOT hungry at all, which is surprising, because I love to eat. Normally, I’m always thinking about food! Haha… but my mom has been making me eat. Everything is just so unappetizing. So Far:
-chocolate ensure

-gatorade

-apple juice

-V8 fusion

-yogurt + milk + soy protein powder

-attempted chicken soup (-minus the chicken and noodles) but I

started to bleed for some reason.

I have absolutely no urge to eat… which is bad because I know I need to eat enough so that I can heal.

I think those are the highlights. I’ll post soon. Thanks again for all your comments this week, it really has helped!

Pictures so far:
1 Day Post Op

2 Days Post Op

4 Days Post Op

5 Days Post Op

Hope things are getting better for you, Heather. Has the pain diminished at all? I’m guessing you have so much more than me because your nerves weren’t messed with… which is good! Although, I’m sure it feels like hell right now.

Holly, your day is coming closer! Getting ready?