Update with full story and pics

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loulou123
Posts: 716
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:33 am
Location: United Kingdom

Update with full story and pics

#1 Post by loulou123 »

Thanks for all the kind words again, here is a update on my surgery, (full story can be found on my blog - link at bottom of page.) :D


Here goes: (sorry if this scares anyone, i can only tell it as it is.)

Monday 11th feb 2008

Got to the hopsital at 730am with already a few tears in my eyes, so not the best of starts. Was taken to a ward, where we basically sat for ages. Then the anethetist came and introduced himself to me, and it became apparant that one of the medication i take for anxiety was going to be a problem as it contradicted with alot of other medications. :( add on to this that i have a alergy to ibuprofen type drugs and we had a large problem.

I was anoyed at this, as i had made sure the hospital knew of these problems, way in advance and they had done nothing about it, till the morning of the surgery. I was told i would be going to theatre in the afternoon, and went down at about 2 pm (so had been sitting in the hospital for 5 hours!!)

Eventually i was taken to the pre op and the local anesethic went up my nose, and they all commented on how brave i was being.

Suddenly tho, everything changed, and as the drugs were injected into the back of my hand, i freaked out completely, i remember trying to push the aneaetist away and telling him to stop as i didnt like it, at that point i lost it completely and tryed to push my way up, the last thing i remember is them holding me down, whilst putting the mask over my face. as tramatic as this was, it had to be done and im just glad they got me under the anesthic as quickly as possible.

Obviously i didnt know anything was goin on after this point for a few hours. . . .
The next thing i remember was waking up in a very light room and wondering why i was all on my own, i wasnt scared just confused, then i heard someone comment that i was awake and i realised i must be in recovery. I must have slipped back out of conciousness for a time, then i woke up to a very strange feeling in my mouth. I was very confused and disorientated but soon realised that my mouth was full of blood. I didnt freak out but knew that as no one else had noticed i needed to get it out myself, i was still too groggy to sit up, and just sort of spat it out, this kept happening and i still wasnt scared just getting a bit bored of spitting out the blood! Someone came running over at this point and sat me up slightly, i realised at this point how much id been bleeding as the whole of the night gown was soaked :( someone from the maxillo department came and packed gauze into my mouth, as one of the wisdom teeth id had removed was hemorraging badly. (this is quite uncommon but can happen to anyone, even from a routine extraction, and was just bad luck)


Then i laid there for a hour or so until the bleeding had stopped and i was able to go to the high dependancy ward. I didnt realise it at the time, but by now my family were panicing as they had been told the surgey would take 3 hours ish, and by the time i got back to them id been gone nearly 6 hours.
I was transferred to high dependancy for one to one nursing care, with a very nice little morphine pump to administer my own drugs :) my family and boyfriend came into see me, and i settled down for the night.


Unfortanetly my body had other ideas, and as the night progressed i became wheezy and my asthma got bad, so i had to be put on a nebuliser. Then the medication id been given caused my blood pressure to drop too. The night wasnt a good one, as i had 2 drips, a blood pressure cuff, my morphine pump, oxygen tubes up my nose etc etc. and as the night wore on i kept needing to go the loo, as the drips did there thing!


The next morning i was woken for my medication, and sat up in bed, helped to wash and some breakfast of porridge was laid in front of me, along with a great cup of tea. Obviously i couldnt and didnt try to chew, but i ate as much as possible.


It was decided i was well enough to be transferred to a normal ward at this point, so off i went via xray to have pics taken of my jaw. I felt really dizzy at this point and the swelling was already pretty bad, and i even had alot of bruising less than 24 hours after the surgery.


As my blood pressure had dropped from the painkillers i spent day 2 only being able to take paracetamol, which quite frankly were no use at all. That evening when the doctor came round, he said he was going to risk giving me some codeine again, as in his opinion it was cruel to expect me to only have paracetamol.


That night was aweful, and i vowed to be home the next day. There was also more good and bad news to come. The good news was that the operation itself had gone well, the surgeon was 100% confident there had been no permanent nerve damage, and the xrays were looking very good. The bad news was that i was holding my jaw very very badly, and although my teeth met fine, i was increasing my chances of a re lapse by continuely holding it at a very funny angle. Bands were placed on, and at one point it looked like i would be completely banded shut, but im still waiting to find out what will happen next :(

The docs werent too happy to send me home as id had so many issues along the way, but i pleaded with them and eventually they relented and discharged me wednesday evening. It was actually quite scary to be at home, especially as they had wanted to keep me in another night. But i was glad to see my own bed, even if it was hard to see under all the pillows i needed to sleep!!

The pics are all on my blog as ive gone a little mad and completely forgotton how to upload them on here!! :?

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Braces on 11th June 2006,~ BSSO and Wisdom tooth removal 11th February 2008,~ Plate Removal 14th May 2008,~ Braces off 28th August 2008.

http://adultwithbraces.blogspot.com/

clairet707
Posts: 79
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:46 am

#2 Post by clairet707 »

Ouch Ouch Ouch

That sounds horrific, bet you are glad its all over now..

Cant believe they hadn't sorted the drugs out for you before you got there, that's disgraceful (was it NHS or private?)... and leaving you on your own immediately after surgery :-(* Id be ranting (well when you could speak better)


Poor you, hope you are now feeling a little better, your swelling doesnt look too bad, the bruising came out quick though didnt it? Mine wasnt that bad till almost a week after, it can only get better from now on it though

ema27
Posts: 242
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:36 am
Location: uk

#3 Post by ema27 »

Hi lou lou-welcome back -first off well done for coming through it all-and oh my gosh what an experience you have had...Big hugs coming your way...
I have been following your story for ages now and knew your surgery was up and coming.(im having the same in 2 months time)So sorry for you that it was worse than you ever imagined-things can only get better right...
:? I must admit the bleeding would have freaked me out the most.Cant say im looking forward to my experience now.....
Look forward to reading more about how your feeling in the next few days...
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phil
Posts: 909
Joined: Mon Jun 12, 2006 6:18 am
Location: Ohio, USA
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#4 Post by phil »

loulou,

I am so sorry for your hideous experience at hospital. At least the worst of it is all over now.

I hope that you are being very kind to yourself, and doing as much as you can to help your body heal. Hang in there, and keep in touch.
There are no ordinary moments.
Check out my blog! http://pcadams.wordpress.com/

loulou123
Posts: 716
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:33 am
Location: United Kingdom

#5 Post by loulou123 »

Thanks everyone :D

Claret707- my treatments on the nhs, i was very anoyed by the drugs thing too, especially as id told everyone and wrote to the anesthetist well before the op, and yet on the day of the op know one had told him. :? The swelling is worse than it looks on the pic, but mostly under my chin, i was surprised by the bruising too and its still getting worse and worse :shock:

Ema27-please dont worry about your surgery, i was just unlucky and theres plenty of people on here whove had a much easier time and im sure your be one of them. :lol: I was too out of it to freak out over the bleeding, it was more of an inconvaince as all i wanted to do was sleep!! :shock: but at the time wasnt scary at all, its actually worse looking back at it now then at the time. Any questions please ask, you can always PM me too if youd like. :D

Phil-thanks for the kind words, hope fully as you say the worst is behind me now :D
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Braces on 11th June 2006,~ BSSO and Wisdom tooth removal 11th February 2008,~ Plate Removal 14th May 2008,~ Braces off 28th August 2008.

http://adultwithbraces.blogspot.com/

dubnobass
Posts: 423
Joined: Sat May 28, 2005 1:34 am
Location: London, UK

#6 Post by dubnobass »

Sounds like you had a rough old time - I hope you are starting to feel more comfortable now you are at home.

I was warned that it was major surgery, and it is. I don't think many people post full details of their hospital experience, possibly because some (most?) have it "easy", but I suspect some do not want to relive it.. and some were probably so out of it after the anaesthesia that they can't really remember it all properly anyway!

I think it's good to post about these things: not to scare people off, but because it illustrates that the things that can cause problems - bleeding, anaesthesia, drug interactions - sometimes do cause problems. I had a really miserable night in hospital myself, so I totally sympathise with you, since you had a couple of them!

As for bruising, this is me on day 4:
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It all went South, eventually.. and I had green boobs for a while Image
Braced May 2005
Bimaxillary surgery Aug 2007
Debraced Jun 2008

ema27
Posts: 242
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:36 am
Location: uk

#7 Post by ema27 »

Lou_lou _i still cant help being a little worried about my surgery and i will send you a pm soon_heres hoping your feeling a little better soon all the best in your recovery i will get back to you real soon.... :D
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loulou123
Posts: 716
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:33 am
Location: United Kingdom

#8 Post by loulou123 »

Hi guys :D

Meryaten-was quite a scary time, but as there was so much going on and i was still pretty out of it,it didnt seem that bad :shock: wish id had my wisdoms out at an earlier stage like you, as that wouldve prevented one of the problems, but hey ho. Getting to the loo, was interesting :lol: tho i had to be helped in case my blood pressure dropped more and i fainted.
Ive got appointments at the hospital with the oral surgeon and the ortho this thursday, so will hopefully find out more than. :?

Dubnobass-glad someone understands that i posted my experiances not to scare others, (last thing i want) but just to explain some of the complications that can happen. Thanks for the symapthy over my miserable time in hosp, sorry yours was bad too :?

Green boobs-very interesting lol :D :D your bruising looks pretty nasty, mines mostly on my neck still, looks abit like ive tried to hang myself!!
:shock: but is spreading to my face today :roll:
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Braces on 11th June 2006,~ BSSO and Wisdom tooth removal 11th February 2008,~ Plate Removal 14th May 2008,~ Braces off 28th August 2008.

http://adultwithbraces.blogspot.com/

clairet707
Posts: 79
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:46 am

#9 Post by clairet707 »

loulou123 wrote:Hi guys :D

Meryaten-was quite a scary time, but as there was so much going on and i was still pretty out of it,it didnt seem that bad :shock: wish id had my wisdoms out at an earlier stage like you, as that wouldve prevented one of the problems, but hey ho. Getting to the loo, was interesting :lol: tho i had to be helped in case my blood pressure dropped more and i fainted.
Ive got appointments at the hospital with the oral surgeon and the ortho this thursday, so will hopefully find out more than. :?

Dubnobass-glad someone understands that i posted my experiances not to scare others, (last thing i want) but just to explain some of the complications that can happen. Thanks for the symapthy over my miserable time in hosp, sorry yours was bad too :?

Green boobs-very interesting lol :D :D your bruising looks pretty nasty, mines mostly on my neck still, looks abit like ive tried to hang myself!!
:shock: but is spreading to my face today :roll:

I had green boobs for about a week too, still have a patch on my right one now!! :lol: :-((

Andantae
Posts: 546
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 6:26 pm
Location: Outside Minneapolis

#10 Post by Andantae »

Oh Loulou!

First of all, I am just glad you're on the other side. Wonderful! I am happy for you, too, that the Xrays look good and your surgeon was so positive about the surgery. That is GREAT.

What an awful pre-surgery experience. To make the effort that you did to inform them ahead of time about your med situation, and then finding out that nothing was done about it is really a shame.

I am inpressed how well you handled everything after the surgery. Good heavens what alot to have on your plate at one time.

I guess your photos say it all, however, MS Loulou! OUCH! Are you starting to see some glimpses of your new jawline through all the swelling yet?

dubnobass~ WOW! That is some serious discoloration. & Green boobs? Now that is just WRONG!
Braced 5-30-07 for 18-24 months
In-Ovation Uppers, Metal Lowers, TPA upper arch, Lower Lingual arch, no elastics.
100% Deep Bite, Crowding, Over Extrusion
BSSO & Genio surgery June 4th '08!


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"Truth is a bully we all pretend to like." Gregory David Roberts -SHANTARAM

clairet707
Posts: 79
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:46 am

#11 Post by clairet707 »

Just seen your update on your blog, sounds like you are doing really well for 6 days post op food wise

I wasnt eating all that much after 6 days, I was having to syringe everything in which didnt help

Pain wise, I hear you, Im still getting the pins and needles and shooting sensations now, and my nose appears to be constantly itchy but can I scratch it, can I heck

Keep at it, you are doing well :-1

Rach
Posts: 235
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:40 am
Location: England

#12 Post by Rach »

Lou,
Good to see your updated blog, and how your getting on, your diet is very similar to that of mine. Have you tried blended up pasta yet? its actually very yummy! :)
Sorry to hear your hospital stay was so rough, I know what you mean with all the things they attach to you, although I didn't need the toilet the first night so didn't have that annoyance. And how you woke up with noone around you and blood in your mouth! :shock: scary! But thats all behind you now, which is good.
Your swelling and bruising is hopefully coming to its peak now and then will recede a bit over the next week or so. Then you may not look like you've hung yourself! :)
Anyway, take it easy and look forward to seeing your updates,
Rach xx
Feel free to take a look at my SurgeryBlog


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Delag
Posts: 834
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:46 pm

#13 Post by Delag »

Yikes! You did have a rough time of it. At least you have some great war stories to tell your grandkids about! Glad you are home and on the mend.

Daveyboy
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:26 pm
Location: UK

#14 Post by Daveyboy »

Hi LouLou

Just read your update and it sounds like you're doing really well for 6days post op.

It's ecnouraging that you've got the pins and needles feelings happening as i've heard that these are good sign of the nerves repairing themselves and the first step to getting feeling back. I can sympathise tho that it must be driving you mad!

Keep up the good work and it sounds like you're managing to eat loads which can only help.

Dave
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loulou123
Posts: 716
Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2006 4:33 am
Location: United Kingdom

#15 Post by loulou123 »

1 week post op today-cant believe its gone so quickly.

Andante-im impressed as to how well i handled everything too :D but as i was still very groggy, i just got on with it, so i could return to sleep asap!! Still have no idea as to what the outcome will look like as SO bruised and swelled! :?

Clairet707-i think im doing pretty well eating too, was eating with a spoon, barely 12 hours after surgery, so thats one part of my recovery im very proud of!

Rach-no blended up pasta for me yet, tho theres still time :lol: Hopefully the swelling will start to go down soon, before my chin explodes!!

Delag-thanks for the kind words.

Dave-i think i am doing pretty well for days post op, tho i went out to shop today and then had to sleep all afternoon, so maybe i need to take things a little slower!
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Braces on 11th June 2006,~ BSSO and Wisdom tooth removal 11th February 2008,~ Plate Removal 14th May 2008,~ Braces off 28th August 2008.

http://adultwithbraces.blogspot.com/

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