A Day by Day Diary of my Surgery

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#1 Post by **r3lic87** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 8:16 pm

Everyone in this site has been INCREDIBLY helpful to me, and my quest to recvoer fully from full jaw surgery. To help some people who are coming up on their dates, I will offer some of my experiences starting with day one or the surgery.

Day 1-Surgery Day
I report at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN on basically no sleep. I had a restless night before. Since my surgery is so long, they wanted to get me in the OR as soon as possible. So the goodbyes and everyone happened much sooner than I thought. I was taken into the emergency room at 7:38 to recieve a surgery whose name is longer than the description than I'm about to give you. Their plan is to move my lower jaw forward and place it with screws. They plan on covering up the void they made with a bone graph that they took out of my upper hip(the insicion for this is about 5 inches up on my stomach which was a surprise for me). They worked on this first, and I guess it took the longest time by far. They then moved to my lowerof jaw where they plan on moving it back 14mm. They secured this with a mixture of screws and plates. The final thing they did was a procedure called a Genioplasty. They moved my chin out and secured it with some more metal.

I was placed in my room at the hospital around 6:45 at night. I actually have no recollection of the post-op room, which i thought was kinda odd. I woke up to an unpleasant surprise; however, I was born with a abnormally large tongue. They were worried this would interfere with my breathing, so they kept a breathing tube in my nose until later the next day. This was really uncomfortable, and it prevented me from any sleep. They also had a tube in that went into my stomach to prevent me from throwing up because all the blood that might make its way down there in the night. The one nice surprise of waking up is that they only used elastics to hold my mouth shut. It was always an option, but they had to have the surgery go perfectly to prevent them from using wires.

This may be one of the worst nights of my life. With all of the tubes, I constantly felt like I couldnt breathe. I was coughing a lot, which was very painful. My one night in the intensive care unit is one I hope to forget.

Day 2-Things really improve
I woke up, with no surprise, both tubes still in my nose. The intensive care unit doctor came to my room around noon, and he took out the breathing tube. This greatly improved a lot. The stomach tube was still pretty annyoing, but I still felt better. Around three and after they made sure I could keep food down, they took the stomach tube out. Having an extremely long tube being taken out of your nose also wasnt fun, but with my nose completely freed, my situation was starting to look a lot better.

It took them awhile to find me a room out of the intensive care unit. They finally found it around six at night. They brought me over on a wheelchair, which at this point I realize the true uncomfortability of a catheter. The wheelchair ride seemed like it lasted forever. I finally reached my new building, and I sat around for awhile. My doctor came in that night, and he said everything looks fantastic.

I then got the catheter taken out, which was another HUGE upgrade.

Day 3-Leave Day
I talked to my doctor early that morning, and he informed that if i could drink 20oz of fluid before he came back at 3; I could go home. I was really looking forward to going because sleeping in a hospital is just impossible. I drank the necessary fluids, and it was actually pretty rough. After this surgery, its amazing how much your appetite decreases.

I was given the OK to leave, and I happily did at the time. I was taken out in a wheelchair, and driven to my hotel, which was right across the street from the hospital. It was nice to be in a homier place, but i was having great difficuly breathing. My nose was nonexistent, and I didn't feel that I could get enough air in from my mouth. At the hospital they gave you this hose type thing that blew a nice cool mist constantly. It helped me breathe greatly, and I realized this at the hotel. That night was very rough, and I basically got about 20 minutes of sleep total. I kinda pushed to go home, and my parents didn't think I was ready, so I may have proved them right.

Day 4-First full day at the Hotel
Well I stopped trying to sleep at around 8am, and my mom was the one, who was chosen to stay up with me. I spent that whole day basically rotating from bed to chair to couch. The trouble of breathing lasted throughtout the day. I didn't feel a whole lot of pain thanks to 2 Vicodins every four hours. A few unconcious moments in there, but basically the day was extremely long and boring. No really sleep that night either, and we were starting to get very annoyed.

Day 5-Another boring say at the hotel
My want for real food came back to me at some point this day, although i never felt real hungry. The syringe they gave me to feed myself with had the great ability to make EVERYTHING unappetizing. We tried smoothies, and I could get about one full syringe in before I was full, so the whole day I basically had a cup of liquids. It was night time, and it was once again a great struggle. We started taking Ambien to help me sleep, but that didnt help me at all.

Day 6-Post-Op appointment
Today was the first day, I was concerned about my hygiene. I took off the tape covering my chin at the advice of the doctor. That came off easy after I soaked it in water. I then tried to shave...wow this really wasn't fun. I had grown a pretty fierce beard at this point,a nd it was very difficult due to the extreme size of my face and soreness. Then we left for our doctor appointment at 2. I walked to the appointment which tired me out immensely. The doctor was extremely pleased with the results. He took x-rays, and we compared it to my pre-op. This was unbelievable and made it feel worth it. He said I could take the elastics off three weeks prior to the surgery, and to see him six weeks prior to surgery. I was to remain on mainly liquids for six weeks as well. He also said we could go home, so I took 2 more vicodin, and we got in the car for our 6 hour car ride back home.

I got home, and I got my first night of sleep since the surgery. To wake up to sunlight was the greatest feeling in the world.

Day7-Full day at home
Today was a pretty good day. I have alot more resources to keep myself occupied. It went quick. My swelling in my lips went down greatly last night. I still cant really close them tho, cause there is still no feeling in them. I planned on not leaving for a long time, so I think I'm prepared to tought this out.

#2 Post by **nvcarissa** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 9:45 pm

Thanks for sharing and keeping us posted on your progress. Your surgery was definitely more involved than mine will be.

I hope you are starting to feel better now.

How do you take 2 vicodin? They aren't pills are they? Aren't you wired shut?

#3 Post by **r3lic87** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 9:51 am

I am shut with elastics. I can open my mouth with the rubberbands on just enough to fit a pill in there. It's kinda scary;however, i feel like it would be very easy to choke.

#4 Post by **KathleenH** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 11:27 am

I am glad that the surgery went well! It's always nice to see the x-rays, since you can't tell by looking at a swollen and bruised face if anything was actually accomplished.

I hope your recovery continues to go well. The first week is the hardest, and you've survived that. Each week is a definite improvement physically.

I understand about the hygiene - I had a wedding to attend 3 weeks post-op, so that was the first time I put on makeup since the surgery. That's really hard to do on a face with new contours, especially while numb!

I can't believe you're taking pills. If you're really concerned about choking, ask the pharmacy for liquid vicoden; I was on that for two weeks.