Recovering from jaw surgery alone? Advice?

[bretodeau11]

It appears that undergoing double jaw surgery in the near future will be in my best interest. Unfortunately I really do not have anyone that I would feel comfortable with enough to ask to accompany me through surgery and the recovery process. My plan is to get my surgery from Dr. Gunson in Cali. So, I fly to Cali, book the hotel across from the hospital that provides shuttle service and stay two nights at Goleta Cottage hospital. Also to stock up on everything that I need beforehand so I don't have to worry about driving to get food, (liquids to be more accurate), get all the meds set up and everything. I don't know, is this even allowed? Is it doable? Do you need someone to stay at the hospital with you? Help!

[Pequod]

It's doable. Just make sure you have someone to get you to your hotel. You'll sleep a lot the first week anyway. Have the hotel just checkup/call periodically in case something goes wrong. Be very careful standing up, and do it very slowly hugging the wall as you might get very light headed if you suddenly get up from bed. You'll have no one around if you do happen to fall.

Stock up on your supplies. I recommend milk + peanut butter smoothies. As with that you're hitting the highest calories per volume possible and drinking may be difficult depending on how you're banded.

[bretodeau11]

It's apparently not allowed, in case anyone is wondering.. At least at the hospital I'd be getting the surgery at. You cannot be alone for 72 hours after leaving the hospital, and you cannot leave alone

[Pequod]

I doubt they let you leave alone after any procedure for liability reasons and always would require someone sign you out. But I'm surprised about the 72 hour rule as they have no way to verify/enforce that.

[kplatt2010]

Hi there- I would not recommend being alone the first week. It's all well and good if things go swimmingly. However; it's major surgery where they are breaking your jaw and applying plates to hold it together. There's also all the risk entailed with surgery that can possibly occur.

My surgery was 6 hours long and I was quite anemic following the surgery. Although the surgeon and / or anesthesiologist estimated my blood loss at only 500 ml, they were underestimating or simply full of sh*t. My hematocrit dropped 17 points from 41 to 24. I was so weak and light headed when I left the hospital that I had to squat in the elevator going up to our room or I would have passed out. The only reason I did not ask for an extra day was because I was seriously afraid something bad was going to happen as the quality of the hospital care was very poor.

I would highly recommend having someone there for the first week once you're discharged. While your hospitalized; depending on where they keep you post-op, having someone stay over may not even be an option. I was kept overnight in a step-down intensive care unit and we were not allowed to have someone stay with us as it was a 5 bed open bay type unit (Presbyterian Methodist NYC).
Karla

[bretodeau11]

I guess this is one thing I'll require somebody to help me out with. Thanks for sharing your experience Karla

[eh1253]

Agreed, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it alone mostly cause of the risk if something goes wrong. Maybe have someone on standby or hire a nurse for the first day?

I think otherwise if things went well then recovering alone might be doable. It is nice to have someone keeping track of your med schedule or who can drive but those are kinda just quality of life things. Driving is a big one though cause you won't want to drive while doped up.

I spent 2 nights in the hospital and if I had left any sooner I could NOT have recovered on my own. I stayed with my Mom for 3 nights after that but other than driving me home I don't remember her assisting in ways that I wouldn't have been able to help myself IF I HAD TO.
I think the key to recovery is to start acting normal ASAP and eat/drink all the time. Once I started going on walks and getting some sunshine I realized I wasn't as weak as I felt. Also remove the blood boogers as soon as the surgeon lets you! I was afraid to remove mine and they made it hard to breathe and gave me headaches.