rough copies of x-rays

I tried to scan in my x-ray prints...and the results weren't good. But thought I'd post anyways, and try to figure out a better way to get it from paper to computer. Color copy/scanning? Taking a picture of the prints with my camera?


Tuesday, May 6, 2008

I can't figure out a way to post this as today's post w/out having to re-write everything and repost my pictures....I started this post a while ago, but the x-ray photocopies were in pdf and I couldn't post them...I thought once I edited it and "published" it, it would post under today's date. Oh well...

Well, I finally got around to converting the pdf's into jpegs...of the bad copies. They'll have to do. Here they are.


The first is a side view, obviously, and you can sorta tell that there are metal strips/L-shaped things and screws in my sinus cavity...well, holding that upper jaw in place, and I also have metal plates and 4 screws holding those plates on each side of my lower jaw.

What's pretty obvious is the problem w/ my C-spine. It's not curved into a C, it's straight. It should be a backward facing C, but my ortho issues were keeping me from getting that addressed...maybe once the braces come off, I'll attend to that, b/c it's affecting my back. I had a chiropractor who said my TMJ issues may have caused the scoliosis (sp?) and my C-spine issue. He said b/c of muscle tenstion, I might have started to hold my shoulders/neck/back in a certain way to alieve some of the pain and then things got screwy. I also had joint surgery at 14, and since then my smile got scriniched to the right and the slope of my right shoulder changed and I have smaller tense muscles in my right shoulder. The surgery was on my right side...so it's very possible the TMJ could've started the slew of other back/neck issues. I know it screwed w/ my jaw/bone growth, but that's been operated on, so hopefully that'll be fine in another 6 months. :)


Now, the next bad, rough photocopy of my x-rays will show the lower ones better...the photocopier didn't do the gray parts well so either it turned out all white or all black so it's actually a very bad copy...better find a new way to show the x-rays more accurately.


I'm as proud of my x-rays as a tot is of her new bandaid...gosh, will I ever grow up?
heehee...

But, you can see the metal plates and screws better on the bottom. I thik that line above my upper teeth is the line that they cut my bone on. and you can see some of the metal plates (these are L-shaped) w/ some screws that's holding things together up there.

So, there, I've reported some pictures, finally...I'll try to get better pictures and maybe ditigal copeis of all this if the doctor will hand them over...I just hope they have it in jpeg format or something I can work with b/c the last time I asked for the treatment plan, a year ago, I was sent all these files I couldn't open w/out special medical programs...poo.

Well, still on a puree diet so I'm gonna go purchase some Zip n Squeeze puree bags to help me out. I'm always hungry when I'm not home. :(
I survive on juice and milk and pureed soups. Chicken noodle purees really well, and I tried Chicken Tortilla and it wasn't as smooth, but still the flavor was appreciated. I laid off the mashed potatoes tonight b/c I didn't want to get sick of eating them b/c that's one food I can eat in its "normal" form...that and silken tofu, which I mash up and slurp in w/ soup or bbq sauce.

Monday equals Follow Up

And today, I got elastics, finally. And I AM IN PAIN!
I took pictures to remember which hooks I'm supposed to loop the bands around, and took them off to eat.
AND I CAN'T GET THEM BACK ON. I'm dead serious and dead scared that I'll have to call my doctor tomorrow and he'll yell at me. But the pain is kinda subsided now that the bands are off. But I don't know how to get them on. I thought I should be able to get them on and off pretty easily b/c he gave me a small envelope of replacement bands. But no, of course nothing can be easy with this surgery. Gosh! The insurance approval took over 2 months of nonsensical refusals that made me think they didn't know what procedure they were refusing and everyone I talked to said something different. Then the scheduling took like 1.5 months and then the date got pushed back twice so I was set to go on Mar. 6th, then Mar. 27th and finally happened on April 3rd. Then there were some complications during surgery w/ bleeding and so it took 10 hours instead of the 6-7 hours promised while I was still conscious (all jaw-related surgeries I've undergone took 1.5 times what they think is appropriate...10 yrs ago, for the joint surgery, mine had to be an extra-long 4 hour surgery instead of the average 2.5 hours). Nothing is easy for me. And now the pain...well, that's kinda normal.
BUT, the pain is more than any braces-induced pain I've suffered thus far. And I'm supposed to stretch the elastics out by opening my jaws and moving, which feels like the bone screws in my face are going to pop out and let my jaw crumble into my pie hole. Ugh. I can actually feel the gap between the piece of where all my upper teeth are stuck to and the rest of my skull above open up...and feel my right mandible about to snap w/t he pressure.
I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but it really hurts.

The funny thing is, b/c I have no sensation in my upper teeth, my lower jaw really, really, really hurts and I can just feel the pulling on my upper teeth with some displaced pain. Like in my cheeks by my nose. But the pain I can feel in my lower jaw more than makes up for my upper jaw and makes me sit quietly in pain. I mean, I'm so much quieter since the surgery and now I can't think of getting involved in anything happening around me. All I can do is contemplate how much of which pain killers I'll take, and when. So I'll be going to bed with my Tylenol with codeine elixir tonight, and probably to work a little high. Maybe I'll brave accusing looks (b/c I'll look like a druggie) and take it to work with me tomorrow!


X-RAYs
The other exciting thing about today's visit was the x-rays. My first set since the surgery. Maybe the last? I hope they take some more maybe like 6 weeks later to make sure everything ended up fine. B/c as of now, the chopped-up parts are not flush with the rest of my facial bone structure, the screws are doing a fantastic job of holding it all together is all. And I'm pretty careful not to let anything other than hot, moist towels fresh from the microwave and my own, careful hands near my poofy cheeks and senseless chin.
I like my x-rays. I counted 4 screws on each side on my mandible, for the BSSO, and 8 on each side for the LeFort, kind of to either side of my nose is where it seems. I'll try to scan in the print-outs my doctor gave me and post them once I figure out how to do that.


I hate what my skin's doing these days. I can't really be too concerned about exfoliating and other crucial aspects of skin care and it appears that my face has gotten very oily. Maybe it's the change in weather (which SUCKED today in Chicago! It snowed in certain parts, like near O'hare and was rainy and really cold all over. People pulled out their winter coats b/c it was too much to bear in light spring-summer windbreakers.). But I think possibly, b/c my body has identified my face as an area of trauma needing healing, there's a lot of blood flow there (or I hope) and other necessary building blocks for bones and flesh wounds. So there's more oils following that away too? And I can't deny that possibly, the Vaseline I apply to my lips might be spreading. But I need the Vaseline. It's part of my post-surgical routine, b/c my lips were so abused it needed some plain vaseline TLC. So hopefully the small bumps and the oiliness will stop soon, b/c when they appear near my lips or on my chin, I can't really feel anything but when I or the doctor pushes on them it feels like someone stuck a needle sterilized in fire in those spots! So odd, once again, that I can feel pain but nothing really pleasant.

Good news is that I don't dribble nearly as much now. :) Actually barely any dribbling! But still can't eat very much in any one sitting. It's a pain in the arse.
Today I spooned about 1/4 cup each of Stagg brand chili (w/ beans and beef), guacamole which I've been consuming religiously for vitamins, minerals and good fats, and that veggies-and-grain concoction I've been eating nearly daily into a blender cup and whirred it like 10 times. The stuff got really creamy and the small onion pieces in the guacamole were gone! It was a pukey lime-greenish brown...I'm not accustomed to all my food looking dubious. And it tasted fantastic compared to some of the stuff I've been trying to down, but I got through about half of it and I could feel the gag reflexes.
I figured that if I force myself once I get the gags, then that's it for me and that mixture. It'll be branded in my psyche that that concoction is nasty and makes me want to puke. So the best thing is to stop while I still think it's the best meal ever and take a break, maybe drink a couple sips of juice to clear my palate and wait for my stomach to be food-ready again. I think it works.

I had bought a can of Spaghetti-O's b/c I read that they can be swallowed w/out chewing, on some extreme sports forum on people who've had terrible accidents skiing down cliffs and doing other dangerous sports (like extreme ATV riding...like I was doing when I tore ligaments in both hands/wrists). These people were recooping from injuries from their activities but they were jaw-related in that they either broke their jaws, had to have their mouth wired shut or something terrible. I mean, I'm going through this b/c I couldn't use my teeth, chew or eat properly in public! They did this to themselves! So about the Spaghetti-O's...I don't think I can start eating that b/c of the elastics. If I succeed in getting them back on tonight, I'm not taking them off for anything.
The doctor had said last week that he'll give me a week off after today's follow-up, but he wants to see me again next week...b/c of the new elastics. Oh well. I guess I'll take next Monday off from work too. I have a legit reason, right?

Oh, and I'm supposed to start on some new antibiotics today that's supposed to make my bones really strong. Dioxicycline? Or something like that. I'll study the label when I take it...as soon as I post this!

tidbits

new tasty spoonfuls:

I've done this before, but found out today that I can do variations of it by adding strawberries, and other fruits (& veggies?)
Our family is BIG into baked sweet potatoes. Just scrub them clean and rinse thoroughly so that there's no dirt on the skin (the skins have tons of vitamins and fiber, so you should try to eat them if you can...I can't right now). Then just cut off the tips (just like the point parts) at both ends, b/c that's where dirt likes to stick. And roast/bake in the oven at around 400 degrees Celsius until they're soft when poked w/ a fork.
Cool baked sweet potatoes.
I take one medium to large sweet potato that's soft to the touch, peel it (it should be very easy, as the insides shrink a little and the skin is already mostly detached) and toss into a blender. I add a spoonful of honey, to taste, so if you don't like to too sweet or don't like honey, it's optional. And add a dash of milk, I estimate about 1/4 cup to begin with, depending on how sticky or soupy you want your tasty spoonfuls. Blend together, pulse and stop to make sure the blades are getting to it. I need to bang the thing around and push it towards the blades, etc. a few times. Add more milk if you think it needs some help.
EAT with a dainty spoon.

I still get food all over my lips when I eat b/c I can't open my mouth big enough and b/c I can't stick my tongue out to lick up stuff, and if the food is left on parts of my lips that lack sensation then I just don't know about it. So I always keep a napkin or tissue or paper towel near by to wipe after each bite or every few bites. This is also why I can't handle spicy foods yet, my lips get burnt and tingly when hot stuff is left on it and it's painful on my yet-open wounds.

I want to eat more successfully.

The problem with me is that I can't really eat very much w/out getting those gag reflexes. I'm guessing that the cap is at 100 calories. I should try to keep track. But I know it's not even close to what used to make me feel full before the surgery. I don't know if I can finish a bottle of Ensure in one go, but I knew I couldn't since the day I returned from the hospital. That was almost 3 weeks ago (I came home on the Sunday after my Thursday surgery). I thought I couldn't drink a whole Ensure at once was b/c I could barely sit up for 10 minutes to down the stuff and I had even more limited swallowing as my face was so swollen it invaded the insides of my mouth and I could barely swallow my spit and blood. I was still bleeding for a week at home, from my nose, down my throat and in my mouth. I also had infestations of what I took as mucous, which indeed some proved to be when some of the bloody mucous came loose when I gargled (against better judgement). Yuck, right? Yeah.
This is why I despise most food that I try to consume. I try pureeing things and if I can't get whatever portion I had determined to swallow down fast enough, that's the end of that meal. I've eaten like 5 times today, but I don't know if I have 1000 calories in me today. It hasn't been a good consumption day, and I'm sitting here on my bed, occasionally glaring at the mere 3 teaspoons of strawberry-puree-infused sweet potato "tasty spoonfuls." It's taunting me but I don't have the heart, or more accurately, the stomach to try to finish it yet. Maybe in another half hour...when I should be getting to bed...with some water or juice to help it along.
I also started getting picky w/ my spoonfull of guacamole I mix in w/ the grains and veggies soup-puree I try to eat every day. I pushed out the onion bits w/ my tongue...they've been bothering me but I've been just swallowing them up until now. Everything's getting on my nerves when I eat. And the fact that my parents ate out and brought back some Chinese food isn't making me too happy...b/c I can't even fit one piece of anything into my mouth yet.

Anyone else who's had this type of surgery find it difficult to eat and keep food down?

all of April...approx. 3 weeks post-op

So pretty much all of April spent on this orthognatic surgery and recovery...and I still feel as though I'll never fully recover. Maybe in a few years.

I am going back to work tomorrow. I'm a little scared b/c it's a law office and so naturally, things get tense now and then and sometimes down right hellish. I hope that won't be the case tomorrow, esp. b/c I don't even know if I can sit at a desk for 3 hours straight and work. I'm going in mid-morning to mid-afternoon. I don't know how long this arrangement will have to go on, but I was thinking a slow comeback would be best. Like easing into scalding water, or boiling a frog by slowly heating the water, not throwing it into boiling water. Part of my reasoning is that it won't be so jarring to the core of my being to ease into work, but most importantly, I really don't know if I can physically handle a full day just yet.

My lower front teeth really hurts alot these days. My upper teeth may hurt too, but I have no sensation in my upper teeth or the roof of my mouth so I can't tell.

On Monday, my doctor declared that my mouth looks "beautiful" and it relieved me to think that things went nicely. He almost let me skip a week of follow-up, but then thought better of it and said I'll need to come in for x-rays and a follow-up next Monday, but the week after that, I can take off. He said most of my stitches along the lower jaw fell out/melted away but I still have some stitches holding on in my upper mouth. If I lift my top lip off my teeth w/ my fingers, I can see a white stitch, like the tail of some small rodent hiding from me. All of the stitches that fell out of the back of my mouth a week or so ago were brown, and the ones in the sink when I brushed and rinsed were brownish-pink. I'm now wondering if they were blood-soaked and were forever dyed that icky color. But on the other hand, the one I can see in the front might be bleached by now, and it probably didn't get soaked with blood continually like the ones in the back.
I think of how for the first week and a half I absolutely needed to have a garbage can and tissues and paper towels or plastic-backed liners on or next to me all night long. And I would wake up like 5 times a night on average to wipe up blood that drizzled out of a nostril or ran in my mouth. It was like I slept so lightly I could feel the blood oozing around. Not a pleasant thought, but that was what it was. I remember the day after I got home, I was sitting in bed and turned and leaned a little and out of no where my left nostril had a heavy stream of something and I squealed for a tissue b/c my mom was in my room but it was too late and I ended up catching most of the sticky brownish liquid in my hand. And some got on my bed. Ick. It was not opaque, but it was definitely sticky, and though fluid it did not share the viscosity of water. I'm sure it smelled funky too. My doctor told me it was probably one the blood clots in the back rooms of my nasal passages that was draining. And sure enough, I had a steady week of nightly brown ooze from my nose. It was not pretty and it surely woke me up every night.
I also bled nightly, bright red blood. My nose in the mornings and afternoons would be filled with blood-boogers. I sometimes didn't realize that I was trickling blood out of my nose pretty constantly, but it was there every afternoon and morning. And I wasn't even blowing my nose b/c I was told not to in the hospital (not that I had tissues at hand or had the energy to blow through my nose). I didn't know when the ban on blowing my nose ended, so I still haven't blown my nose yet. I just rolled bits of tissues and swiped inside my nose to clear things out when things got clogged. Sometimes that didn't help b/c the clog was beyond the reach of any tool I could use.
But now, I can proudly say I need not have a rubbish bin and tissues by me when I sleep. I still feel more secure when I have a tsp. of tylenol with codeine elixir and a half-cup of water next to me when I go to bed. I still wake up every night whimpering with pain. Not a pretty look for a young lady, but what can I do? I can't eve lied down flat on a bed yet. I took a bath today and decided to dunk my head back and boy did that hurt my lower jaw...I have no idea why. And things hurt when the pressure shifts, so I still sleep on a sleep ramp created w/ pillows and cushions.
Oh, and on Monday, my doctor gave me a new prescription for an antibiotic that's supposed to help harden my bones. I'm supposed to take it morning and night, twice daily beginning next week for two weeks. So on to more meds.

In some TMI news, my bowel movements have become more irregular. I didn't go for about a week after the surgery, but then for the next week, I was regular with this sludgy not-quite-diarrhea stuff that was almost black and reminded me of slime. It took like 5 flushes to get rid of it too, quite nasty. But for the past week, the wastes have been getting lighter in color and more shaped. Tonight, things looked almost normal but still kinda dark and sticky on the porcelain, but I got smart and now line the inside w/ tp before I go, so things go down in one flush. Save water, save the earth. Go Green!

3 weeks in, I'm wondering what other ppl do for nutrition. I'm still on a no-chew diet, but today I tried some bits of noodles and a yolk of a poached egg. I made a ton of this veggies-and-grains thing in a crock pot that took like 2 nights of slow cooking and an hour pureeing. I'm sure under normal circumstances, I'll like it alot. But now, I can't really taste things well and it's just gross. My mom added milk, some butter and salt to it to make it better. And it's sweeter now, and though I normally don't eat butter (I don't act like I'm allergic, but it's not what I choose to add to my food either), I'm thinking it's helping me keep my weight on. I also took to mixing in a couple tablespoons of guacamole into this soup thing, b/c the lime and spices brighten the flavor a little. But I find that I have trouble eating, like I'd feel full after like half a cup of puree. I think maybe it's the extra butter and guacamole in there, b/c of the extra fat, my body isn't liking it. I feel like the gag reflexes I had my sophomore year in college is going to come back. When I was a sophomore in college, I had an internal gauge of when I needed to stop eating. I'd suddenly have a strong gag reflex and that'll be the end of my meal. I couldn't force myself to eat another bite, much like early pregnancy, or so I was told. I was just weak and my defenses/immune system was down and couldn't handle nutrition well. So I think it's a similar situation. I tried to add balsamic vinegar to a bit of soup yesterday, but I also added some olive oil and that too was too much for me. The b.vin helped me fool myself that the brown color was b/c of the additives...and ate quickly but my brain wised up and knew the color was already brown, just darkened by the vinegar.
I am trying to eat some Activia yogurt every day. I also drink chicken broth every day. It's the broth from two spring chickens boiled w/ lots of water, like $30 worth of fresh American mountain ginseng (which makes it slightly bitter, but helps w/ energy and circulation and healing), garlic and dried jujube dates. It's a variation of Korean SamGaeTang, which is a spring chicken stuffed with dried jujube dates, some ginseng, garlic and sweet rice and boiled. It's really great for cold winters and for mid-summers when ppl feel droopy. Mine doesn't have the sweet rice that cooks into a sticky, sticky ball b/c I can't eat it. So some good comes from having an OMD mom...nutrition and additional herbal help.

Confession: I lied to my doctor about my weight loss. And it was all premeditated. It's a pretty lame thing to lie about, I'm sure. But I got scared he'd scold me if I lost too much weight b/c he was stressing how I need to eat every time he came to see me in the hospital. He even came over to observe my first or second meal in the ICU, after my 24-hour ban from anything going down my esophagus. And he came to make sure I was eating once I was in a regular room. He said that I needed to eat and show him that I can take care of myself so he can release me from the hospital and know that I'll get better. And then the Monday after the surgery, my first follow-up visit, he again stressed how I needed to eat or I'll disappear and I won't heal correctly. So I had this idea that if I lost weight, then I wouldn't heal correctly and my bones will warp and my jaws will forever be held on only by bone screws and never meld w/ the rest of my skull. He didn't say this, but this is what I imagined.
So I lied on Monday that I lost 5 lbs, when I really lost more like 6-7 lbs. It's not like I lied about a 10 lb difference. And much to my relief, he said that's okay and he'll even be okay with up to 10 lbs. But then yesterday morning, I had a bowel movement and weighed myself while waiting for the microwave to heat up my bowl of slow-cooked, veggies-and-grains puree, and I was 8 lbs down! I felt bad about lying to my doctor. I even tried to sound like I was doing the best job possible about eating, talking about mashed avocados (the guacamole) and he lauded the quality of vitamins, minerals and healthy fats in avocados. He seemed pleased, and I felt good about the little lie. But seeing how my teensy lie turned out to be bigger, I felt bad. But still w/in the acceptable 10 lbs, right?
I weighed myself again this evening after dinner, before my bowl movement, and I had lost approx 7 lbs, so I'm good on weight. I mean, I gained 5 lbs just for the ordeal and took iron pills for 2 weeks pre-op! So I'm down to normal and it's not like I'm a feather weight either. I'm still w/in healthy BMI ranges. Actually probably more so now that I lost those extra 5 lbs I had gained.

So, if anyone is reading these posts at all, I'd love new tips on things I can slurp in with a dessert spoon. And maybe even portable foods that aren't too messy now that I'll be returning to work. I will definitely carry my compulsory bottle of chocolate Ensure Plus and eat a breakfast.

I tried the mashed bananas with nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla yogurt that someone else had posted and it was sooo yummy! I also tried half a small banana with some chocolate pudding and cinnamon and that was almost like a banana split.

I think that's it...for today.

Swallowing Stitches and socked in the nose?

that's exactly how I feel.

I meant to post this yesterday, but the internet was down and I was in too much pain to do anything about it.
Between yesterday morning and yesterday evening, something went really, really badly. I woke up with some groggy morning pain and discomfort yesterday, but I thought it would get better. NOPE! It progressed downward all day. For the past few days/nights, everytime I reclined at all, I felt a heaviness in my upper teeth/sinus/nose area. And heard some weird little pops and clicks. Yeah, not good, but things blow over, right? Once again, NOPE! I'm worse now than I was on Wednesday and Thursday. I ate significantly more yesterday than I did on Wednesday and Thursday, possibly even as much as ate both days. So nutrition should be decent right now, but I'm still lacking appetite.

And last night, I had soooo much trouble sleeping. Between yesterday morning and like wee hours of this morning, I've self-medicated more than I have in any single day in the past week. Well, I guess self-medicating is the wrong word, as I've been prescribed those meds, but it's also been suggested that I lay off the really strong stuff. But boy did I need that "sleep aid" last night. Even with it, I had fitful sleep if not whimpering in pain and awake.
So I feel like someone socked my nose while I was looking elsewhere. And I felt like everything I ate yesterday got clogged in the cavity between the roof of my mouth and my nose, extending to the back of my throat (or whatever is there). And I feel a bit of that right now.

Oh, and I also found out yesterday that I have absolutely no feeling on the roof of my mouth and my upper front teeth. I don't know what my back teeth are doing b/c I can't stick anything back there to see if they have any living, working nerves connected to that area. All along, I felt like I had burnt the roof of my mouth and hence was numb. But I never ate anything hot enough to burn my lips, okay, I did once, but didn't notice it was hot until it touched my tongue b/c my lips were lacking a crucial sense. Kinda like leprosy. But I never even once thought I couldn't feel the roof of my mouth b/c my tongue knew what it was touching I couldn't stick my finger in my mouth to feel around until I decided to move my jaws more yesterday. It was creaky and a little painful, but I didn't want to loose too much range of motion.

And yeah, so my upper lip might be doing great, but the inside isn't. Which also brings me to the fact that I think I swallowed about 3 loose stitches today alone. And I saw at least one trickle down the drain when I brushed my teeth and spat one out and preserved while at the sink. I have like 4 dried-out stitches I proudly fished off the tip of my tongue like a cat proud of her catch of mice. But it's partially gross and one of them stunk pretty bad and when I rinsed my mouth with salt water, there was a whole lot of wispy reddish-brown stuff that came out of the area that just lost the stitch. I think it might have been bits off of a blood clot where the stitch used to be.
And I'm having trouble brushing my right molars b/c it hurts so very much to stick my toothbrush back there. It's like I'm ripping open the inside of my mouth with a toothbrush. Yeah, it hurts. I can endure the pulling when I do it to the left side but the right side is a whole different monster. It hurts. And that one area on the left side of my chin that I can't feel anything? I think it's doing a Sahara Desert. It's expanding. I dribble alot and oddly enough, I can feel the burning of spicy foods left on my lips but the I can only feel tingles when I touch it. It sucks that I can feel pain but can't feel essential sensations.

I think that's it for today. :)

2 weeks post-op

Hi all,
Noticed some folks updating the world about their jaw surgery progress and thought I'd do some of it myself. I'm horrendous about keeping up w/ blogs, evidenced by abandoned 'internet networking communities' and my xanga. But I'll try to keep to this.
So my surgery was 2 weeks ago, April 3, 2008. I had a LeFort 1 and a Bilateral Sagittal Split Osteotomy of the mandible (BSSO). It took a total of 10 hours instead of the 6 my surgeon estimated in the pre-op room or the 7 hours that I was told two weeks before the operation. I came out looking like they'd sewn gigantic waterballons into my cheeks and pumped my eyelids with industrial-quality silicone. IT WAS BAD. Apparently my dad took pictures of me with his camera phone when my parents came to see me in the ICU. I only remember that the corners of my lips were roughed up and red and as big as normal lips. It was like I had my lips on steroids and instead of tapering off into corners, there were ugly tubes on either sides, like over-inflated parenthesis.
My dad had also taken pictures of my head in the pre-op room after my doctor taped a surgical dishcloth on my head to keep my hair back. The shape of my head w/ the high pony tail under the head dressing was like that of pharoahs in their mummified goldend caskets. So my parents thought I looked like a version of Cleopatra, so loving in their description.
Essentially, I went in as a Cleopatra and emerged 10 hours later as a beat-up boogie monster. So yeah, two procedures, took 10 hours b/c I was bleeding significantly (tho not enough to need a transfusion, or maybe they just didn't tell me...but I'm sure it's like against the law not to tell me or my guardians of a blood transfusion). This was all on the operation table, so they decided to go back in, open things up, unscrew and clean up, and redo the procedures. So it took another half a day's worth of work. I wonder if they took a lunch break or went to the bathroom in between b/c 10 hours is a long time, but then I wonder if it's okay to leave a half-dead person bleeding on the table while they grabbed a bite.
So yeah, that's what happened. The swelling decreased to about half during my 4 days in the hospital. I went in on Thursday, was supposed to be released on Saturday, but they kept me until Sunday to finish a round of antibiotic treatments. So everything got pushed back a few days. But I was sucking up blood with my own handy-dandy suction wand all the way into Sat. night. So maybe it was needed.

I woke up on the table, and the first thing I saw was the clock and I thought I lost my time-reading abilities while on the table b/c I thought I was going to wake up at around 2 pm, but it read something past 5 pm. I think I asked what time it was, and remember remembering the word to describe what I felt like...nauseous. I remember being pleased that I hadn't lost vocabulary and used that word to whoever was listening. And my hip hurt, so I complained some more. I don't know if they understood me, but like 5 or 6 of them lifted me off by the sheet under me and slid me on to the transporting bed. I saw that they transferred my IV so nothing will pull that needle from my hand....and noticed that I had IV's in my left hand, where they had slipped the drowsy stuff as they wheeled me out of the pre-op room and made me feel blurry. But in addition to that, there was another IV in the crook of my right arm!
The elevator ride and trip through the corridors to my ICU room was like a really bad roller coaster ride. I was very, very sick and was sure I was going to throw up, but then being the weirdo thinker I am, I started reasoning with myself. "But I didn't have anything to eat or drink for the past 20 hours, of course I have nothing to throw up. ... No, I'm sure I still have stomach acid. That would be bad for the stitches in my mouth, and how would they clean me out? I'd hate to get stomach acid on my gown b/c I don't know if they'll give me a new one until tomorrow." And so on. And eventually, I came to my ICU room and once again, they transferred me on my bed, or so I think, b/c I was fading again. But then I saw my doctor, and some other doctors who worked on me come by, and someone brought my parents. I started noticing the pain and complained/whined and my nurse kept on assuring me that the doctors are ordering my pain meds. And eventually my morphine pump came, and she placed that in my rlight hand, pointed out my suction wand and what it's for, and placed the call button/remote system by my head. I don't know if there was another IV stringing from that other needle in my artery, but the next day, my nurse told me that pain on my right wrist, on the thumb-side was not only a pile of gauze but a needle into my artery. Great. I also saw that my right wrist was bruised and there was evidence of 4 failed attempts at sticking that needle into my right wrist artery. There was also that persistent pain in my right hip, and saw that that's where my catheter tube was taped. So I had a catheter connected to my bladder so I could leak out my liquid wastes and they could measure it all. How nice. But it was uncomfortable and even hurt when I moved.
So yeah, that's what I remember of the first day. Oh, and everything upset me. While they went and got my parents, before I had a morphine pump or knew where my nurse call button was, the TV bothered me. It was on and it made my head throb and so I lifted my right leg and waved it and cried, "excuse me" the best I could for half a minute b/c I clearly saw someone at the desk across the corridor. She finally got fed up and came to see what was wrong and all I wanted was my TV to be turned off. But that's when I noticed the catheter...b/c it was attached to the leg I was waving.
I'm going to see what I can manage to eat now...I only had one bottle of chocolate Ensure today and that's really bad. I need to eat more so I'll heal. :)

I can't wait to see the results in another few weeks! At my last weekly visit to see my surgeon, I saw my orthodontist in the hall way. He almost didn't recognize me. The swelling and all, I guess. And he asked me to show him my teeth, so I managed to pull my front teeth almost closed and he was very pleased! He said everythign matched up and he'll be seeing me soon. :) Yay for tweaking!