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!