Surgery Day(s)!

Ok, so I'm back from the hospital, but I'll start at the beginning.

We had a show time of 500am Tuesday, the 20th. We got there on time, no issues, over night bags packed and whatnot. They dressed me in gowns and got all my crap in place. The first tech failed to stick me with an IV twice, they then got another, better tech, who failed once and then got me the 4th time. So, that wasn't a great start, but I figured I was going to be going through a lot more painful stuff later so I could probably handle a few IV sticks.

Once that was finally done, we played the waiting game (and hungry hungry hippos) for a while until Alia and I parted paths and they took me to the OR waiting area. There was a bit of a delay getting me started, I guess my docs had an elephant walk inspection thing that the randomly selected room of the day has to go through right before surgery. Either way, it wasn't a huge deal. The docs were all very nice and I had a good time even though it took a bit extra to get going. I vaguely remember them carting me into the OR and a few of those things, but that's about the time my memory went blank.

[By the way, not really part of the narrative but I can't describe to you how much that frustrates me--the inability to not remember what happened. I had a pretty decent memory and I rely on it a lot, so to know that I was cogent and talkative but I had no idea what happened. What's worse is that I hardly remember anything the rest of the day, even after surgery. Oh well.]

This would be a good time for Alia to describe what happened during surgery from her perspective:

"They took Alex to anesthesia around 6:00 am and showed me to the operation waiting room. It was completely empty. I took a seat and waited for an hour. Then a few more hours. After four or five hours went by I was beginning to feel restless, to say the least. People began filtering in and out; evidently Alex's procedure was much longer than many of the operations taking place that day. At 8 hours I was downright nervous. Finally, around 3:00 pm (around 9 hours later), two of the surgeons appeared and called my name. The informed me that the operation was a success and that Alex was resting now. They explained that he lost a lot of blood (mostly out his nose) but didn't require a transfusion. He had elastic bands holding his teeth together but they didn't wire his jaw shut. I would notice metal plating on his upper and lower gums, but those would be removed later. They were pleased that they were able to shift the bones a full 1 cm forward, and cautioned me that the aesthetic difference would be very noticeable, but they thought it would be 'flattering'. He also had stitches on both sides of his face where the incisions were made. I thanked them and anxiously waited for another hour until they wheeled my droopy/drooly hubby by and into the ICU (The IMCU was full). The post-op edema was evident, but what really blew me away was the size of his lips! They were huge! Ah well--all the better to kiss me with (once he became coherent enough to give consent, of course). "

Yeah, so I don't remember a ton of what happened in the ICU. I was there pretty much all night I think, I mostly just remember vomiting blood fairly often. That was definitely the worst part of this entire thing--I had quite a bit of blood all over my sinuses and my throat and nose and all sorts of other cavities I didn't know I possessed. So, puking that out was productive but very painful and unpleasant. I slept off and on that night, while Alia slept at the hotel. Later, I was moved to the intermediate ICU and that's where I stayed for the rest of time. Honestly, I was just bored at this point. I starting drinking fluids for the first time for breakfast Wednesday morning, apple and grape juice and some chicken broth. I had the same stuff but beef broth for lunch. I was anxious to leave by that morning but we had a lot of delays getting out with just stuff getting lost in the mess of stuff, ie waiting for the Oral docs to give the go ahead for me to leave, but then my ICU nurses thinking I needed to do more things. Also, all my meds took a while and that was what we were waiting on for a long time.

My heart rate was also fairly high for a while, inexplicably, but I think I'm fine at this point. But, I know that was a concern for a bit for the nurses.

Around 5pm Wednesday, I was officially discharged. While I have had some xrays after the operation, I don't have a personal copy yet (though I'll ask for them on Friday) and I can show you all the screws and plates then.

In sum, the first 12 hrs after the operation have been the worst. After I got most of the blood out of the system, the nausea went way down and I definitely improved. Day 2 was really mostly boring, Alia and I just had to sit around forever. Now I've been back at the hotel, drinking juices, etc. I can't open my mouth at all, I have the rubber bands holding my teeth together, so I can't swallow anything. That makes pain meds a huge pain (pun!) cause we have to grind them up and drink them, which is wholly an unpleasant experience. To be honest, the pain hasn't been THAT bad. Though my face aches, it isn't too severe as long as I don't put any pressure on it. Though, the oddest things, like twisting my head or leaning it down can hurt quite a bit until it gets settled. Yawning also hurts, when my body tries to do it.

I'll post pictures after I decide if I feel like showing you all how gross I look right now. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.