Day Zero: Humpty Dumpty Day

Okay, fellow jaw surgery patients, I finally feel well enough to post another entry.  It has been hard for me to find the energy to start a post, but mostly because the back-light on my computer/phone/iPad really was bothering my eyes those first few days after surgery--- all I wanted to do was keep my eyes closed behind an eye mask.  In fact, it hurts even if I keep my glasses on too long.  The weight of my glasses on my face really adds to the balloon like pressure I feel in my face, so I take them off every hour or so to relax my eyes and face.


But for now, let's travel back in time to Friday, my day zero.  Here are some bullet points of what I think were the most notable parts of those 24 hours in the hospital.

Day 0

• Surgery was 5.5 hours long.  My surgeon was very pleased with the surgery, and the assistant Doctor assured me that she thought the surgeon had really outdone herself with my surgery.  I guess that means that the Doc was extra meticulous?  No nerves were cut, so I had 
• 100% feeling in my face immediately after surgery.  It was the first thing I tested for when I woke up.  I reached up to my face and realized I could feel my lips, my cheeks, my chin, everything!  This immediately made me feel better, as I had worried about losing feeling in my face (even temporarily).  
• I woke up to astonishing thirst.  I mean I was more than just parched--- it felt like I had just spent an entire day in the desert without water.  So I immediately grunted for water, and was happy to see that I could drink out of styrofoam cup with virtually no problem.  I dripped very little, and if I did, I could FEEL it, which was again, reassuring.  
• My jaws were obviously banded shut, but I felt no pain, just discomfort.
• My family came into my room about 20 minutes after I woke up, and all of them were super impressed with how little swelling I had.  I immediately reached for the hand mirror and realized they were right.  Here's what we saw:

• All was well, until I sat up a little more and then the floodgates in my nose opened up.  I could not stop the flow of blood coming out of my nostrils.  It wasn't exactly a steady stream, but I did have to hold tissues against my nose for most of the rest of the night.  Surprisingly though, inbetween nosebleeds,
• it wasn't very hard for me to breathe.  It was really (mostly) my right nostril that kept dripping blood, but I was still able to breathe out of the other nostril just fine.  Sometime in the middle of the night when I felt the bleeding had calmed down I took in some Ocean Nasal spray to help break up the blood clots in my nose so that I could continue breathing through my nose semi-comfortably.
• My thirst was hard to quench, so I kept drinking water and coconut water, until my stomach decided to revolt.  I puked up a lot of the water mixed in with some blood.  I didn't panic (as I kind've expected to throw up a little), but man was it weird to not be able to open your mouth to throw up.  
• I drank a lot of fluids, and the nurse kept coming in every few hours to see if I could pee, but I really couldn't.  I didn't even have the urge.  At around 4am the nurse took an ultrasound of my bladder and said that it was way too full.  She called the doctor, who then told her to put in a catheter to help me.  This was a particularly embarrassing situation as the nurse was having trouble getting the catheter in for some reason, and I was REALLY uncomfortable with how long she was taking down there, so I asked her to stop, and let me try to pee on my own again
• and voila!  It was like my brain finally woke my bladder up and said, "Pee!! Otherwise this nurse is going to keep trying to stick that tube in us!"  Sorry if that's TMI, guys, but apparently, the hospital won't release you until you can pee on your own, and so finally being able to go, meant I was one step closer to recovery. 
• The nurses were very attentive to my pain, and if I asked for more pain relief they simply asked me on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst) how bad my pain was, and then dispensed the appropriate amount of meds into my IV.  It was heaven when I felt it begin to work.
• I was released the next day, after the doc came in to check on me.  She was still so pleased (and looked it) with how the surgery had gone.  She took a quick peek in my mouth, and then after praising me for how much fluid I was taking in, said I was good to go home.  
• Once we left the hospital we stopped by my Chinese herbal Doctor's office to pick up my concoction of herbal teas (don't worry, none of which are blood thinners) to help manage the swelling that was sure to come and get worse.  He also let me know that it was important that I try to encourage a bowel movement ASAP, as the body needs to release toxins this way in order to move the recovery along.  Okay, Doc... I'll do what I can.  

And there you have it folks, my day zero.  Overall, I was pleased with my hospital experience.  The staff were all kind and attentive.  I had my own room that had an extra sofa-bed in it for my mom.  I'm so glad she stayed with me the whole night.  If you can, I would really encourage you to find someone to stay with you the whole night.  It's kind've a rough night of waking up and falling back to sleep every couple of hours, and having someone there to call the nurse or to quickly give you something to throw up in when you feel it coming suddenly is really helpful.  Not to mention, the words of encouragement and kisses on the head that really help... :)




Tune in for day's 1, 2, 3, and 4.  The saga continues....