It has officially been one week since my double jaw surgery! Exactly 7 days ago, almost to the minute, I was WALKING into the operating room, more on that later :) But first a recap of the whole surgery day. My sister had to go to work, so we left home early and dropped her off, then headed off to Children's. My check in time was set for 10 am and we got there at around 9:30, we like to be punctual. My parents registered me and we were sent to the surgical waiting area where we waited for 15ish minutes and were then escorted into a triage room type thing where they took my vitals and I put on my super attractive hospital gown. We waited there until 12, then the resident came in, Dr. Gauger, and said that the other surgery had just finished up but that it would still be about half an hour.
Luckily about 10 minutes later the nice anesthesiology team showed up and I said my goodbyes to my mom and dad (no tears from anyone!) and I was taken to what I THOUGHT was going to be another area where they would put me to sleep and THEN take me into the operating room. AH MAH GAHD. No, I left the little room we had been waiting in, turned a corner, the anesthesiologist opens these big red doors, and when we walk through there are huge operating rooms on either side. I was still calm and thinking that I was already going to be asleep when I went into the operating room. Wrong again. The doctor stops, we turn, and I walk straight into the operating room, and another doctor says "hop on!". Let me tell you, these rooms weren't like the stuff on Grey's Anatomy. (ahh, I just realized my ortho's name is Dr. Grey! and she lives in Seattle, weird) Anyways, everything in this room is white and sterile, and SCARY! I was still fine as I climbed into the bed, but once they strapped me down I got sooo scared. Luckily they put me out right away and I dont remember anything after that.
When I woke up the first thing I remember asking is if they had done the surgery, and then I clarified and asked if they had done double jaw surgery. Yes, I was talking right away, and if you know me you know I wouldn't be able to keep my mouth shut for long! Then I asked the nurse if they had done a hip graft and she checked and said they hadn't had to. I dozed off for a while but woke up when they asked me to move myself onto the bed in my room. Didn't they know I had JUST had surgery? I moved myself over, which hurt really bad, but they gave me some morphine and off I went.
The first night was especially terrible but the nurses there were so amazing. The one that I had that night came in what seemed like every 10 minutes to ask if we needed something. I threw up lots of blood, but that happens to pretty much everyone.
The next morning Dr. Gauger came in while we were still sleeping and I think he thought it would be funny to wake me up by turning on my examining light. He was only there for a bit, but basically he said that I wasn't progressing fast enough and that he thought I should stay another night. My mom slept through most of it but woke up when she though I was talking to myself! But it was actually the doctor I was talking to :) The day was a blur of medecines, nurses, and sleeping. My nurses were amazing. My sister even taught one of them about Mac's!
The second night was way better because I wasn't hooked up to a line, but every 2 hours i had to take meds and every hour the nurse came in to check in on me! But the best part of my night nurse was that she had had the same exact surgery 4 years prior so she knew what I was going through! One of my day nurses also had a similar procedure but only on her bottom jaw.
I got a visit from Dr. Gauger in the morning and he said I was ready to go home! We left the hospital at around 10 and I slept ALOT the next 2 days :)
My swelling has gone way down! my mother says I just look like her chubby faced child now :) I had a big scare last night, I had just fallen asleep and all of a sudden my jaw jerked to the left and made an awful sound. This isn't uncommon, It happened pretty often before the surgery, but I thought it would stop. Anyways it was very painful and ended in tears and my mommy consoling me as always :)
