Surgery Day!

SO, it's surgery day! I'm going to give you a brief play to play, because I'm posting after the fact.

I arrived at the hospital at roughly 5:00am to be admitted and do all the pre-surgery stuff.

All set with my ugly yellow hospital socks, tubes, and wires. Unlike last time, I was familiar with the routine and didn't need any anti-anxiety meds before surgery. They gave me the run down, and I tried my best to reiterate how sick I got last time. Surgery ended up lasting longer than expected (8 hours instead of the projected 6), because they had quite a bit of difficulty removing the hardware from my previous surgery.

So, after a day of surgery I woke up in recovery just wanting to die. I was in pain and extremely nauseated. Throwing up after jaw surgery is THE WORST. Apparently, I was in recovery for a few hours because I had difficulty waking up and I was so sick. When I finally got to my room I was joined my my mom and boyfriend, given more effective medication to help with pain and nausea, and I promptly passed out.

Day 1 post-op ended up not being nearly as bad as last time. They kept my pain and nausea under control and I was actually able to eat some in the hospital! Although I looked rough I didn't feel too bad.

As you can see, I was pretty swollen. They made incisions on either side of my neck and along my ears into my hairline just a bit. I was in the hospital for just a day. Since I did well with my pain and eating they went ahead and let me go home the next night after surgery. The worst part was definitely waking from surgery, but pain and nausea were kept at bay by medication and I felt much more aware and interactive than I had last time at this point. I am currently on a pureed food diet, but I do not have a splint or wire keeping my mouth closed. So, I feel relatively normal all things considered. I am hopeful for a smoother recovery than I had with my last jaw surgery!