! Re: All Done

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Congratulations on making it to the Other Side! I don't think I was

online to wish you a big good luck ... wish I were here more than I

am. I'm 10 weeks postop from upper and lower and doing great.

Thanks for the great account of your experience. You put down in

words some of the things that I experienced but couldn't tell what

was causing them at the time. I think the dried blood, gunk in my

throat, nose, etc., caused my stomach upset. They gave me Zofran in

the hospital (via IV though ... no pin cushion here!) and that

worked great. I'll be curious to see how your breathing progresses

over the next months. Not to be a downer, but I had a septoplasty

with my surgery and when I woke up I had never breathed so well in

my entire life. Unfortunately, my nose is back to normal, I guess

due to allergies and sinus problems. I now look back and attribute

the great postop breathing to the IV Sudafed (or whatever it was) to

keep me cleared up.

And let's look at the bright side ... at least they anesthetisize us

before rolling the truck over the head!

Keep up the fluids, juices, liquids to get those bowels moving.

Libby's nectar (they make peach, apricot and pear) work pretty good

to get things moving.

Continued good healing!

Irish!

> Here I am, on the other side of the hill and on the way down.

>

> But man, what a ride.

>

> I think I've figured out how the surgeons work - they anaesthetise

you,

> wheel you out on the op table, roll over your head a few times

with an

> 18-wheel Mack truck, then plug in an tyre inflator and blow your

head back

> up

>

> Anyway, enough funny stuff. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was

going to

> be. I woke up in post-op, and that was the least fun part of it so

far. It

> wasn't so much trouble breathing, but more trouble swallowing;

which isn't

> fun. I think it may have had to do with the oxygen drying the

blood on the

> back of my throat. I had a tube in the back of my nose still, but

it didn't

> go down far... Just for helping with breathing.

>

> Anyway, I must have slumbered off again, 'cause next thing I know

I'm waking

> up in a room with my parents around me. The swelling hadn't come

up much at

> all; they said the whole thing looked great. I remember being able

to breath

> through my nose with consummate ease, which I've never been able

to do

> without the assistance of drugs. It's blocked up again since all

the blood

> dried along it, so we'll have to see if it recovers to that level

or whether

> it was just the oxygen/tubing. The surgery lasted for 5 hours.

>

> Anyway, swelling came up Wednesday day/night but it was

surprisingly easy.

> Only have elastics; no wired shut which is good! There was minimal

pain; I

> went nuts on the painkiller machine thinking it was the only

reason I was

> feeling anything. It was great, every time I wanted to doze off I

just

> clicked the button. However, a nurse told me later that night it

caused

> nautiousness; and I was starting to feel sick so I stopped. I also

got an

> anti-nausea injection; if there's one thing I hate more than

needles, it's

> spewing. Spewing with a mouthful of blood that will be difficult

to clean

> would rate up there as a really bad experience, so I figured the

injection

> would be the better option.

>

> I woke up Thursday morning feeling a bit sore, but otherwise good.

Surprised

> that the pain killers hadn't done as much as I thought they had.

Day kept

> going, I was generally cheery. Night was not so good. I must still

be

> bleeding; I still spit some blood out. Not sure where it's coming

from, but

> it could be lower wisdom teeth. My surgeon says I'm healing well

but a

> profuse bleeder; so it's getting to my stomach from somewhere. I

had trouble

> getting to sleep as blood kept drying on the back of my throat. I

wasn't

> feeling well when I finally got to sleep, by the time I woke up I

felt

> revolting. I could taste the coagulated blood in burps. Got another

> injection (my backside was turning into a pincushion!) and I felt

better; my

> ears were also starting to feel bad. Now, they're feeling worse

than my jaw.

> Surgeon says it's the pressure on the joints from the swelling

(which is

> starting to subside now...).

>

> Anyway, the surgeons (there were two) are very happy with my

progress. My

> parents said the result was great before the swelling came up. My

first

> elastic came of this morning; the other four come off tomorrow. I

managed to

> eat this morning using a spoon... But am already getting sick of

the mashed

> food (god knows how you ten week wired up people manage!). The

surgeon also

> says that I will be able to start eating solids based purely on my

comfort

> level; if it don't hurt to eat, no problemo.

>

> One less pleasant aspect of the hospitalisation has been the fact

my bowels

> have totally stopped moving. I got a couple of pills for it, but I

ain't

> been since Tuesday. It's now Friday evening. The nurse says it's

natural

> with all the lying down, and the mashed food. I don't want it to

last too

> long though!

>

> Oh yeah, I now know what it's like to have a phantom itch. My chin

has

> really swollen up, and I think I've lost a bit of feeling there

(rest of my

> lower face is fine). It's crazy, you itch and scratch but it feels

like your

> hand is scratching somewhere else!

>

> There's a bit of throbbing still in my face occasionally too. I

had a couple

> of friends drop by today and they made me laugh. That increased the

> throbbing for a while... it hurt, but it was good to see them.

>

> Which brings me to my next point; thanks to all the notes of

support I've

> got off this list. I've only been here for what... a week? But

even after

> that length of time I've got heaps of info and messages wishing me

well.

> Jaimi, , (hope you're feeling ok after the surgery),

annauk,

> angie, Neta-lee, , , Jen, and anyone else I might

have missed.

> All those messages are all helping me to recover, and I'd like to

thank

> everyone who sent them. If there's anything I can do to repay you

guys, or

> anyone else on the list, even if it's as simple as just answering

questions

> (about anything), just shoot, be happy to help.

>

> Looking forward to not looking like a goldfish for much longer!

>

> -- james