Re: Kri's experience - to Kris

[Guest guest]

Kris,

Thanks for your note! This is the most comprehensive description

I've read yet. It gives me hope that when I get ready to go to the

other side, I'll be OK. For some reason I'm starting to get a little

antsy already, and it's still 2 months till my surgery.

Dammit

> This is a condenced version of the 6-page description I wrote up of

> my two day, one night hospital stay and my first day home. If you

> want the full version, let me know and I'll e it to you.

>

> I had my upper surgery on Thursday, March 25th. He rotated my top

> jaw using the front teeth as a pivot and moving the back teeth up

> about 6 mm. I was splinted, but not banded at first. I wore a

> splint for two years before braces, so it's no big deal for me.

>

> The morning of surgery I went in at 7:15 for a 9:30 surgery. I

> thought that I would be given a `relaxing' drug to make me less

> nervous, then a twilight drug for while they put in all the IV

lines

> and catheter and all that, and finally a knock-you-out cold drug

for

> the surgery itself. When the nurse said that she was giving me the

> relaxing drug, I said I didn't need it. She said, " The

> anesthesiologist ordered it. You're getting it. " Turned out that

> the `relaxing' drug was the twilight drug. I remember being

wheeled

> out of the prep room, but not the ride down the hall or anything

> after that.

>

> While we were in the waiting room, my husband had asked if you

> dreamed under anesthetics. I said I'd let him know. I had a dream

> in the recovery room. I dreamt that I was standing in front of a

> group of people telling them about my surgery. The audience turned

> into several people standing about me as I laid down, all of them

> very busily and efficiently doing things that I couldn't really

> feel. It took me a while to figure out that I was awake and that

> the people were unhooking me or whatever. My throat felt like

> things were in it, and I kept swallowing convulsively. It turned

> out I was already un-tubed, and after a while I didn't have to

> swallow so much. I spoke to one woman, and she understood me right

> away. She said I was fine and everything had gone well. My face

> was wrapped up with a whole mess of stuff, ice bags and the like,

> giving me tunnel vision. I motioned for paper, and she brought it

> to me. I wrote to her, " It's a good thing I'm not

claustrophobic. "

> We talked a little more. She said that my nurse was a man, and I

> said no way. I told her to send him to the men's ward. All the

> other workers laughed. The one talking to me said no, I'd like

him,

> don't worry about it. I asked if he was old and ugly. More

> laughter, and some other people came over to join the

conversation.

> Everyone agreed he wasn't old, but they were slower to say he

wasn't

> ugly. One said that he had a beard, but wasn't sure how I felt

> about that. My hubby has a beard and I love them. I gave a thumbs

> up and said beards were good, but I still didn't want a male

nurse.

> I got overruled. At least he never had to do anything personal for

> me. Since we were having such a good time in recovery, I wrote to

> the nurse, " Visualize whirled peas. " She didn't get it. Even

> saying it aloud, and having the other workers all laughing, she

> never got it. She's probably still trying to firgure it out.

>

> Two things I noticed while in recovery. Both of my hands were

> completely free (the IV line didn't tie down that hand) and I was

> able to motion and touch my face immediately. In fact, I got blood

> on one hand from doing just that. Nobody tried to stop me. The

> second thing was that as we talked, my mind felt incredibly clear.

> I told the nurse that I felt good mental clarity, and she

said, " You

> may feel like this now, but you won't remember half of this

later. "

> I remember our conversation very well, but I couldn't tell you so

> much as the color of her hair, or what she was wearing, or any of

> the trip from recovery to my room. I do remember that my things

> were put on the end of my bed, and one of the nurses saw a quilt I

> had made to bring with me. She oohed and ahhed, and I told her to

> go ahead and take it out of the bag and open it up so she could see

> it. She did, and loved it so much she went around showing all of

> the workers in recovery. I could hear them all exclaiming over

it.

> Later on my husband hung it up from the shelf in my room, so that

as

> I laid in bed I could look at it. During the night when I couldn't

> sleep I traced the pattern with my eyes. It was very relaxing.

>

> My next lucid thought was as I got wheeled into my room, I

> said, " Oh, a private room even. " My husband and parents came in

> very soon, while I was still being hooked up to things. I did my

> best Roman Holiday impression for them. " So-o-o happy! " They

broke

> out laughing. Morphine is a wonderful thing if you can tolerate

> it! I only used for about four or five hours, but I was very, very

> happy the whole time. I can see how people get addicted to

> narcotics.

>

> They gave me a mask that blew wet oxygen over my mouth and nose,

but

> was open on the top so that I could reach down and mop up my runny

> nose and drooling lips. It felt good all that day, but by morning

I

> was sick of it, and they said I didn't have to have it if I didn't

> want. Actually, everything felt good that first day. They gave me

> a suction tube I could use whenever I wanted to clean out my mouth

> and throat. Because I was numb I could use it all over my tongue

> and the back of my throat without gagging. I got up lots of

> phlegm. The next day the numbness wore off and I could only use it

> around the outside of my tongue, not the top of the back. It was

> still useful. They said if I threw up, to stick the suction tube

> into my mouth and just suck it all away. Didn't need to. I also

> loved my catheter. I didn't have to get up and use the bathroom

> once all night. I told my husband I wanted one for home so I could

> sleep through the night without making trips. That wore off the

> next day, too. I didn't realize the anesthetic was keeping me from

> feeling things everywhere. When it wore off the next morning I

> hated the catheter, so they took it out. I hated my IV, but that

> stayed in. Every time they'd ask if I had pain, I'd point to my

> hand and say, " This is the worst of it. " I was basically told

tough

> beans. When I was all numb everywhere I was willing to stay in the

> hospital an extra day and have everything done for me. Once I

> started feeling my hand I wanted out just to get rid of the IV. On

> the day of surgery my facial pain was more pressure, which I rated

a

> 4 out of 10, and it was very easily controlled with morphine. I

> quit pressing the button at 6:30 p.m. and was fine until morning,

> when I asked for Tylenol instead. I took only one pill in the

> morning, and one in the afternoon, and my facial pain never got

> above a 2 or maybe 3. I could breath through my nose right from

the

> first. A few minutes after the nurses left me alone in my room

> right out of recovery, we turned on Jeopardy! I whipped my parents

> and my husband at it. A few times I gave an answer that they

> thought was drug-induced, only to find out that I was right.

> However, I can't now tell you what a single quesiton was, or even

> what the final Jeopardy! category was.

>

> My surgery lasted 4.5 hours and went very well. I lost very little

> blood and my bite was perfect when he was done with me. By the

time

> the doc saw me in my room, I was already sitting up drinking water

> from a cup. The first time the nurse sat me up straight, I

> immediately got nauseous. He put an anti-nausea drug into my IV,

> and it went away immediately. I never got nauseous again and never

> threw up. They said they sucked all the blood out of my stomach in

> recovery. I had chicken broth and apple juice for supper. It

> tasted wonderful and I was starving. The first time I put the

spoon

> to my mouth I turned it over to empty it, and poured soup all over

> my lap. I couldn't feel my mouth and didn't know I wasn't quite

> there! We got a towel for a big bib and I used both hands to make

> sure that my spoon was in my mouth. Everything tasted so good (and

> still does). As I was slurping and Mmm'ing over my soup, I

> mentioned that I thought hospital food was supposed to be nasty.

> The nurse said, " If you think that tastes good, I won't tell you

> otherwise. " I ate a lot and was always hungry for more. Even so,

I

> dropped 6 lbs the two days (one night) I was in the hospital. I

> usually weight 125, put on 6 lbs for the surgery, and this morning

> when I weighed myself I was back to 125. I'm told I'll lose more.

> No biggie.

>

> Going back to that first night in the hospital, my upper lip, nose,

> and the cheek around my nose was numb. However, I could feel a

line

> from the bridge of my nose to the tip. By morning I could feel a

> little farther down the tip, and today (day 2) I can feel a little

> down the sides of my nose. My upper lip is still the most numb,

> which I think is good as long as those stitches are still in

there.

> My cheeks can feel pressure. The most odd numb part is a little

bit

> seems to have seeped up to the right half of my right eyelid,

> dragging it down a little. It's hard to keep that eye open

> sometimes. I can feel it just fine, and the left half of that

> eyelid is normal, but the right side feels heavy. It's not visibly

> noticeable. I'm a little bruised, and not really all that

swollen.

> That first day I felt what I thought was tape residue on my nose.

> It got worse, and spread all over my face. I eventually figured

out

> that it was the steroid oil that everyone talks about. I didn't

> realize it happened immediately. I was scraping it off my face

with

> my fingernails. Yuck! It's starting to calm down now, though, and

> I haven't gotten any acne from it yet, so I suppose it could be

> worse. Maybe it will come back to haunt me later?

>

> My husband stayed with me all night. I'm very glad he was there.

I

> needed little things every two minutes. I couldn't have bothered

the

> nurses with that much fussing, but he was glad to do it. We also

> had some quiet, intimate time together during the night when

neither

> of us could sleep and we could just sit and talk and hold hands. I

> asked him if he thought a sense of humor was a gift from God. He

> said yes, and so was feistiness. I said I'm not only that, I'm

> Fightin' Irish. He said he wants to get me a t-shirt of that

> fighting leprechaun guy, with a jaw wrap around his head. One

funny

> moment – he didn't want to wear jeans to sleep, so he put on his

> best pj's – black flannel with Snoopy and his water dish, and the

> words, " When do we eat? " I told him not to let anyone see him

> wearing that. I didn't sleep much during the night, but I must

have

> fallen asleep once because I woke up when my ice pack plopped into

> my lap and everything tied to my head was in my face or around my

> neck. I held everything up so it didn't blind or choke me, and my

> husband went running into the hall for a nurse to come untangle

me.

> (I pushed the button but it didn't do any good.) He had to walk

all

> the way down to the nurses' station in those pj's to find someone.

> When they did me back up, they caught my hair in the Velcro. I

> didn't know it until the doc came the next day and asked if I had

> any pain. Nope, not really. Negligible. He took off my wraps and

> pulled my caught hair, which was firmly entrenched in the

> Velcro. " Pain! Pain! Yes, I'm in pain! " It took him and my

> husband together to get me loose, all the while making jokes about

> using scissors. Ladies, if you cut your hair, do it BEFORE surgery!

>

> That first night I hardly slept. I laid awake, quiet and peaceful

> and not restless at all, just sitting there, occasionally trying to

> get comfortable. My back and neck were unhappy. My breastbone had

> ached earlier, and they told me that they tip you back during

> surgery and hold you there a long time, and your chest and neck can

> get sore from it. The pain in my chest went away pretty quickly,

> but my neck didn't like me sitting up all night. I folded a

blanket

> behind the small of my back, and hung another blanket off the back

> of the bed, with the end rolled up behind my neck.

>

> The doc came back in the late afternoon and said I could go home,

> but first he was going to put in rubber bands because my bite was

> slipping off. My pain level, which had been about a 1 before he

> came in, shot to the yelping level the moment he touched me. It

> felt like he was shoving my upper lip around. He was NOT happy

with

> my bite. My perfect bite from the day before had shifted

> significantly, so that I was heavy on my molars and my lower jaw

was

> nowhere near fitting into the splint. He said that my back teeth

> were riding on an edge, and if I could get them over that edge so

> they fell to the other side, everything would slide into place.

> However, my mouth doesn't open that far and the more he pushed and

> pulled, the more I yelled and begged him to go away. After much

> torturous work he finally got in three sets of rubber bands on each

> side, one on top of the other in a thick triangle. It wasn't what

> he wanted and he was upset that I don't have enough hooks in my

> mouth for him to do more. I don't have braces on my last molars,

> and the surgical hooks that the ortho put on are useless. He says

> that if my bite doesn't slip into place on its own by Monday, he's

> going to knock me out in his office and make things fit one way or

> the other. He's going to give me more hooks and hold things in

> place firmly with bands. He says that pretty much what's stopping

> him now is my lack of hooks and my intense pain level when he

> touches my lips. He can't work while I'm writhing and yelling. I

> can't hold still to pain like that. Within half an hour of the

time

> he stopped, my pain level dropped back down to 1 or 2, but today my

> jaws are aching from being pulled around. So far they're not

> slipping into place, and when I try to help them along the pain in

> my joint is incredible. I don't mind being knocked out again, no

> matter how long I'm groggy.

>

> Now that I'm banded everything not thin liquid has to be pushed

> through my teeth with a syringe. When I was nine years old I broke

> a lower tooth, which has never needed repair. The hole is just the

> right size to put the end of the syringe against and squirt

> through. What a Godsend!

>

> I took pain meds before bed, not for pain, but to help me sleep. I

> did sleep well enough last night, my first night home, in a lazy-

boy

> I borrowed from my dad. At 2 a.m. I woke up to see my husband

> walking toward me around the end of the bed. I asked what he was

> doing, and he didn't answer. He kept coming closer, slowly, and I

> couldn't figure out why he didn't say anything. Then I heard a

> crinkling nose, and realized that what I thought was his shoulder

> was a helium balloon, weighted so it will `walk' along the ground.

> My cat has been playing with it, knocking the weights (pen caps)

> around and chewing the ribbon. I got up and put the balloon in

> another room so she could play with it without keeping me awake.

>

> Kris