Days 4, 5, and 6

So Days 4, 5, and 6 of surgery were not good days. All the liquid medications were really bothering my stomach and making me throw-up. Not a particularly nice thing to do after having surgery on your mouth. I was prescribed an anti-nausea medication which was only partly helpful but cost me $60, ouch! I ended up switching my penicillin to a pill and stopped taking the Tylenol with codeine.

On Saturday I went to Dr. F (my Friday appointment was canceled due to snow) and apparently the palate expander wasn't tightening quite right, he said it was loose. I was subsequently rotated 4 times at that appointment causing pain to 1 tooth and a bit of dizziness. But otherwise Dr. F said things were looking good and I wasn't too swollen.

Days 1 and 2 - Post-Op

I'm finally back to report on days 1 and 2 post surgery. They were relatively quiet days, I would take medication every 4-6 hours (I took a total of 5 on top of any medication I was already taking) and was in and out of sleep most of the time. I missed some good parts of the olympics in these in and out of sleep fazes. There was a fair amount of pain, but nothing crazy as long as I was taking pain killers (Tylenol with codeine). The pain was primarily in the area just below my cheek bones, but also a bit in my temples.

Eating was difficult since my mouth didn't open much. Primarily I just had broth, jello and maybe an egg. Eating was slow and I wasn't terribly hungry. I stuck with mostly apple juice to drink.

I slept on my parents recliner/couch, it allowed me to keep my head up without fighting pillows. This was a particular issue since the night before surgery I tried to sleep kinda upright so I wouldn't get too congested and had a terrible time sleeping and had a little bit of a stiff neck in the morning.

On Wednesday I had to use my key to open the expander once. Being the only one who knew how to use the expander I had to do it myself. I got the key in the hole pretty quickly and did it. It didn't hurt much, though I did feel some pressure in my head.

The mean post-op nurse

Well from the subject you might have guessed that I had the surgery, and if you didn't guess - well I did. On Tuesday morning I went in at 6am and had the surgically assisted rapid palate expander surgery and it sucked. The morning went ok, got to the hospital ok and did all my processing fine. The doctor was a little late, something about a tractor trailer slowing him down. The nurse anesthetist was a girl I went to High School with.

After surgery I woke up and my whole entire head hurt! I asked for my mommy (it's times like these when we revert to childhood) and was told I couldn't see her until I left post-op but I don't remember what I had to do. But she gave me meds and I went back to sleep. Then I woke up again looking for mommy again and was again told I couldn't see her. She was tough, I was pathetic. Finally the pain killers were making me ill and I was actually sitting up when the Dr. S came by who berated the nurse for not having ice on my face. After that I pulled myself together so that I could leave post op and see my Mom and Dad. Probably 2 hours had passed. Then in the get ready to leave area I was still in quite a bit of pain and constantly in and out of sleep. It's all a bit of a blur but once I decided I was ready to go I got a last bit of medicine and then mom helped me get ready to go. I think it was close to 2pm by the time we left. I did get a bit of a chuckle when I was riding through the hospital in the wheel chair with ice packs on my face and people would almost walk into me.

I'm writing this on Friday and am doing ok all things considered. I'll write some more about the experience in the next few days but wanted to give a bit of an update about the surgery and the mean post-op nurse.

Ready to expand

I went on Wednesday and had the palate expander put in my mouth. I'm not a fan. I spent the first couple minutes trying to figure out how to swallow and in the end needed a tip from the girl in the office. slurp. I've gotten much better at swallowing though it still something that I sometimes have to pay attention to.

Talking has been another issue. I took off of work on Thursday but went in on Friday. I'm pretty self conscious about my speech, though it is steadily improving. Thursday I had to call tech support for my Tivo, then Cable, then Tivo again. I did manage to be understood.

I figure when I finally get this thing out I'll have finally mastered it.

I was taught how to expand it, but will not start expanding until after surgery on Tuesday. A couple teeth are a little sore from either the expander or from the bite being a little off. That will all change as I expand, I think and hope.

But a greater challenge has been that on and off all week I've had a cold threatening me. Earlier in the week I was just tired and a touch of sinus congesting, then I was feeling ok and the sinus congestion didn't seem as bad. I'll never know if I was actually getting better or just wishful thinking. Saturday I woke up with my ear bothering me from congestion. I've continued to baby myself hoping that this will all clear up. I'm feeling better today then yesterday but am quite concerned. On top of all of it I might be starving to death. The first 2 days I was having some real issues with eating, and although doing better I am still having issues which have left me eating less then I should be. Yesterday I really started to feel the affects of starvation. I seriously wonder how the people on Survivor survive with so little food. I've had headaches, fatigue, dizzy spells. I've been doing better at eating today.

Here's hoping I feel better tomorrow and the Doctor says I can continue with the surgery this week.