I had my surgery on Friday the fourteenth of December, 2012, and it was definitely not as bad as I thought it would be. My oral surgeon performs his surgery in a hospital about an hour and a half away from where I live, so we got up at about seven to be there by the required 12 midday. I was allowed to have a light breakfast before seven thirty, which surprised me, so I had toast and a cup of tea. Then we were off and I slept in the car. (It wasn't like I was king to be doing enough sleeping in the next four days anyway... Oh no.) We got to the hospital a ten to 12 and waited while they filed my paperwork, and then the admission nurse took me into what was labelled the "interview room". Intimidating.... She put my attractive red bands on my wrist and ankle, weighed me, took my temperature and gave me an attractive backless gown to wear and a dressing gown to put over the top to preserve some modesty. She then took my parents and myself into the area where all of the surgery goers wait. I got to lay in a hospital bed in my own curtained off cubicle facing the window, while my parents sat either side of me, facing me. The anesthetist came in, listened to my heart and asked me whether I had any questions after telling me, in roughly these words, "We're going to put a little needle into your hand and then send you off to sleep with an injection." The admission nurse had come to check on me a while before and asked me whether I had everything I needed and I said yes. She asked whether I was nervous about the needle and I said yes. She took one look at the veins in my hand and arm and immediately knew why. On the best of day my veins are hard to find, put that together with my nerves and they were nonexistent. She put some numbing patches on my hands which help the wins come up and means that you can't feel anything even if they don't. That made me feel better. But anyway, back to the anesthetist. I informed him of my vein difficulty and he nodded and took that into consideration. Then he left, telling us that my surgery was scheduled for 1.30. The time passed and then a nice man came into to take me to theatre. Mum came with me. :) Thanks mum. I was wheeled in and the nurse assisting the anesthetist put heart rate monitors on my back and one that was supposed to be under my arm on my ribs but which ended up on my hip.... Then the anesthetist came in and put the drip in, first go I might add, while talking about the game of golf he had been playing that morning. Then it was another ten minute at for the surgeon, during which time they injected something into the drip to relax me. The surgeon walked in, right on 1:30 and said, "Looking very happy?" And then they obviously decided to get right on with it because I conked out.
I woke up in recovery in a bit of discomfort at about 4pm. It wasn't too bad, but the only thing I remember was one of the nurses telling me she as taking the arterial drip out of my wrist which made me a bit squeamish. I am so glad they did that while I was asleep. They wheeled me back into my room and untangled me from the mess of wires, gown, and bed sheets. I dozed on and off, but was really annoyed because nobody would let me have a drink of water. :( I don't really remember much of that night but I do remember that I had to go to the toilet a lot because of the fluids in the drip, which was a pain because the nurse had to come and disentangle and disconnect me every time and then reconnect me when I went back to bed. All in all though, I did not look as bad as I thought I would. I had to keep ice packs around my face in a tube bandage that earned me the nickname 'Bunny ears' from the nurses and which I had to change every ten to fifteen minutes because they were getting hot. I also had a bit of tape stretching across my chin where they had taken the tissue out. I am allowed to take it off on Dec 31st. It's there to hold all of the soft tissue to my bottoms jaw bone where my chin is because they removed some of it to reduce the size of my chin without moving my bottom jaw. That means that there would be empty space for blood clots and infections to get into if they hadn't put the tape across to prevent it. The tape holds the leftover tissue to the bone until it is attached again. :) ewww, I know.
So the first day wasn't so bad I guess. :)
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