Jaw Surgery

I haven't posted about my jaw surgery in quite a while, so here's a little update.. and a full out how it went story. (if you want you can read about it here, here, here, and here.)

pre-surgery, last meal (burger, and brownie ice cream for dessert).

here's how the story goes... (WARNING: if you are squeamish I would avoid the pictures, they are kind of really disgusting).

I've had braces for 8.5years now, I strongly believe that my orthodontist screwed up my mouth.. but long story short, the only way to fix it would be to get double jaw surgery. so that's what I did.

on May 10 I underwent double jaw surgery. the surgery lasted 10 hours, and I was under for a total of 12 hours. (they estimated the surgery to be about 8 hours so we knew it'd be a long one). I wasn't really that nervous, I mean I was a little bit but not as much as one would think. I was mainly just concerned about the length of the surgery, the pain afterwards and the whole healing process I knew I'd be able to handle.. I have a very high pain tolerance. right after the surgery I felt fine, just tired and what not from being under for so long.

the next day they had me on dilaudid which is 10 times stronger than morphine, the docs had me hooked up to this nifty machine that pumped .2 ounces of dilaudid into my body every hour (thats how strong this stuff is, you barely need any of it) but the best part was that if I needed more I could hit a button and it would dispense another .2 into my body, I could hit that button every 7 minutes if needed. but the damn stuff was so strong that I really only hit the button a few times -not to mention it made me super tired. that machine was my absolute best friend. I also had a visit from Malone and her little sister, it was really great to see them and it made me feel SO much better. lots of people were asking to come see me but I really felt/looked gross so I denied them until I arrived home, except for Malone cause she's been my best friend since we were youngins.

after surgery, chipmunk style.

the day after day, so Saturday, they took me off of my favorite machine. up until this point I was living the life, I felt fine, hardly any pain.. although my nose was just a constant nose bleed.. literally it never stopped bleeding -really gross and annoying. anyways, once they took me off the best machine ever invented and tried to get me on the liquid pain meds I started to go downhill.

day 3 (Sunday, May 13) post op was the worst day out of any of them. this day would be a normal day for people to go home, but I wanted to kill myself (not literally), but that was the first time I regretted the surgery. I hated it. I hated my life and the doctors and everything. it sucked. but I kept on trucking. needless to say I did not go home that day because, quite frankly, I felt like shit.. and looked like it too.

swollen and gross. yikes.

 day four, which would be Monday, I finally went home. although, if we didn't have to pay to be hospitalized I def would have stayed one more night. by this time the drugs were really getting to me. I was having weird thoughts (mainly I'd think it was almost morning time when it was really like midnight and things like that). but I didn't feel like complete death.

after arriving home I felt better mentally. just being in my own house was comforting. but now I needed to start drinking liquids.. ya see, the entire time in the hospital I had about two sips of juice. I was not in the mood for anything. so my parents made me drink gatorade, we kinda made it into a game where they'd pour me a glass and I'd have so long to drink it. I hated that game, but it worked. since my nose was still bleeding, and I had serious saliva issues, my dad made me a suction thing like dentists use. I had one in the hospital, which I used every five seconds. he just took an air bed battery and attached it to a tube thing and taped a paper cup to it. it actually worked really well, and made me feel so much better cause I had this fear of drinks getting stuck in my throat and not being able to breathe. by now I was completely on liquid meds, I forget what it was called. and on the road to recovery. I started feeling better and better each day, and getting more and more energy. not too long after I started 'eating' soup, mashed potatoes, rice, and letting chocolate and graham crackers melt in my mouth. along with all those smoothies//milkshakes of course.

looking back on the surgery now, knowing what I know now, I still would have done it. for sure. I think it was completely worth it in the long run. the pain//suffering wasn't super horrible, just a few times I hated it. not bad for double jaw surgery. no eating for 6 weeks, barely communicating for a week, pain, trouble sleeping, weird dreams from the meds, etc, it was all worth it. If you need to get jaw surgery I would definitely do it. all you have to do is get through that first week and you're golden, good to go. the rest is just an uphill climb, but an easy one, no mountain or anything just a little hill.

now, I'm just going to my orthodontist to finalize everything and hopefully I'll have my braces off before I reach 9 years, fingers crossed!

about 10 weeks post-op

anyways, that's the story and I'm sticking to it.
Happy Wednesday!

life is good