Jaw Surgery Day - 11.7.2013

So the morning of my jaw surgery arrived and my boyfriend and i left at 7am to get to the hospital for my admission time of 7:30am. 

Walking into the hospital heading toward the Admissions Lounge it was all starting to hit me that i was finally having my jaw surgery! 

When we finally reached the department, a nurse took my name, admission letter and the name of my surgeon and then told us that they had moved the department my op was taking place in from the Main Theaters to the Day Surgery Theaters instead as the ward i'd be going to after recovery is the floor up from the Day Surgery Unit. I think this calmed my nerves a bit in a weird way as i knew my way around that department as it was the same place id previously had my teeth out. 

When we got to the Day Surgery Unit a nurse confirmed that i was 4th on the operating list and due to go into theater around 11.30am - 12pm. I was then shown to a bed on the ward where i had my wristbands put on each wrist and  then given a gown and of course those lovely stockings to change into. After i finally managed to get those horrible stockings on, the nurse came over to do my blood pressure and double check with me what operation i was having and all the information i had provided when i attended the pre-op a couple of days before was correct. I then had my surgeons assistant come round to double check with me what was going to happen so she could confirm it with my surgeon, why i don't know as throughout the morning whilst waiting to go into theater my surgeon came to see me a few times, once to confirm how he was doing the surgery and what would happen and twice after that to check on me, telling me that i'd be fine, which i thought was really nice of him :)

My mum and step-dad arrived just after 9am.

My mum also took LOTS of last min overbite pictures whilst waiting to go in, but i'l just upload a few... 

Awful gown and stockings!

Last overbite picture!

At around 12.30pm a nurse came down to get me and at that moment my eyes just started streaming with tears! Up until that point i thought i was surprisingly calm. 

Walking round to the operating theater with my mum and the nurse, the doors opened towards me and in front of me was a little side room with more double doors at the other end opening up into another white, big room with all these machines beeping and making noises, which freaked me out and i asked to be put out in the side room instead as there was no way i could of been put out in that room with all those machines going. All i remember after i laid down on the bed was the nurse and my mum talking to me about holidays whilst the anesthetist was doing the anesthetic.

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Next thing i know i was waking up in recovery with all these nurses around me. Looking at the clock in front of me i remember it being 4.45pm. 

My whole lower face felt tight and numb, as i was waking up i remember feeling sick for only a few minutes in the end, as one of the nurses that was with me told me 10mins before hand they had just given me anti sickness injection. She then stuck a suction tubes down each side of my mouth for a few seconds every 5 minutes or so to get all the blood out that was filling up in my mouth, which i was told would happen for the first 24 hours. The only bad experience i had in the hospital stay was while i was in recovery a nurse that had just started her shift came over to check on me and said 'i'm just going to clean up the blood in your mouth' and i remember nodding and closing my eyes thinking yay! the suction tube! only to open my eyes a few seconds later to see that she had just rolled up a big bandage type thing and then tried to push it into my mouth to soak up the blood! luckily the previous nurse came over and stopped her from putting it in any further to explain to her that i'd just had JAW SURGERY, that i couldn't open my mouth and to carry on with the suction tubes instead. Around 10mins later they then got some tube like cotton pads (like the ones you get at the dentist sometimes) and put one into each side of my cheeks to soak up the blood whilst they moved me onto the ward. 

Waiting for me on the ward was my mum, step-dad Mick and Craig, where they all stayed with me for 2 hours before leaving :)  

When back on the ward all i remember was constantly spitting blood every 10mins which lasted for just over 12 hours in the end. I also remember my mum and Mick commenting on my nose quite a few times saying that they couldn't believe it looked half the size it was, too which i remember giving them a thumbs up! :) 

After my mum and Mick left, Craig stayed with me for another hour and my surgeon came to check on me, where he said the op went fine and that he moved one side of my jaw 9mm and the other side 7mm.  

I had a nice comfortable private room on the ward with a side bathroom which i wasn't expecting at all. 

My bottom lip starting to swell up.

Ice packs were amazing! After this i constantly used these for 4 days!

I was quite nervous before hand about staying in overnight as i'd never been in hospital overnight. But once everyone left i was so drowsy and knocked out by all the medication that it just didn't bother me one bit. I was able to sleep most of the night only waking up to press my nurse button to have someone change my ice pack and to have more pain meds when pain kicked in. 

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