3 weeks past

The beautiful gingerbread house Micheal made

It has been 3 weeks since I had jaw surgery. I can now say that I have retired my syringe to the drawer, as I can eat my soup with a spoon and drink my drinks with a cup! Woohoo, things are looking up. I still have swelling, the left side is more swollen than the right. It's weird, I look lopsided. the left side is also more numb than the right so when I smile, it looks like I had a stroke or bels palsy. Kinda crazy! One more thing to add to the plate of discomfort is that my face is breaking out. Which is weird, cause my face is never like this. It is filled with red sore bumps every where, which isn't fun cause my face skin already hurts to touch. yucky :( I don't really know what thats about, maybe my diet of soup and yogurt drinks. It could be all the dairy I have been drinking, I normally stay away from dairy, well besides cheese. I LOVE cheese. What ever the case, it better go away soon. Anyways, I can almost open my mouth wide enough to fit my pinky finger, hahaha which doesn't seem like much, but it is improvement for sure. As for eating mashed potatoes at Christmas, it might not happen, but my Micheal's mom is making me some pumpkin curry soup for me, which sounds yummy. And my mom is making strawberry mousse (she got aunty Connie's recipe), mmmmmm so yummy! Aunty Connie makes the best strawberry mousse. Hopefully I can get it though the opening in my mouth. I'll find a way, I know it :) As for being ready for Christmas, we finally are! Micheal helped me finish wrapping all the gifts, and He bought hooks to hang our new stockings on. I finished up the last of the shopping yesterday, and I bought the boys some cute shirts to wear to church on christmas eve, and hopefully to some after christmas parties too! They are gonna look so handsome, I'll try and take some pictures of them all dressed up. As for me, no pictures till I'm good and healed. Maybe I'll do a before and after type photo montage. So tomorrow the christmas festivities begin. It is Christmas eve with my family, where we will watch movies and eat yummy snacks, well not me, but the others will. Merry Christmas every one! See you after the holidays :) xoxo

Post op day 17

30 screws and 6 plates later, I have a perfect bite!

So it has been just over 2 weeks since the surgery. I still have swelling in my cheeks and have numbness from my top lip to just under my eye. The pain is under control, still have occasional lightening bolts of pain, but they leave as fast as they come. I only have to use the syringe for cold thinks like milk shakes and booster juice, because they are too cold for my front teeth. My main utensil is a mug. I can sip anything from it; soup, tea, coffee, juice, any thing liquid, I can sip it :) I just started sipping my soup from the spoon, I'll have that mastered in no time. I tried stuffing some perogie filling through the tiny gap in my mouth, haha didn't work too well as I can only open my mouth about 2mm. Still progress right. Maybe next week I will be able to down some mashed potatoes and candied yams. mmmmm that would be so delish, a change from my regular diet of drinkable yogurt, juice and soup. As for my activity level, I can say that I do not spend my days lounging around the couch anymore. It's sad, I know, I was starting to like not ever leaving my house. That was until I saw the Surgeon on tuesday and he said I should get out more. Part of the reason of staying in was because I didn't want people staring at me. But now I have been out to the musical White Christmas, the mall, to church and to 2 restaurants. And I must say, people only stare when I talk. Hahaha some have a hard time understanding and others just look at me in wonder or pity wondering what happened. I've gotten over it now, people can think what they want. Soon I will be able to eat and talk better than ever. I dream of the day I can eat a sandwich with lettuce on it, pizza with the toppings on every bite, not just the first bite, and bite into an apple instead of cutting it up. I know this day will soon arrive, I think that is what moves me forward each day. Well incase I don't get to blogging between now and Christmas, as it is in 7 DAYS!!! Have a merry Christmas! xoxo

Post op day 11

So it has been 11 days since my surgery. I can officially say now that the worst is behind us. I don't spend my days dozing in and out on the couch all day. I don't take med every 4hrs, and I don't need to use the syringe all the time. Everyday gets better :) I still don't find myself running around the house or climbing the stairs. But I do drink my water with a cup now, and I can change my own elastics and brush my teeth. Well the fronts of my teeth, still can't open my mouth wide enough to get the backsides, but I think some is better then none. I can also Pour myself something to drink or eat and read a magazine. I can now say that I can see myself looking back at me in the mirror. Sure it is still swollen and lop sided, but the swelling has gone way down. Let's just say I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Each day the tunnel gets smaller, which is good because for a while I thought it was never gonna end. I still have bad thoughts towards Langley hospital, it might be because I can still feel the exact place the nurse jabbed me with the numbing needle. I can feel the whole path the pain took down to my calf. It's a weird feeling, it's always there in the background adding to the other pains. I am pretty happy with the level of pain. It is tolerable during the day, so I'm drug free in the day. In the quiet of the night is when the pain monsters hit me. starts with throbbing and then gradually gets to sharp pain. Tylenol doesn't seem to cut it, so I reach for the codeine, which also helps me sleep. So all in all it's better, not perfect but better. I just hope that the lop sidedness is because of swelling and not because he was just focused on my bite and not the the whole picture. I guess time will tell, I just don't wanna do it again cause he messed it up. But maybe it wont be as bad the second time?? hahaha I'm gonna try not to think of it for now. xoxo

Post op

Thought it would be a good time to write, since I can't fall asleep. It seems as though childrens tylenol puts me to sleep and children's advil has the opposite affect. which sucks cause I could use a nap, but soon it will be wearing off and I'll get some tylenol on board. Anyways, I just read my first post about surgery, its crazy that I could have even written that, hahaha I was barley awake, but Micheal said my followers needed something. This time will be a bit better I'm sure. So its day 6 post operation today and I'm feeling a bit better. Well, lets just say better then sunday thats for sure. Sunday I was nauseous and couldn't eat anything. I felt like I should be re-admitted to the hospital cause I was in pain and worried about my electrolyte imbalance. Yeah I know, who cares about their electrolytes, but I was throwing up and feeling like crap and thought I would end up there anyways. But here I am, it's Wed and I'm not puking and my pain is pretty much under control. So lets take a step back and go back to the hospital. Let me just remind you that one of my fears of surgery was having to spend the night in the hospital, especially Langley hospital. SO, when they were wheeling me to my room, there was this strange familiarity about the hall and the ward. They stopped int he hall while they cleared a space for my bed, and it came to me. I used to work there as a nursing aid while in school. I only worked there a handful of times cause I was either busy with school or had way more fun at my BC ferry job. being pulled into the room brought back memories. Memories of why I decided I wanted to work with pregnant ladies and families. They aren't normally sick, they are just having a baby, and are usually well after they give birth. This pace was gloomy and smelly. The nurse before she left to go back to the recovery room said "you might want to keep your mask on". haha that is an understatement. I could still smell the sickening smell of the elderly lady beside me going to the bathroom on the comode by her bed. and I could smell the ODOUR BE GONE that they spray to mask it. I was screaming inside. I knew it wasn't gonna be good, and I was wondering the whole time if they secretly did have a private room available but was just holding it. hmmmmmm SO my lovely neighbour was in for hip surgery and wasn't with it. She slept most the day, but when ever the nurse would come to help her or give her meds she would freak out. using words I didn't nice little ladies knew. And when it got to be around 8pm she just started talking to her self. My friend suggested that I mumble back to her and maybe she will understand me in her head. So I tried that and it seemed to calm her down for a bit. it was kinda humorous, but she got louder the later it got, so around 1010 they brought her bed into the hall way as to not disturb the rest of us int he room. There was 2 more people in the room, nothing to write home about, one lady had a tumour removed from her mouth and the other guy had a colostomy bag put in. changing that was pretty smelly too. Oh geez, I guess my nose is really sensitive right now, I can smell every little thing. Wow, this might be a long one, another thing I observed was the nurses. Haha I know, I'm a nurse and I know the tricks we use and all, but I don't think I'm as mean as mine were. It was like pulling teeth to get them to bring me pain medication. I would call when the pain was around a 3-4 so it wouldn't get higher, so they would say, oh just wait a bit more the codeine should kick in soon. I don't think it takes 1hr for codeine to take effect. SO I would ring the bell, they would come back and say "oh your still in pain", ummm duh, what the heck is codeine gonna do, my jaw was just broken into different pieces. SO finally she said she was gonna bring me something. It took forever, so of course I range the bell, an it still took FOREVER, they just let it ring and ring and ring. I was pushing it over and over knowing it would do anything but it felt good to do something. I remember telling Micheal that I wanted to punch her int he face. Really how long does it take to draw up some demerol. geez, Finally she brought me some demerol and I had relief for 4 hrs. Then the whole scenario started again, but with a different nurse cause mine was on break. Geez, they should just bring me something every 4hrs or something. I know it can get busy sometimes, but when I was calling I would look over and I could see nurses sitting there charting or planning their breaks. Oh my goodness, I am so thankful that having a baby is less work to be a patient. AT least after having a baby you feel pretty good, well besides your aching body there is nothing really you need the nurse for urgently. Well I didn't at least. I could take my own meds, walk to the bathroom, eat. I was pretty independent after having a baby. Being a patient dependant on people is hard work, especially if you have nurses that don't know you or don't care. Lets just say the day I got to go home wasn't the best either. I went for x-ray in the am and they took off the machine that was continuously massaging my legs. ohh that felt soo good through the night :) ANd the machine and it's pieces stayed on my bed ALL day. I would have taken them away by now, who wants all this stuff at the foot of their already small hospital bed. Again with the medication slowness. Does it really take that long? Am I missing something??? I don't think it takes me too long to get meds out of the cupboard at work. After lunch the nurse said I can go when ever I want, after she gives me a shot of steroids. So again I waited forever for her to return with it. When she gave it it looked like she hadn't given many shots before. I killed going in, but that was the least of it, after she pushed it in an walked away it stung and ached more than any pain I had felt all night long. The pain went down to my calf and I could barely move my leg. Tears just started pouring, and wouldn't stop. I was surprised that she actually came back to see how I was, well she was probably seeing why I hadn't left yet. I told her it killed, and that I couldn't move my leg and other stuff, but she prob didn't understand cause who can with my mouth shut. She brought me some ice, to help the pain. Oh my gosh, I typed to micheal that I thought she got it int he wrong spot and that she doesn't know what she is doing. The ice helped a bit and the pain finally subsided after 30 mins. Micheal found me a wheelchair and left. No one gave us instructions at the hospital of what to do. No kind of teaching or anything, it was kinda weird just leaving. I brought all the stuff they told me to at the oral surgeons office cause they said the nurses will go over it with me and show me things. Haha that never happened. So, my fear of spending the night in the hospital was true. don't get me wrong, I did get some sleep and rest, but thats about it. Not sure if I was at a different hospital if it would have went better, but I would like to think so. I am thankful that I don't work there, I like to think that I am a nice nurse, I seem to answer the bell when it first rings even if it is not my patient. I know that care is more important than charting, and that charting will get done, especially on a night shift. If I ended up working there who knows if I would have become like them, I saw a lot of nurses, none of them seemed bright eyed or happy to be there. Didn't seem like they loved their job or people. So why?

xoxo

Surgery

So I'm gonna take it slow, I can hardly keep my head up and see the key board. Well, as you can see I made it through the surgery and am now home. So lets start at the beginning, which is a good place to start. We got to the hospital at 645am, and checked into the surgical ward. There I got dressed into a hospital gown and some lovely mis-matched green knee high socks. Oh my, I was looking so fine, hahaha you can ask Micheal. I waited in the the little room for a long time, before a nurse came to ask me questions and start the IV. The IV guy was pretty good, it only took him one try which was a relief since the last time I had an IV they poked me 4 times. So it seemed like right after the IV was started a nice man wheeled me off in the stretcher to wait in the pre-op room. There, a little asian man, who turned out to be the anaesthetist, can't remember his name, asked me a few quick questions and then disappeared. Not too long after, the OR nurse came to get me, she was a very pleasant lady and she got me feeling comfortable by talking about my kids. She said something like " this is Sarah Pahl and she is with us today to have a rest from her busy life" hahaha because I have 2 busy boys. They got me all set up on the small operating table and started giving me some oxygen. Then I knew it wasn't oxygen she was giving me cause it was starting to make me feel woosey, kinda like the laughing gas I tried while in labour. I was about to ask her about the "oxygen" and I was out. four and a half hours later they were trying to wake me up. At that time I thought I had fainted while christmas shopping and they were just waking me up from fainting. For those who know me I used to faint frequently, so I am not new to this feeling. I had a hard time waking up, My eye's were soooo heavy and I was just shaking from the medication. I remember them asking if I had pain, and I must have signalled to them that I had pain. I heard one nurse say, how could she be in pain, and another nurse said, it did take longer then expected, I'm gonna push some fentanyl. Then I was back a sleep. soon to be woken up again by Dr. Gill. He said everything went perfect and my bite is now perfect, and said he was gonna call Micheal and tell him everything. I then was back asleep. Soon to be woken up again by the nurse saying "you need to wake up we are moving you to your room" I was able to keep my eyes open just long enough to see Micheal in the waiting room. I think I was even coherent enough to wave at him. needless to say, they didn't have any private or semi private rooms left, so I was in a 4 bed room, which I will tell you about tomorrow. I'm off to drink with my syringe and go to sleep. xoxo