JUST HAD MY SURGERY TODAY! Description of it

[Guest guest]

Hey everyone! (it's the new girl, jessica from montreal, canada).

So i just had my upper palete expansion osteotomy surgery today and it went

super well from what i can tell so far. Sorry, i'm only writing now. I wanted to

write like much earlier like a few hrs after i got back from the hospital so you

can all feel encouraged with how quick you can feel fine after, but my mother

was at my place and then my sisters came so i didn't get a chance to sit at the

computer cuz we were eating together and watching t.v. and then i napped a bit.

So yeah, for those who are having their surgery coming up, do not worry! things

can go super well. Mine was apparently done in an hour even, and it was

day-surgery so i left a couple hrs after.

so here's a recap of how it went down, for those who've never had surgery like

me, and are curious:

so since last nite, i was super nervous and up till then hadn't been cuz i

didn't let myself think about it...i had to get up at 6 am. cuz teh surgery was

at 7:30 and i wanted to get there at 7:00. the hospital is just ten minutes away

so i went by bus and metro and my mother met me there. so all nite though i

couldnt' sleep and kept waking up by the hr pretty much..then in the morning i

had to take a shower and use the special sponge they give you to clean which has

special soap in it. i also had to fill up a small vile of my urine and bring it

with me.

so i get to the hospital, go up to the 5th floor where the day surgeries are,

and i had to drop my medicare card (canada's gov't health insurance card) at the

prep room and then go wait in the day-surgery patients' waiting room. my mother

joined me there...then they called my name (and i coudlnt' understand it cuz it

was a nurse with a really heavy haitian accent, haha, but i went to check with

someone else who also thought she heard her name, and it was mine). anyway, so

there i was in the day-surgery patients' prep room..so the nurses took my blood

pressure and temperature and asked some more medical questions and then told me

to go to bed no. 10 at teh end which..the room was like a big hospital room with

beds lined up with curtains that can be drawn aroudn it and beside each bed

there was a locker and a chair.i was told to get into the hospital gown and get

into bed and wait...then soon my surgeon came to talk to me and ask if i had any

last questions..i did...about the meds,

icing, etc and genenal nervousness.

then soon i was ready to be wheeled into the surgery room..i had taken off my

glasses (i wear contacts normally and have horrible nearsightedness) so i

couldnt' see anything and was laughing with the guy that i felt like i was in a

funhouse/amusement part in the scary house where you're in that car in the dark

hallways and things come at you..haha..anywayz..sidetracking..

before going into the room, the anasthesiologist approached me and first asked

if i speak enlish or french (they all did this) and i said english although at

times i just felt like practicing my french so spoke both at times..anyway, i

spoke of my crazy fears of not being fully asleep or waking up during (i've

watched 20/20 wayy too much, haha) but she answered really nicely and didn't

belittle me, but said that's been extremely rare and it depends on teh type of

surgery and jaw surgery is not the type where that could happen..plus, you don't

just ever just wake up during..you slowly emerge, so baiscally the

anasthesiologist would notice on the monitors if that were to start to happen

before you actually woke up.

anyway, then once wheeled into the actual room, there were several nurses and my

surgeon..for some reason i got super nervous i think also from the lack of

sleep, as they were about to transfer me onto the stretcher of the surgery and i

sstarted saying how nervous i was feeling and i actually started crying cuz i

was saying i'm worried i won't be able to be put to sleep cuz am nervous,

etc...haha, sounds ridiculous now..but anyway, they were really sweet and

calming me down..anyway, then i was lying on teh stretcher and they always

explained what they were gonna do..take the blood pressure again (they do this a

lot..before, during and after the surgery at differetn times)..and put on the

tapes on the upper chest for the monitoring stuff...

then they put the IV in first to attach the saline solution that they'll use to

prevent hydration..then she said she'll put meds to calm me..and then the

general..so as they did the calming meds they also gave me oxygen thru a mask

and then took it off..i started coughing a bit and they said " yes, it's noraml

to cough a bit..it's the medication taking effect.. " then here's where things

get hazy..actually that part is a bit too, cuz the meds right away took effect

and you just feel super tired and aren't thinking anymore..there's no real " out

of it'ness " cuz boom, i'm gone....

then i wake up in the OR room still, and they tell me they told me everything

went very well..and i asked " so it's over? and it all went well? " haha..and he

goes " it went VERY well " ..and i think they said it only lasted half an hr but i

could be wrong on that one cuz still a bit out of it..anyway, then i guess they

monitored me a bit and soon (don't remember much) ..and oh yeah, they asked if i

was feeling any pain and to try to rate it from a scale of 1 - 10, and i don'

tremember what number i gave..maybe 5 or 6..and they said, k they'll be

administering some morphine..and they did that, and then after a while (probably

longer than i realized) asked again how it was and i said i felt a littel pain

but wasn't sure where to rate it..so she put a little more..and then i said i

was fine..

and then i was brought back to the day surgery patient prep room to my spot and

i was totally fine..i told them to call my mother and she came and we were

talkin ga lot and she was veyr surprised i was talking and everything and was

worried i shouldn't strain myself but it was fine..and for some reason i had a

bunch of energy to talk and talk, but then suddenly i got tired and had to sleep

a bit..oh yeah, also they put this ice pack that's filled with ice on two sides

and wraps aroudn your face and is held with velcro...pretty cool..i bought

several of those resusable gel icepacks tho and use those with the strap at

home..anyway..so i think i was there for like an hr and a half and then i was

gonna go home but the nurse asked if the pain was fine and i said actually it

was starting to hurt a bit so she gave me a shot of codeine and said i'd get

really sleepy, but i didn't for some reason but the pain went away..anyway, then

my surgeon came by again to check up and i said i was

leaving soon..and yeah, soon after that, i was told i could go so we went home

by taxi (my mother doesn't drive)..

anyway so that's it...today was pretty cool..i slept a bit and ate soem chicken

noodle soup and apple sauce and the pain has been pretty manageable with the

pain meds and stuff and i'm not taking them too often though. oh yeah one thing

i have been sorta dealing with: nosebleeding..nto a lot but still sorta

annoying..it's a mixture i think of eithe rthe surgery and the tubing they had

put down the nose into the windpipe durin gthe surgery..they told me abou tit

but again i forgot what they said..haha.

ok enough rambling for now..

good luck and i'll write back soon!

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