My Orthognathic Surgery Journal
Anyway, I haven't been blogging these days coz I have a surgery on Friday noon and today is the 7th day post op.
Let me start on Day 0!
Day 0: Thursday (8th Feb 2007)
After bidding a nice farewell in the SMUBE studio at around 1pm on Thursday (8th Feb), I set off to SGH to settle some paperwork for hospital admission. I registered by 2pm and only got my bed at 5pm -__-..haha..BUT! I actually asked for B2 class but due to lack of beds, I was given A1 class!!!!! Woohoo!!!! and paying B2 class rates!!!! I can only say...A1 is like a hotel suite man...hahaha..the bed is soft, u got ur own TV, own bathroom, nice dressing table and controls for hall lights lo!
Pict 1: This was my dinner for that night. It was chicken roll with cabbages. Sounds boring right but surprisingly it actually taste pretty good lo.
And then half way through my meal a doctor came in and say she needed to insert something into my left wrist so I could get glucose drip tonight since I won't be able to eat like 12 hours before my surgery.
So there she was, barging halfway into my dinner to stick this thing up my wrist:
And then dirtied my pillow -____-:
So i finished my meal with one hand....hahah..ate more after that coz my parents went down to get me my 2nd serving of dinner (ok I was hungry can...) and they left around 8 smth, leaving me alone in the mega big rm. So I watched tv all the way to till I fell aslp at 10 smth pm. I got woken up at 1.30am to be put on drip (which was a little disruptive to the sleep after that) and I got woken up every few hours to have my BP and temperature taken. Coz no fever and no flu prior to surgery.
Day 1: Friday (9th Feb 2007)
I was woken up at 11.30am by the Operating Theatre nurses who pushed this super high bed into the room and say I should get ready for surgery. (eeks!) So I changed into this horrible looking blue surgical gown (and which the nurse said a tad too big for me...but seriously it was like one size thing?!) and got wheeled out of my room.
So there I lied on the high bed and was pushed around to the ground floor where the Operating Theatres were. They had a "tortoise" tag tied on my right hand (something they use to track patients because the Operating Area is too big) and I had my hospital tag on too (which the nurse said was a charm bracelet -__-). So I was pushed to this waiting area coz there was still one more girl before me who had the same surgery at 8am (she was still in the OT that time).
While waiting, one doctor came over and said :"Ok girl, we need to open a 3-way tap on ur left wrist ok. So we can insert drugs and such during the operation. We will do LA for u, because it will hurt a little."
So FINE, i will have a "THREE-WAY TAP"...u tink what?! Drain or something?! Anyway the LA didn't work very well, or maybe that's the extent LA could do for me. They had to insert an 8cm long needle into my artery and vein. BUT! They couldn't find it. So they were navigating needles most of the time. They changed about 3 doctors, and by the time they poked the 3rd time, I was crying already. (Anyway, when I woke up that time, I found 8 holes on my wrist. Must have tried a lot more times after that..hahaa)
But I guess the scary part wasn't the needle, it was what I heard when the operating door slide open when one of the nurses came out.
Doc:" Ok girl, you can open your eyes now, the surgery is over. Breathe thru your nose and do not panic that ur mouth is being ties together. DUN STRUGGLE! GAL DUN STRUGGLE! LIE STILL! BREATHE THRU UR NOSE! EVERYTHING IS COMING OUT! GET THE CLEANER!"
NOW that was scary. Anyway I got wheeled into the OT and the doc says over and over again that when I wake up dun struggle, breathe thru my nose, I wont choke and yada yada... I dun even rem when the GA was given becoz while she was talking away, it only felt like something vv heavy hit me on the back of my head and I felt I was sinking down the Operating Table.
The next thing I knew was waking up in the Recovery Room,the clock was 7.15pm and I had 3 pairs of eyes staring at me. Hahahaa...I was breathing fine through my nose although I felt there was a vv tight piece of surgical band ties over my lower jaw. I got wheeled out of the OT at around 9.45pm into the High Dependency Unit. My parents dropped by a while and left as 10pm was the ultimate time limit they could stay.
The night over at HD Unit was traumatising actually. I couldn't swallow properly becoz of all the swellings that was going on inside the mouth due to post-op. So I was holding all the blood in my mouth. I can't swallow them so I ended up choking on them. So I was choking and coughing out blood the entire night. The nurses over at SGH HD were really nice. They tried all their means to make me feel better. Part of the post-effect of GA was that you will feel nauseous and trying to throw up with a mouth all stitched up is not a very funny matter. So they gave me me an anti-nauseous jab and kept offering me packs of wet tissues. There was so much blood dripping down my mouth I changed about 3 shirts that particular night. I din slp much either as I was woken up for my BP and my temp-taking every hour. The clock was just on the wall in front of me so every moment I woke up it was 1am 2am 3am....until i finally saw 9am..I so so freaking happy.
Day 2: Saturday (10th Feb 2007)
Anyway my shirt was so stained I had to change again..so that's the 4th one..ahaha..and I was pumped with so much drugs and drip that my left hand was like 1.5 times bigger than my right hand..also partly due to them doing a lot of "flushing" to the tap they created on my left backhand. My cousin and sis dropped by around noon I tink and by the expressions on their face I knew they couldn't recognize me..ahhaha..
I got wheeled out of my bed at around 1 something to the Surgeon's room and that was the first time I saw myself in the mirror after the surgery. Erm, ok I couldn't recognize myself as well..haahahaha...who recognizes a pighead for goodness sake!? I was given an "Oral Toilet"- which is to disinfect the surgical area and it was so freaking painful la..
When I came back to my room, I was taken for a blood test and my haemoglobin level was a tad too low (prob from all the blood coughing) and I was given another bag of blood. In addition to the 2 bags of my own blood during the surgery, this was the 3rd one. Ok so now I have 400ml of unknown kind soul's blood running in me :)
Then I was wheeled back to the ward where I was given a sip of water through a syringe. Around evening I was transferred to normal ward. My aunt, uncle and cousin came with my parents at around 7pm and left about an hr later.
It was harder to sleep on this night as the old blood in the nose started to harden and I couldn't breathe properly. They had to drip some medicine into my nose and then i drifted into sleep within minutes. But I keep waking up in the night as it gets hard to breathe again after the med wears off. And plus there was an old lady with kidney problem sleeping next to me, and she was groaning in pain the whole night. So scary lo.
Day 3: Sunday (11th Feb 2007)
I was given small amt of milk in the morning which I couldn't even be bothered with a second drop (yes drops...not sips..drops..i was drinking through a plastic tube attached to a syringe) coz the first drop took so long and too much effort.
My parents came at around noon to pick me up. Finally! I am going hm! Anyway I was still under the pose-effect of GA so I was still weak and giddy. The ride home was ok, just that I felt more than ever to puke which I couldn't.hahaha...with a les than 1cm opening in the mouth, not very easy leh...
I was lying down most of the time and drinking minimally...which made me tired and weak for the rest of the day. By the end of the day, I had finished 2 boxes of tissues due to all the coughing. And that night was a terrible night to sleep as well. Without the hospital bed, it was difficult to find a proper position where the surgical site dun hurt and yet I could still breathe properly. So it was not a very smooth nite to sleep.
Day 4: Monday (12th Feb 2007)
Still felt like crap so I was resting in bed most of the day. And I drinking minimally also. I just couldn;t open my mouth ma..Then my mum reminded me I have to take my antibiotics coz if I get an infection it would be quite a case man. Since I couldn't swallow, I had to grind them and drink them down. DISGUSTING! Always puke but had to cover my mouth and force myself to drink it down. God cant imagine I have 40 more of that tablets to tk before I finish the course lo..
Ok...fast forward to today Day 7: Thursday (15th Feb 2007)
I had my stitches removed this morning but my splint is still in the mouth. As in, coz the cone was fractured for the surgery, i had to had splints so the bones can grow back properly. I had new drugs today (with candy coating and I can finally swallow pills!) I nv knew removing of stitches is so painful man...i really hope when i remove the splint, I wont cry sia..hahaha
Oh yea..one more photo: the bruise caused by that 8 holes..hahaah
Ok..very tired le...wanna slp...bye..
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