The First 72 Hours...

(warning. this post gets gross. just keeping it real)

Let me just start out by saying....oh....my gosh.

On all the other blogs I've read about this surgery, the people tend to disappear and not post for a while and I always wondered why. Now I know why..

Coma or jaw surgery?

I woke up from surgery and I was super drugged up. It was great, they gave me morphine whenever I wanted, anti-nausea meds, IV fluids, the whole shebang. I was never in a lot of pain (cuz of all the nerves they cut) but the swelling was RIDICULOUS. The nurse would wake me up to use the bathroom and it felt like my face weighed 50lbs. I also happened to be in an inpatient-room with two other kids who also had under gone jaw surgery that day. The poor boy at the end was sick most of the day but then slept most of the night. The girl next to me was very quiet but her family...was SO loud. I remember at one point I told my mom to make them leave. I might have made a couple of death threats under my breath, but hey, who doesn't get grumpy when they feel like they've been hit by a train? Another thing that was interesting was that they gave us all suction straws (like at the dentist) that we could use to suck all the excess blood out. I definitely should have used mine more because all the blood I swallowed made me feel ill.

Drugged swollen me...lol

Okay so the hospital, not that bad. It was once I got home where shiz hit the fan. I'm not about to sugar coat this people, so strap in. Basically I was in a vicious cycle of medication. I had to take a laxative because all the narcotics stop you up and make you nauseous. This is common post-op protocol and you'd think by my third surgery that I would have figured out the importance of this. I was nauseated for the entire three days. Honestly, I would have rather have been in pain than nauseous. Because I constantly felt sick, it took every effort in my body to try and consume anything. I needed some sort of food in my stomach before taking pain meds, but I didn't want to eat. So then I'd be in pain AND nauseous. Then after about 12 hours of taking the Tylenol with Codine we realized that my body was having a reaction to it. My heart felt like it had been racing all day and I couldn't sleep at all. We called in and they told me to just take kids Tylenol instead. That stuff was awful and I had to take a ton to get the correct adult dosage. Then my sinus decided to join the party. I got extremely congested and then mucus started flowing into my stomach...making me more nauseous. The ice bags that I had been strapping around my face were getting old. At night I would wake up and rip them off feeling claustrophobic and unable to breath. I eventually got sick the second and third night, which is awful when your mouth only opens 2mm and you can't spit. Christmas Eve was probably the worst. I was so tired, and I hadn't eaten anything and I basically had decided I was going to die. Like no joke, I was doing the math and I was convinced that I could no longer attempt to take care of my body. I told my mom that if I was still like this in the morning, she HAD to take me to the ER. I was praying so hard just for one thing to go my way, and then it happened. God gave me a Christmas Miracle.

Before and immediately after surgery. The swelling actually got wayyyy worse than this.

I woke up the next morning and I was able to go to the bathroom!!! This immediately relieved my nausea and I was able to eat! My dad found adult liquid Tylenol so I didn't have to take the awful kid stuff anymore. The swelling had gone down a little and since it had been 72 hours, I didn't have to ice 24/7 anymore. I took a shower and wow, I've never loved a shower more in my life. I was more alert, able to watch TV, and even text all my friends back (finally, sorry guys).

They told me once I got past 72 hours, "the hump" they called it, that the worst would be behind me. I'm so glad that was true because that was the longest 72 hours of my life. I may be overstepping here, but I think childbirth just might be a breeze now...