Saturday, August 21, 2010

Day 1 Post-Op: Swollen

Hi everyone!! I'm alive! WAHOO!
The surgery went REALLY REALLY well. It only took less than 1.5 hours (CRAZY I KNOW!). The appointment ended up being an hour behind schedule because I guess the person before me took a little more time in the OR. It was all worth the wait though (as far as I can tell!).
I stayed in the hospital last night. It was pretty relaxing. I had my own private room and a fabulous nurse that was very attentive! My father and best friend Claire were with me before and for a while after the surgery. Then my mom and other best friend Mariya stopped by until around 8 pm. Then my brother came close to the end of visiting hours! Felt so loved :) At that point I was actually able to speak a little because my face was not super swollen (like you will see shortly). As I mentioned before, I do NOT have a splint. I hear splints are awful and make it so hard to drink. I was actually able to drink a lot of water last night. I made a mixture of apple juice and water to try and get sugar in me. My throat has not been that bad either - feels way better when I drink colder drinks.

They had me on morphine and antibiotics and some sort of de-swelling medicine hooked into my IV. I didn't feel nauseous at all either! So thus far... it's been a pretty easy ride. I'm not sure what it will be like over the next few days, but Claire is with me for a week (and she's in 4th year medical school), so I know I'll be well taken care of!

I was able to have a pretty ok sleep from 12 am - 5 am. The nurse came to check on me every hour or so and give me medicine as I needed. They took my blood pressure and temperature every few hours as well. Once I was up at 5 am, I've been up for pretty much the rest of the day! Every so often I've dozed off a little, but not for more than 20 minutes.


So here are some photos for you guys!!!

Day 0 - Surgery Day!

(4 hours post surgery with ice packs)

(trying to smize - smile with my eyes!)

Day 1 - Post Op (today!)


As you can see, they have a my chin tapped up (and smushed back) pretty well - this is to hold my chin in place for 2 days. I get to take the tape off tomorrow afternoon! I don't know what it looks like underneath yet.

My face is starting to swell up A LOT. I can't really feel anything below my eyes. The only thing i can partially feel like my upper and lower right half of my lips - odd I know!

An amazing thing I noticed is that my nose is straighter (especially in the profile shot!). I will post comparison (from before surgery and when the swelling goes down) to see how much it's changed. The nose structure changed because the moved my upper jaw up and slightly forward.

That's all for now - getting drowsy!

Post any questions or comments you want! I'll try to answer them all :)

Alexis

5 comments:

  1. Hi Alexis!
    Amazing, 1.5 hours that is awesome! You look great, I hope your recovery continues to go well!
    Sleep well tonight!
    Brent

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  2. Wow. you look great!

    An 1 and 1/2????? Holy cow. Mine took 7 and 1/2! ha. Thats great! You are looking amazing for a day. I didn't get the pleasure of having tape- I had to suffer through the jaw bra- it was hell. Be glad you got tape. ;) The pressure of the jaw bra was torture.

    I am so glad your throat isn't too bad- the longer your surgery the worse your throat is the day after. Because of the breathing tube.

    I am so happy that you are doing well. You look fab! Can't wait to see once the tape is off!

    Keep us posted. :)

    Love, Makay

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  3. @Brent - Thanks for telling me I look grea 1 day post-oP! helps with all the swelling going on :) I slept pretty well last night, I took an adivan which zonked me out. I will post later a Day 2 update!

    @Makay - I know! Icant beleive it took such a short time! It helped a lot with decreasing the sore through and i'm guess I didnt loose a lot of blood cuz my energy is up enough. The tape is just super itchy - I can't wait to take it off today. The doc said to be very careful and peel it off cm by cm - so I'm going to get my friend Claire to do it and help her practice her medical skills on me!
    The tape will be off for my pics later today!

    Thanks for commenting :)

    Alexis

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  4. You're looking great! I'm glad you're doing OK so far. Keep us updated, but be sure to rest a lot away from the computer.

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  5. Lex, you look fab! Your profile is amazing - I can't believe the difference already. Great work again on keeping healthy pre-surgery ... I'm sure that's why your recovery is going so well. I'm glad your energy is up. Are you continuing with your iron supplement? Make sure to do so, those RBC's have a lifespan of 30 days remember!!!

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