Four Days Out...

My surgery was on Wednesday morning, and it is now Saturday afternoon. I was discharged from the hospital about this time yesterday. Overall, I feel pretty good. Mostly, I feel tired and the occasional spasm or tickle in my chin that even when I scratch it doesn't seem to go away.

My biggest fear, the pain, hasn't been that bad. I was not as dependent on the morphine pump as most people expected and the doctors were all surprised at how well I was doing. Dr. A and Lynn both said that I might have been one of their best patients ever. ;-) It really wasn't as bad of an experience as I was expecting.

I did throw up the first night out of surgery because of the blood, but that was it. All-in-all, I'm just trying to find the energy to keep up with my class work and figure out a way to wash my hair without getting my bandages wet.

Wish me luck. I'll post pictures later.

Kiss this face goodbye!

I honestly thought this day would never come. Now, a little less than twelve hours from now, I will be getting OUT of surgery, to be wheeled back to the ICU by the indians while the chiefs give themselves a few pats on the backs and maybe even a high-five for a job well done.

It hardly seems possible that it has been eight years since Dr. L first suggested that I have this surgery. Eight years, it took, to convince me that this was necessary. Eight years, to finally have good enough insurance to cover all but $200 of this almost 11k surgery. Whew! Thank god for good insurance. Either way, I'm sitting here on the day bed that will be my home for the next few weeks while I recover. Luckily, it's comfortable and one side incline's so I can lay comfortably and watch TV. Right about now, I wish I had a DVR so I could have been stockpiling it with my favorite shows and wouldn't have to suffer through reruns of Jerry Springer or, god help me, The View!!!!

So, I have to be at the hospital at 5:30 am and my surgery is at 8 am. For anyone who knows me (well), you'll know how much agony I'll be in having to wait 2-1/2 hours for the surgery. I hate waiting. I just want to walk through the door, get knocked out and then rolled into the OR. I don't want to sit around and wait, thinking about what they're going to be doing to my face.

Honestly, though, that part doesn't scare me. Although, last night I was watching some mediaeval torture show and they were sawing a skeleton in half and I couldn't help but cringe. But, I digress. The part that scares me is how much pain I'll feel. I've read other blogs and none have really commented too much on the pain aspect of it, only to say that it wasn't that bad. That is (and isn't) comforting. It reminds me of what everyone always says about childbirth. It hurts like hell, but afterwards you don't remember it. Is that what this is going to be like. I'm gonna hurt like hell for a while, but then once I'm healed, I'll say, "Oh it wasn't that bad!"

Just like when I was getting my belly button pierced for the first time. Every one said, "It didn't hurt me at all." "Oh no, it's just a little pinch, you won't fell a thing."

Oh yes I did! THAT HURT LIKE HELL...and I wasn't about to go around telling people it didn't. To this day, if people ask if it hurt, I say, "HELL YES IT DID!" Hurt just as bad the second time around, too.

But, like my momma said, "don't dwell on it because the things we dwell on tend to expand."

Ain't that the truth!

Night all. I'll keep you posted.

Bad, Blogger! Bad!

I've been a bad, bad blogger. It's been a while since I've posted last and I know I promised to keep this thing up to date. But, alas, here we are. My surgery is in two days. I'm not as nervous as I think I should be, but I owe a lot of that to the Surgical Coordinator at Dr. A's office an the rest of Dr. A's team. They really answered all of my questions without me having to ask them and made me feel well prepared for this adventure.

There is one minor change though. Dr. A has decided to do a genoplasty while he's in there. That, in case you are wondering is a chin advancement. They didn't really explain to me why they wanted to do it other than I'd still be too short with out it, but medically I'm sure it has some significance. I would think that if I saw my profile and saw that I was still too short I'd try posturing forward which is what started this whole mess in the first place. So...maybe that's why. I'll see a perfect jawline and not feel the need to push it forward to compensate. Hmm.... Okay. Works for me!

I've talked to a lot of people and read a lot of stories. One of the most comforting things I've heard is the pain isn't that bad. Out of all the people I've heard from, none have really complained about the pain. The one thing that did make me a little nervous was the blood in the stomach and vomiting. OH! How I hate to throw up. But, thanks to Dr. A, I don't think I'll have that problem. They use a g-tube that will suck it all out of my stomach! YAY!

So, were in the final stretch of on part of my adventure and I have to say that it came up alot quicker that I expected it to. Back in April when I first got my braces back on, I thought September would never get here. But, lo! and behold! Two days and counting...

Wish me luck!

I'll be out of work for about two weeks so I'll have plenty of time to update you with my progress and pictures.

Look for one last before picture probably tomorrow. :-D