Days 0-2: Blissfully Flat

WAR NING: Some of the pictures below can be pretty gross and bloody. Proceed at your own risk...

I've been blissfully flat for the past few days. For some strange reason, getting your bottom half of your face sawed apart and put back together has a tendency to make you have really flat expressions. Yet, I am so blissfully happy I did it. Even with all of the complications, still having some massive swelling in my airways, and losing nearly a pound in blood, I already notice I CAN BREATHE!!!

Day 0 (Surgery day, November 10):

• Inconvenience level: 8/10
• Pain level: 6/10

The day finally came. I got up at 3:00 in the morning, showered, dressed, and was out the door with my parents and on my way to University of Michigan by 4:00. We arrived to check-in at 6:00, I was taken back at 6:30 for preparations and pre-op, and, as I rolled away, I remember nothing else until 2:30. My day had come and, although I had some nerves, I was not looking back. Apparently, after pre-op, surgery itself started around 8:30, I was in the operating room with surgery and post-surgery until about 11:30, and I woke up in recovery at 2:30. I was told coming out of such a massive surgery so quickly was a great sign. By 8:30, I had my own room. That night was pretty rough. During surgery, I lost about 10-12 ounces of blood, they had to put in more brackets and screws than they originally thought, and that night, they struggled to get the bleeding to stop and to keep my airways from swelling shut. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night.

One of the few things I remember from that day:

1. When the Anesthesiologist asks you in pre-op what you'd like to be called when you wake up, the reply "Bionic Man" will get you a smile, but then she'll quickly ask if "Clark Kent" is okay instead.
2. Oddly enough, most people completely lose feeling from the eyes down from this surgery which helps with pain control. Well, although I knew I was unique and I'm not most people, this is the one experience where you wish you were like most everyone else and lost feeling. But, while the left side of my face is totally numb, I can still feel about 50% of my right bottom jaw and 25% of my right upper jaw.

Day 1 post-op (November 11):

• Inconvenience level: 7/10
• Pain level: 7/10

Although I had a long night and only slept about 30 minutes total, thankfully, by about 11:00 the next morning, the bleeding had slowed to a minor trickle, I was on a drip steroid to keep my airways from closing, and I peed for the first time. Well, I'm not so thankful about the first day of peeing... I know, maybe that's a little TMI, but coming to this with a weird sense of humor and having a Master of Public Health, I discovered a new way to keep teens from having unprotected sex--put a catheter in the guys and, that first time they pee afterwards, tell them that's how bad an STI could burn. I've never before felt like the flames of hell were trickling out of my body until that. Lesson learned: get a research board to approve my project, insert catheters into the males, make teens go through that and see what it does to rates of unprotected sex. I have never had an STI and if it's anything like that, pissing flames of hell-fire is not the way to go, people.

Also, why they never called me "Clark Kent" or "Bionic Man" escapes me. Most communication that day happened by writing on a whiteboard. Sadly, a sense of humor doesn't always get communicated that well on a whiteboard. But, when I got my X-rays to make sure things went well, I finally got a smile out of the nurse when she said "Wow, that went fast" and my reply was "Well, what can I say, I don't know if you knew this, but Clark Kent is secretly Superman, I'm faster than a speeding bullet". Apparently, when you're on massive doses of Oxy and Toradol, you forget that Superman and Bionic Man are two different people. But, hey, at least I got a smile out of her.

Around 2:45 that afternoon, I drank my first meal in 2 days and they asked if I felt I could go home or wanted to stay another day. Knowing what I do about the risks of catching an infection in the hospital the longer you stay, I felt it was time to go. The oral surgery residents came in, banded my teeth together, we got my prescriptions, and at 4:30 I was released. Of course, that's not the best time to leave Ann Arbor on a Friday, but we finally made it home around 7:30.

Day 2 post-op (November 12):

• Inconvenience level: 10/10
• Pain level: 5/10

It's 2:00 in the afternoon as I write this. So, there's plenty of time for more to develop. But, the good news is, so far today, my pain level is down, I've had an ensure, protein shake, and tomato soup. The even better news is, I almost fit the pictures of how I imagined I would look after surgery. Apparently today or tomorrow will be the worst for swelling and things will then go more smoothly after that. Also, I can pee again without feeling I'm peeing lava. Today is a much gentler version, now it feels like I'm only peeing out scalding hot water. A few notes from today:

1. It's much harder than you think to drink 80 ounces of water a day when it all has to go into your mouth using a syringe that has a maximum capacity of 2 ounces
2. Apparently, sawing your face apart and putting it back together means you can still breathe better than before surgery--even with the swelling--but, it also means your face will continue to swell for 72 hours or so and then stay at that point for up to one week. Let's hope this is the peak of swelling.
3. I've already lost about 5% of my body weight from the volume of blood loss and difficulty getting calories in 2 ounces of liquid at a time.
4. On the bright side, I was finally able to see into my mouth and got an infant's sized toothbrush into my mouth far enough to clean out some of the blood that was stuck to one of my front teeth. I still can't see my smile, my mouth is banded shut, and I can't really make expressions with my face, but if I can breathe already at this point, I cannot wait to see what happens throughout recovery!
5. I am blessed to have a little brother who is more than happy to help me, my parents and he take shifts checking in on me, and my head is finally clear enough that I'm able to write a (hopefully logical) blog post.
6. I've also realized that I have amazing friends!!! Thanks to everyone who has offered to stop by, offered encouraging words, for all the prayers, and especially the friend who offered to bring me baked goods... Um, exactly how am I supposed to eat that? Hey, it's the thought that counts and, I'm almost there, right?
7. I'm starting to notice small bruises popping up randomly from my neck all the way up to my eyes.

Finally, here are a few pictures of me from today ( Sorry about the dried blood, but it's surprisingly difficult to remove...):

Compared to what I thought I might look like at this point, I'm doing remarkably well. Even the surgeon was surprised by how well they got the swelling under control. I imagine being hooked to a steroid drip for several hours when my airways almost closed is still having some benefits at keeping my swelling down.

Thank you all for the prayers, positive thoughts, and dropping me texts, encouragements on Facebook, and so much more! You all rock!


Signed,

The Bionic Man/Clark Kent/Superman/The Blissfully Flat Expression