Post-surgery - 10/24/07
***Warning - this posting is a bit graphic***
I was supposed to spend a night or two in ICU but they didn’t have an open bed when I needed it. Dr. Hudson’s decision at this point was whether to send me to ICU at the main hospital down the street (accessible from my hospital by shuttle) or to send me to a regular room with the understanding that one of my RN friends would be staying the night with me. Fortunately, the regular room with the nurse friend was chosen. My husband and mother and another of my nurse friends, Amy, were waiting in the room when I arrived from recovery. It was nice to get settled into the surprisingly comfortable bed. I pushed the PCA button as often as I could trying to get comfortable. Unfortunately I don’t think there was enough medication that I could get, short of having to reintubate me, that was going to get me comfortable initially. I was just going to have to hurt. In my room I had an IV (for hydration and IV access), a PCA pump (for pain control), leg compression machine (uses inflating/deflating knee-high boots to massage my legs to help prevent blood blots), and an O2 saturation monitor (measures my blood oxygen level. A good oxygen blood level is 95-100%). I felt kind of queasy and wobbly but stable enough to get up to the bathroom with some help. At this point of my surgical experience I was thinking, “What the hell have I done to myself! I have let someone saw the front of my face off! What was I thinking!” The logical side of my brain was still asleep.
Over the next couple of hours I continued to feel queasy until I vomited on return from the bathroom. I really was worried about how dangerous vomiting with a banded mouth would be, but honestly it wasn’t that bad. Since my stomach contents were liquid everything just ran out through my teeth. I had a stomach full of blood that I had ingested during surgery and it was making me nauseous. I instantly felt better. My routine over the next few hours was to rest, push that PCA button to keep my medication boluses coming, and to irrigate my mouth every couple of hours. I have incisions inside my mouth where my gums meet my upper lip and my lower lip and then more incisions in the back near my TMJ joints. For the first 24 hours or so they continued to ooze and my mouth needed irrigating so that I didn’t swallow any more blood. The routine doesn’t sound too taxing but I was profoundly exhausted. I couldn’t believe how much effort every thing I did took.
Along with the circus tent hospital gown, the compressions boots, two IV pumps and the O2 sat monitor, I had this elastic fishnet stockinette stuff that covered my head except for my face. Inside the stockinette were two large balls of gauze to cover the tiniest of incisions on each jaw. The only thing left to complete the look was the jaw sling ice pack. I looked ridiculous with the ice pack, but it was my buddy. The cool packs were very soothing to my throbbing jaws.
I was supposed to spend a night or two in ICU but they didn’t have an open bed when I needed it. Dr. Hudson’s decision at this point was whether to send me to ICU at the main hospital down the street (accessible from my hospital by shuttle) or to send me to a regular room with the understanding that one of my RN friends would be staying the night with me. Fortunately, the regular room with the nurse friend was chosen. My husband and mother and another of my nurse friends, Amy, were waiting in the room when I arrived from recovery. It was nice to get settled into the surprisingly comfortable bed. I pushed the PCA button as often as I could trying to get comfortable. Unfortunately I don’t think there was enough medication that I could get, short of having to reintubate me, that was going to get me comfortable initially. I was just going to have to hurt. In my room I had an IV (for hydration and IV access), a PCA pump (for pain control), leg compression machine (uses inflating/deflating knee-high boots to massage my legs to help prevent blood blots), and an O2 saturation monitor (measures my blood oxygen level. A good oxygen blood level is 95-100%). I felt kind of queasy and wobbly but stable enough to get up to the bathroom with some help. At this point of my surgical experience I was thinking, “What the hell have I done to myself! I have let someone saw the front of my face off! What was I thinking!” The logical side of my brain was still asleep.
Over the next couple of hours I continued to feel queasy until I vomited on return from the bathroom. I really was worried about how dangerous vomiting with a banded mouth would be, but honestly it wasn’t that bad. Since my stomach contents were liquid everything just ran out through my teeth. I had a stomach full of blood that I had ingested during surgery and it was making me nauseous. I instantly felt better. My routine over the next few hours was to rest, push that PCA button to keep my medication boluses coming, and to irrigate my mouth every couple of hours. I have incisions inside my mouth where my gums meet my upper lip and my lower lip and then more incisions in the back near my TMJ joints. For the first 24 hours or so they continued to ooze and my mouth needed irrigating so that I didn’t swallow any more blood. The routine doesn’t sound too taxing but I was profoundly exhausted. I couldn’t believe how much effort every thing I did took.
Along with the circus tent hospital gown, the compressions boots, two IV pumps and the O2 sat monitor, I had this elastic fishnet stockinette stuff that covered my head except for my face. Inside the stockinette were two large balls of gauze to cover the tiniest of incisions on each jaw. The only thing left to complete the look was the jaw sling ice pack. I looked ridiculous with the ice pack, but it was my buddy. The cool packs were very soothing to my throbbing jaws.
posted by Anne | 6:44 PM
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