Surgery completed..

I had my surgery last Thursday at 2:30ish. My appt was originally scheduled for 12:30p but the docs weren't ready for me until two hours later.

Hospitals are like assembly lines. The hospital coordinator called my name where I sat for two hours in the waiting room. My mom, who was with me, and I were led to the fourth floor surgery pre-op room. There was a white board with a list of surgeries scheduled for that day. I saw my name and was assigned gurney #27. There were 30 gurneys lined up wall to wall with only curtains between each in that one room and most were filled with other patients waiting to go into surgery. We all looked frightened.

A nurse came by, told me to change into a hospital gown, took my stats, and asked me several questions about my health. My anesthesiologist arrived, asked me a dozen more questions, told me they will shove a breathing tube down my throat once I'm knocked out, and he will be in charge of monitoring my vitals during surgery. Another nurse came by, prepared the IV and wasn't too successful in getting the needle inserted because my veins kept collapsing. She finally got it in and started pumping me with anesthesia. Several residents and the head surgeon came by to explain exactly what they will do to me. I asked my questions and voiced my concerns before finally getting a "there's a 50/50 change that the arch won't stay up and in that case, we'll have to consider other options to stabilize the arch which means incisions in your face." Oh, joy..

They asked if I was ready to go, and started wheeling me to the elevator. Then I passed out.

I woke up groggy and my head hurt. My hair was caked with dried blood from the incision they made and there was a splint taped to my face to protect the zygomatic arch. I was still lying on my gurney but in another room with an attending nurse keeping an eye on me. This was the Post Anesthesia Care Unit. The nurse woke me every hour to see how I was doing.

My mom and several friends greeted me and extended their visit until I was fully awake. I kept asking how I looked and everyone said I looked great but no one offered to give me a mirror. Bad sign. I was told the surgery was successful and the actual procedure took about 15 minutes. There were no major complications. My heart rate did drop to 40 which caused some concern while I was on the operating table. I had mentioned to one of the residents earlier that I was going to play dead and see how low my heart rate can go while in a deep sleep. I guess I wasn't completely joking.

I was discharged around 9p and went home to rest. I was still high from the anesthesia and whatever anti-anxiety meds they gave me earlier.

The next morning, I was depressed. I took one look at my face and went into freak mode. It looked liked the arch collapsed and I called the hospital and left a frantic message. My face was swollen so I couldn't really tell if the arch collapsed or not but I thought it did. I refused to get up out of bed and spent the whole day feeling sorry for myself.

I tried to sleep with my head hanging off the side of the bed, hoping gravity will pull the arch back in place but all that did was give me a migraine, swell the left side of my head up, and make my neck ache.

I removed the splint and washed off the dried blood from my hair. My face is still swollen and my head throbs every so often but I'm feeling better today.