Recovery Day 5

Ok, I think the worst is behind me. Hallelujah! I don't think I could survive another night like I had from Day 3 to Day 4. Today has been the best day so far. I haven't taken any pain narcotics in the past 24 hours and I feel OK. I've been taking tylenol instead and it seems to do the trick. I don't really like how I feel on the narcotics, it makes me very queasy. But since I've been off the liquid narcotic pain killer for a full day, I can feel my body starting to go back to the way it was before but very slowly. I only wish the tylenol could taste better.

I have begun to start bruising. It's not anything super hideous but there's this yellowish greenish hue on the right side of my face. The one thing that is still bothering me is the nasal swelling. It was definitely the one thing I did not expect. And it's very bizarre to have feeling in some parts of my face and none in others. I've been alternating with an ice wrap that I have but sometimes feel like it's choking me.

So, I have 4 elastics holding my jaws together. 2 in the front and one on each side. One of my elastics broke this morning so I had my first elastic change today. It wasn't bad at all! I had to wear an elastic before so it wasn't completely foreign to me.

I had my first bowel movement since surgery! TMI? Oh well, I was excited when it happened since that's a good indication of healing.

I'm glad I made the decision to not watch the newest season of project runway and to keep it in the dvr until now. It's been a good show to watch on binge and if I pass out and miss stuff, oh well. Not a big deal.

I really really really REALLY want to blow my nose. And I can't for another 3-4 weeks. ;( The countdown is on! Today is Halloween and I won't be able to eat any halloween candy! Oh well, hope everyone has a fun night!

Recovery Day 4

Well, here I am on Day 4 after surgery. I'm not going to lie, I feel terrible. My nose is completely blocked even though I'm taking tons of nasal decongestants. I am a champion drooler right now. And the meds are making me very nauseous. Not much I can do except drink ginger ale, keep hydrated and eat whatever I can get down my throat. I'm still very swollen, especially in my upper jaw. I would have thought that my swelling would mostly be in my lower jaw but I was totally wrong with that. The swelling goes all the way up into my upper cheekbones towards my eyes and there's not a whole lot I can do to bring the swelling down except for ice. Unfortunately, my face can only handle so much ice at one time. Everything is very tingly.

Last night was the worst night so far I think. I woke up super nauseous and felt like I was going to pass out. I took a shower this morning and it helped me feel better. I just can't wash above my neck due to some minor stitches I have on my face. I really just want to wash my hair. I hate the taste of all my medications, especially the cherry flavored tylenol. I wish I could take ibuprofen liquid instead but Dr. Keith probably won't allow me to for awhile. Bummer. Man, I really want to pick my nose right now. So gross. Hahahaha.

I'm hoping that my swelling will start to diminish tomorrow or the day after. Don says that my swelling has gone down a lot but to me it feels worse.

No photos mostly because I feel like the loch ness monster. Depending on how I feel, I may post some photos after this weekend or after my post-op appointment.

Also, to my friends who sent me flowers, you all are amazing. It totally lifted my spirits when I felt terrible. Thank you cards should be on their way to you soon! 

Update Jaw Surgery Day #2

Hello everyone! Things are going ok with me and my recovery so far. Didn't post anything yesterday because it was a very busy day.

I came home yesterday around 4pm which was great. Didn't get stuck in rush hour this time around. Got home yesterday and just kept hydrated and took some pain meds. My face is pretty jacked and very swollen. Was told that yesterday and today would be the worst of the swelling and they weren't kidding. I may post a picture later tonight. My jaw doesn't really bother me so much but my lips and nose bother me the most. The nose is very swollen and a little hard to breathe out of. They have me on a lot of meds. 2 different nasal sprays, pseudofed, 2 different pain medication, and the chlorhexidine mouthwash (my favorite... NOT).

Yesterday was pretty ok. Not sure why but I was just SO HOT in my room. Not sure if they kept it warm on purpose but I didn't sleep with any blankets which is very bizarre for me. My overnight nurse was awesome. She was attentive but not overly so. After she realized I was sorta kinda good, she left me to push some fluids on my own. I did have a catheter and was hooked up to IV fluids. I had to get 3 different IVs though. 1st one didn't take, and the 2nd one I had was good until I woke up and it was really bothering me. My nurse overnight called for my IV to be changed and it was such a difference. So I'm sure my arms are going to be all bruised and stuff. My left hand is very sore from the 2nd IV.

My parents came and visited me but I honestly don't remember much of the visit. I couldn't really talk since I was tightly banded shut. Thank goodness for my dry erase board. If you are having jaw surgery like mine, bring a dry erase board with you to the hospital. The dry erase board was a life saver. It allowed me to communicate with my nurse (who again, was awesome) and family. I wasn't my nurse's only patient so if I needed something, a PCA would come to help me. PCA's are essentially nurse's assistants but they often help every single nurse on the unit. They sometimes aren't as familiar with a specific patient since they help out with all patients on the unit. When I first arrived at my room, a PCA offered to put my bed down to a fully lying down position. She had a hard time understanding what I wanted because I couldn't talk. Not knowing what procedure I even had, she probably didn't realize that lying down flat would cause major swelling in my face. I declined and used the dry erase board after that.

Catheter was fine, I was sorta nervous about that since I've never had one before but it was actually ok. After that was taken out, I got up a little more and became a bit more mobile. I did have these things on my legs for blood circulation and man, I hated them! I was already so hot and they just made it worse. My nurse took them off part way through the night and I was much more comfortable.

When I woke up the next day, I looked and realized I had a pretty awesome view! I was on the 14th Floor in the Ellison building. I guess, most oral surgery patients go to that floor if they have space up there. Apparently, Don told me that I had a nice view but I was still very groggy and don't remember it much at all.

My view from Ellison Room # 1438

I did have a roommate but she was not an oral surgery patient. From the sounds of it, I think she had a double mastectomy procedure probably due to breast cancer, I couldn't really talk so I didn't get to know her at all. She was very quiet and by the time I got back from my tests and x-rays on Tuesday, she had already been discharged. The floor I was on was a plastic surgery floor so not everyone was an oral surgery patient (hence my roommate having breast surgery). I was in bed B so I got the window view which was nice.

At 10am, I had to go and get some final x-rays done. My teeth were banded together with these SUPER tight elastics. I wasn't wired shut, but it was almost the same. Couldn't move my teeth or jaws at all for the first 24 hours. At that appointment, they removed those super tight bands and replaced them with slightly larger ones. The nurse replacing them was a complete idiot and took forever to replace the bands. She was showing me how to replace the bands should they break and she had no idea what she was doing at all. After awhile, my pain meds started to wear off and it became painful. She finally just took some clamps and replaced them.

Once I was back in my room, I told my nurse what happened and she felt really bad. She told me that she'd give me a dose of pain meds a little early. After that, I relaxed in my chair near the window. Soon after, the nutritionist came to visit me and give me some advice on how to eat once I was discharged. After she left, my nurse and doctor came and spoke to me about beginning my discharge. I was off IV meds, could go the bathroom alone and was able to push fluids by myself. Since I could do all those things, I was allowed to go home. Before I left, my nurse told us we could take anything we wanted home since everything left in the room would be thrown away. She gave us extra syringes and even offered us free Ensure. Don't be afraid to ask for extra stuff cause once you go home, it'll probably be difficult to obtain stuff like syringes. And when you need them, you'll really need them. The free ensure was really nice since it allowed me to try various flavors without having to spend a lot of money on flavors I may not even like.

Don came by the hospital visit me around noon yesterday. It took him a long time because someone drove out of one of the MGH garages and crashed through another garage brick wall. The street was blocked off due to them trying to extract the car and person inside. But it took don almost 40 minutes to get to MGH from the exit at Storrow Drive (which normally takes 2 minutes). Since I was able to do some key things by myself, I ended up getting discharged around 2:30pm.

Since coming home, I've mostly pushed fluids and slept. I woke up last night to catch the end of the Royals v. Mets game 1 of the world series which was surprising. The mets lost in the 14th inning so poor don was not happy this morning. But it's only the first game, there will be plenty of other opportunities for them to win.

My nose keeps tingling, feels like water is dripping down it so I think the feeling will start to come back to that soon. Ok, I'm starting to get hungry and tired again so time to eat and sleep some more. Will have Don help me post some photos later tonight.

Surgery Update from Don

This is Nikki's husband Don updating for Nikki.

Surgery is all done and went great. I'm with her in recovery. She's pretty groggy and a bit nauseous but in good spirits!

Thank you to everyone for all the support!

Let's get this party started!

Today is the day!

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who has texted, messaged me through Facebook, and sent good luck vibes my way. I appreciate each and every message. Feel free to message me with a joke or something funny to keep my spirits up. I may not respond to all of them at first but I'll definitely look at them.

Just wanted to post 2 final pictures taken last night. One is a profile, the other is a frontal image of me. Excuse how tired I look in the photo. Haven't gotten much sleep the past few days.

Anyway, see everyone on the other side!

ONE MORE DAY AAAHH!

So this is it! Last day before surgery. Can't believe it came up so quickly. I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I forgot to do but oh well, too late now. Maybe the boys can do some stuff around here while I'm gone.
Today we went to watch my niece and nephew cheer and play football. Then, we went out to lunch at Wahlburgers. I've never been before so it was fun to do it before my surgery. I got one of the smaller burgers mostly cause my stomach has been full of butterflies the past few days. Although, the fluffernutter banana nutella looked amazing. Next time!
Then this evening we went out to a steak house for my last meal (so sad!). I ended up getting print Rob and mashed potatoes and they were delicious. The prime Rib was tender and very flavorful. I haven't had beef that wasn't a burger in forever. It was a nice treat.
Then we came home and did some cleaning. Hopefully, everything will be OK! My stomach is so full of anxiety, I can't wait till this is all over.

2 days before surgery

Today was pretty busy. I had a few errands to do (a hair cut, returning some stuff, and last minute food shopping). Then we went to our friends' house warming party. I ended bringing cannoli dip (if you don't know what it is, Google a recipe. It's amazing, trust me. This may have turned into one of my go to party recipes.) Our friends have a smoker so we had a whole array of smoked meat (ribs, pulled pork, etc.) It was nice to catch up and chat with a bunch of people we haven't seen in awhile.
Sorry but the only photo I took was of the book ribs. They were sooooo good though! I'm going to miss ribs. 
We finished off the night with hanging around a fire pit roasting marshmallows. All in all, a great and memorable night!

3 days til surgery

Today was my last day of work. Felt kind of bittersweet. I'd rather work than have surgery but oh well. I called and gave my last notice to my short term disability so long as everything goes to plan, I'll be getting STD starting in 2 weeks. 

Don and I spent the evening together and just chilled out. I really wanted wings and our go-to place here in Waltham closed (RIP Wings Express). So we did some searching and found a place close to us. They were pretty good so it seems we found another good place for wings in our area, yay! I got honey mustard, don got medium buffalo. They have a bunch of other sauces in their menu but we figured for a first time that we'd go basic.
We also got jalepano poppers which were really good!
We finished the evening off with watching Edge of tomorrow with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Omg what a great movie. I might even watch it again, it was that good.

Final Pre-op time!

Tuesday was my final pre-op with Dr. Keith. At that appointment we went over general expectations, looked at all my xrays and photos together, and Dr Keith answered any final questions I had. The meeting went well! I had many of my questions answered which was reassuring. I will be updating the questions and answers section with the completed version of everything I had wanted to know.

When I first got there, we went over my x-rays and looked at all the photos. Apparently, there was a miscommunication between a few people and myself. I was originally told that my lower jaw would be moved in a way that would diminish my chin. However, that is not the case anymore! After going through my photos, it became very obvious to the surgeon and his staff that I would require advancement of both the upper and lower jaws. I thought my lower jaw would be pushed back but the x-rays show that neither jaws really advanced forward like they should have. It's not apparent when you look at me face on but my profile is kinda funky. My jaw and chin almost taper away into my neck. I'm hoping that I'll be able to grab copies of the images cause it's hard to visualize properly without photos. When they told me I'd pretty much lose my chin (unless I opted for the genioplasty) my first thought was "but I don't really have much of a chin to lose... oh well." It was nice to hear that after this surgery, I'll actually have more of a defined chin! Yay? Better than losing it, that's for sure!

After looking through some photos, I was presented with some options on how far to advance my jaw. All 3 options would help alleviate TMJ issues, give me a proper bite and help with reducing snoring and airway issues. The reason for the choice is purely aesthetic. The options were movement of 5mm, 7mm, and 9mm. It was difficult to make a decision mostly because I hardly look at myself. I mean, I see myself in the mirror everyday but I don't stand there inspecting my features. And I have a hard time visualizing anything. Thank god my hubby came with me to the appointment. I asked for his opinion. After all, he's the one who's stuck with looking at me every day! HAHA. After talking it out and going through all the options, we decided that 7mm was the right way to go for me. 5mm was just not enough, and 9mm was a little too much. Just like Goldilocks, I went with the option that felt "just right."

Then we went into the questions portion of the meeting. I came with my list prepared (cause i'm crazy) and Dr. Keith seemed impressed. I'm the kind of person who does not like surprises. I want to be informed on everything that is going on and have some kind of awareness that certain things are happening. One thing that I was not aware of would be sleeping restrictions. I figured I would need to be propped up somewhat but only for a few days. I will need to sleep sitting up for at a minimum of 2 weeks (YIKES). My head can't go below my heart due to bleeding risks so that's why he told me no sleeping lying down. He recommended a recliner or sleeping on a couch propped up against the arm of the couch. So now we have to slightly modify our living room to make room for our recliner that has been living in another part of our house for the past 6 months.

After everything was done, I was directed to his insurance coordinator (NOT MARY, YAY). She was very nice. We went over logistics for surgery day. More good news, my surgery was bumped up from 7:30am to 9:00am. I have to be at the hospital 2 hours before for prep so now I need to be at the hospital at 7:00am. I was originally going to have to wake up at 4am and get to the hospital for 5:30am. But now I'll be able to sleep in until 5:30ish or 6. Extra sleep is always good. I'll probably wake up at 3am due to nerves but whatever!

We are down to the final days before surgery and my nerves are just making me a little frazzled. Can't wait for this to be done and to start recovering.

4 days left! O.O!!!

Well, I have 4 days left. I'm starting to get  really get sick of unhealthy food, is that sad? I ate sushi at the hospital for lunch and almost burned my sinuses off, I added way to much wasabi! Normally it's a little more on the mild side but not this time! Holy cow!
For dinner, I shared a burger with a friend at a local restaurant. The burger was so big! It's called the breakfast burger and is topped with a fried egg. We ordered alcoholic drinks with it (cause why not?!) And they were pretty bad. We ended up leaving, going next door and grabbing drinks at the restaurant across the way. All the food looked so good at this other place, we should have just gone there but oh well! Next time!
Then the hubby and I went to trivia with some other friends. We had a great time but ate no food there.

5 days to go!

Wow, we are down to the final 5. Yikes, getting more and more nervous as each day goes on.

I'm slowly becoming sick of junk food and sweets. That's good, right? Anyway, people at work were very nice and bought a cake to wish me good luck for my surgery. I was not expecting anything so it was a very nice gesture. The cake was very yummy and it made me a little sad that this will probably be the last slice of cake I eat in awhile.

Anyway, I started working on my pre-op thing and just got so tired. It'll have to wait until tomorrow!

Also met up with someone local who reads the blog! Very exciting and kinda cool. We both have the same orthodontist. It was nice to be able to talk to someone who legitimately understands everything I'm going through since she's dealing with similar things. It was really nice to be able to sit down and have a nice chat with her. Can't wait to do it again after I've recovered somewhat.

OK photos and bedtime!

6 days til surgery!

A whole lot happened today but I don't have a lot of time to sit down and write everything down. Just wanted to be consistent with the food porn haha lol.

I will write out a more comprehensive accounting of what happened today at my pre-op appointment tomorrow sometime.

For now, here's the food I enjoyed today! Nachos, slutty pumpkin (for those unawares, it's a shipyard pumpkin head with a shot of vanilla stoli, soooo good!), and cannoli from Mike's pastry in the north end. I also had pulled pork Mac and cheese but I forgot to take a photo, whoops. We went to trivia and had a great time with some friends. 

7 days til surgery - butterflies have begun

Well, we are down to the one week mark. I'm trying to make plans with as many people as possible this week and my schedule is so packed! So much things going on, it's crazy.
Dinner tonight wasnt exciting, just grilled chicken and rice pilaf. But I did have a falafel wrap at work for lunch and it wasn't terrible. The hummus spread they used was quite good. Falafel could have been better but it wasn't bad.
Due to some schedule changes at work my work schedule is now different. And I was originally supposed to have my final dental cleaning in Wednesday. Well, now I have to work in the morning. I called today on the off chance they could fit me in somewhere this week and they had a cancellation for today at 3pm! I couldn't believe how lucky I was. I must have called at just the right time. But now my teeth are clean and its one less thing I have to worry about! Score!
Tomorrow is my pre op and trivia for the first time in awhile. Can't wait!

8 days til surgery - more food

Well, more food was eaten today. Notable foods were the chicken parmesan panini and French fries, cupcakes, tortilla chips and salsa, gummy worms and a whole lot of peanut butter cups. Yea... no shits were given today in terms of diet.

I went and did more food shopping and food prep for myself. Bought more chicken broth, carnation instant breakfast, oatmeal and Gatorade. Also bought pumpkin puree, might attempt to make some kind of meal with that. Or maybe just mix it into pudding or something. I'll probably never want to eat pumpkin ever again after this surgery.

My mother in law gave me coupons for baby food. Not looking forward to eating that but it's better than the alternative which is cook a chicken breast and blend the crap out of it until it is a puree. Thanks but no thanks. The baby food is much better. So that's the next thing to buy.

We also have plans for my last meal which will be Sunday. I'm very excited because it's looking like it'll be an all day thing (breakfast lunch and dinner are all planned). Look for my post on the 25th!

And the food porn begins - 9 days till surgery

So I've decided that there are no rules this week when it comes to food. If I want something, I'm going to eat it. And to make this a little fun, I'm going to post some of my meals here.

Countdown to surgery starts off with Saturday food porn. Had pizza and Fritos for lunch at the hospital since I was working. The pizza was pretty awful but crunchy so at least my jaw was put to work.
After work, I joined two friends from school and we got mani-pedis at my favorite nail spa (aria in Wakefield, ma). Omg so good, they massage you and put parafin wax on your hands and feet. It was so awesome. Very relaxing and just what I wanted. Then we went it to dinner at chili's. I got a tostada, quesadilla and enchilada plate along with a margarita. And finally finished it off with a cookie skillet with ice cream on top. Sooooo good!

The Countdown is on! 10 days to go...

I can't believe that I have less than 10 days to go until my surgery! Still doesn't feel very real to me. I have been doing a lot of cleaning and reorganizing things before the big day. I worked on the pantry a few days ago and took a quick inventory to figure out what I need to buy at the grocery store. If no one knew how old I was, they would think my grocery list was for a 75 year old grandma.

I made some sweet potatoes and blended them down to a puree. Our freezer is starting to look pretty sad filled with all the soft food. Tons of applesauce, butternut squash soup, sweet potatoes, ice cream, and frozen fruit to make smoothies. I am also planning to freeze a puree carrot soup. Probably do that Sunday evening.

My freezer! And it's not done yet. So sad!

My final pre-op appointment is on Tuesday which I have off. I will ask all the questions I have left and hopefully get answers. Then Wednesday morning I have my last dental cleaning. Hopefully they'll be able to clean around all the hooks and wires I have. But anything is better than nothing I suppose.

I asked a bunch of coworkers what last meal they would choose if they had to have jaw surgery and most of them said either steak or ribs. Another person said buffalo chicken. If anyone has any suggestions for things I should eat before my surgery, please comment below! I'd love to hear everything!