Jaw Dropping Journey: 03/19/13

So here we are! The day before surgery. The day we thought would NEVER arrive. After 5 long years of waiting and disappointment, my heart is starting to race just thinking that finally, finally I will be getting surgery over with tomorrow! Yikes. Am I nervous? Not in the slightest...

HAH! Total lie! I've been nervous since we got the 'go ahead'. Calm, but silently freaking out. I lost my appetite and couldn't enjoy my last meal.. so I fed it to the birds.

I am not really nervous for the surgery. I have full confidence in Dr Arnett. Yes, I am worried about him cutting the nerve or it tearing on it's own because it sits right on top of the bottom jaw bone on both sides and has no room for error. Dr Arnett is confident he will not cut it, but I am still a high risk patient for it tearing in half on it's own due to the stretching when my lower jaw is brought forward. If so, that will cause permanent loss of feeling in my chin and lower lip. That's just a thought in the back of my head. I am nervous about first waking up after surgery..

#1- I'll have a catheter for 2 days- YUCK!!

#2- I could be nauseous from the anesthetic and my worst fear is throwing up (I know call me crazy.. I am actually terrified of throwing up and have only done so 2-3 times in my life. I will do everything in my will power NOT to throw up) Plus being wired shut puts a whole different spin on things!

#3- Blood could get into my stomach and make me throw up. So the nurses have me cough several times to cough up blood and mucus in my chest so it doesn't go to my stomach

#4- I've got this weird straw suction thing permanently attached to my hip (not really) to suck away all the nastiness coming out of my mouth

#5- I'll have some weird compression wraps on my legs

#6- I'll have some other sort of machine thing attached to my calves to rub them (this is to avoid a clot)

#7- I'll be swelling and sore and uncomfortable

#8- I'll have a sore throat from the tube the put down my nose into my lungs

#8- Along with the IVs, I'll have another catheter in my wrist to keep my blood pressure low and monitor me while asleep

I'll be all sorts of "machined-up"!!

If I could just skip tomorrow and flash forward to being back at our rental, or thursday morning even while still in the hospital, that would be great! I just hate the whole surgery crap! I can deal with the healing.

As for details of the surgery.. there was sooo much we were told I'll tell you what I remember:

14 bone grafts
22 ("something") punches- this is where the doc takes little hole punches out of my bone in places where the bone isn't needed (like the floor of my nose, etc.) and add it to the places where the bone grafts will be, along with synthetic bone and my own cells -> this promotes my own bone to grow back in those areas
about 8-10 titanium plates
32-40 screws.. yikes that sounds like a lot, is that right? I guess we'll see..
lower jaw is brought forward
chin is extended forward
upper jaw is brought forward
"horse shoe" shape of my teeth is cut into thirds to be repositions and aligned with the bottom
upper lip is..fixed?? don't know how to explain it. right now my top lip is thin and bottom lip is full, this will be fixed to match my bottom lip. the red colored part that is hiding will be brought out more :)
top middle teeth will be aligned with the rest of the top side teeth.. thus making my vampire fangs look less vampirish- curse those things! I hate them!!
tiny screw placed in gums above middle top teeth (for bands)
little hook placed in gums below middle bottom teeth (for bands)
the rest of the bands are placed on braces hooks
my teeny tiny airway will be opened up back to normal size!
a screw goes into my forehead dead smack in the middle of the eyes, like where my unibrow would be had I have one- but I prefer to be a hygienic female, so I don't! this is how the Dr measures everything to make it symmetrical. don't fret though! I will not look like frankenstein! this hook will come out after surgery!
surgery is about 6 hours long
after math in healing isn't too painful because when the nerves goes through this type of stress they just go to sleep. the nerves asleep creates no feeling. once the feeling starts to come back (a couple of weeks) most of the hard healing is done! voila!