20/04/16
As some of you may already know, on 18th March 2016 I underwent corrective double jaw surgery to fix my class 3 malocclusion. Firstly, I will start this post by explaining the surgery itself.
To put it in simpler terms, my lower jaw was broken, re-structured and screwed back into place. My upper jaw was also broken and the excess bone taken from my lower jaw was inserted into my upper jaw and screwed together - I was lucky enough that there was enough bone from my lower jaw to put in my upper jaw so the surgeon did not need to take any extra bone from hip.
On the morning of the 18th, I arrived at Chichester hospital ready for my operation. I was told I was not allowed to eat anything for 12 hours before my operation as you have to have the operation on an empty stomach to try and prevent throwing up while on the anaesthetic. I was also told i could drink water up until I left the house that morning but then I must not have anything else to drink afterwards. I went through all the last minute checks to make sure I was healthy enough to have this operation. I also met my surgeon one last time before the surgery, where he once again checked to make sure I still wanted to have the surgery. After all of this was done, I spent about an hour in the waiting room before my name was finally read out around 11am. I remember feeling very very nervous as I walked down the corridor to the operating room. When I entered the room, there was a team of nurses and the anaesthetist waiting preparing everything. I was asked to lie down on the table where they hooked me up the various machinery needed to check my health throughout the operation. The last thing I remember was the anaesthetist asking me to put on the anaesthetic face mask and count down from 10. I only got to 7 before I went under.
When I woke up, at about 5:30pm, all I could remember asking the nurse for was my glasses because I could not see a thing without them which made me feel very disorientated. The next thing I heard was one of the surgical team members telling me the operation was successful and that they were just ringing my parents to tell them they could now come and see me. I think I went in and out of consciousness for a little while or I was just on such strong medication that I don't remember, but next thing I knew I was in a different ward where I would stay for the rest of my time in hospital. Luckily there was a private room available for me and the ward I was on was very quiet so it was about as perfect as I could hope for to recover in.
Throughout the rest of the evening I was given a lot of care and treatment from the nurses to ensure I was stable after the operation. I didn't feel any pain in my face or mouth as everything was numb, however I did have a bit of a sore throat from tubes being in there for just over 6 hours - the amount of time the operation took. I remember starting to feel very very thirsty as i had not had anything to drink since about 6am that morning, however I was not allowed to have anything to drink for 24 hours. Around midnight I told the nurse I really needed some water (I have no idea how she managed to understand me as I could not feel any part of my face including my tongue, and my jaw was wired shut - but somehow she knew what I was saying!). Since I could not feel anything and therefore couldn't drink or even swallow water, the nurse had to get a piece of sponge soaked in water and just push it gently against my lips in hope that some water would get through. Even that seemed to be very difficult for me to do but I eventually managed to get enough water in so that my throat didn't feel like sandpaper anymore. I don't remember much more from that evening I was was on such strong medication, but i do remember a nurse checking on me about every 15-30 minutes throughout the night, including one nurse who came in early hours of the morning to inject my tummy with something which I later found out was to help prevent DVT from lying down in a hospital bed for so long. Usually most patients on adult wards like me, are only allowed visitors during visiting hours, however as I was on the adults ward but I am still only 17 the nurses allowed my parents to come and go as often and whenever they liked.
The next day is also very fuzzy in my memory. I remember seeing my surgeon for the first time post operation who told me some of the details of the operation. As my swelling was starting to come out, he told me to expect the left side of my face to be slightly more swollen as at the beginning of the operation he spent 45 minutes trying to remove a nerve which had fused to the bone. Due to this I was also told the nerve was more damaged and the feeling in that part of my face may take longer to come back. I was also allowed to eat on the Saturday, however when the nurse brought out my lunchtime meal it soon became evident that there was no way I would ever be able to eat any of it. Instead, the nurse brought me a yoghurt which after what felt like hours of trying various ways to eat it, I learnt that by putting a little bit of yoghurt in between my bottom lip and bottom teeth, the yoghurt would slowly get pushed to the back so I could swallow and at least consume something other than water. Later that day, I started to get a bit of a fever and so my surgeon was called back. Shortly after they found out the fever was due to a UTI which I had got from the catheter - a very common issue. I was prescribed antibiotics to help the infection. The rest of the day was made up of me trying to eat more yoghurt and receiving treatment.
I remember Sunday was the worst day of the recovery. I felt absolutely awful and I was fed up of being in a hospital room and just wanted to be in the comfort of my own home and sleep in my own bed. I stopped trying to eat as often as it was starting to become very tiring and uncomfortable for me and I just wanted to sleep for the rest of the day. I was hoping to be discharged from hospital as I had spent the 2 nights in hospital that is expected from double jaw surgery patients - they estimate 1 night in hospital for each jaw and as I had both jaws moved the estimated time spent in hospital was 2 nights. However, my fever was still high and my surgeon would not let me leave until the infection had cleared up. One thing that did lift my spirits was that my family were allowed to visit me. This was the first time I had managed to walk all the way down the corridor of the ward, as before Sunday I was too weak to walk farther than the bathroom.
By Monday afternoon, when I found out I still couldn't be discharged from hospital, I was still very fed up of being stuck in hospital and the swelling was really starting to come out resulting in more discomfort. Some of the stronger elastic bands holding my jaws together were taken off so that I could open my mouth just a little bit more to get the edge of a teaspoon in so i could try and eat a bit more yoghurt.
I was finally allowed to be discharged from the hospital on the Tuesday afternoon. I saw my surgeon one last time who again explained some of the things to expect over the next few days, and more importantly the things that shouldn't happen and I should go back to hospital if they did. We picked up the medication I would need from the pharmacy and then we were finally on our way home.
In the next post, I will explain some of the details of my recovery at home.
Thanks for reading,
- Sophie
