Day 1 after surgery

Now that I'm a bit more coherent than I was earlier I'll be able to write up a better blog post than I had originally typed the same day of my procedure. Right now I'm still in a good deal of pain but its been able to be successfully managed via pain meds. Although I only have four left over. =/ Sadly, I watched Liar Liar today, which is a bad choice for any cleft lip/palate survivor to watch after surgery. I was sitting there and I told my mom that this was a horrible movie choice. She agreed with me. xP But I'm much better than I was yesterday and I can go into a bit more detail of what I went through.

I'm called back into a room to get information taken, forms to look over and to get undressed into those spiffy back open gowns that if you don't wear panties they can see your shiny rear end. I wasn't too impressed with the nurse, she looked like if I decided to look at her the wrong way she would eat me or something. She kept asking me the questions that are normal but I had already answered them at the front desk. Apparently those at the front desk are missing some vital brain parts because this nurse asked me all over again everything that I had told them. She proceeded to badger me about why I was two months late on my period. Ever since I can remember, which is back when I first turned 13, my periods have been irregular. I've been placed on birth control pills but I started to gain some unnecessary weight. I came off of them and my periods got irregular again. Which is fine with me, I don't care. But she apparently didn't believe me when I told her no, I then came back to tell her it wouldn't be happening unless it was the immaculate conception all over again. She finally got the hint and apologized for being a bit of a snot about the question.

I waited for another good half hour to an hour until I could go back. By that time I had my IV started with antibiotics coursing through my system and after my doctor, Dr. Bowers, came into the room, I was given some mild sedation and felt immediately woozy. Then was wheeled back into the room where the operation would take place. I was transferred over to another bed in the room and was laying there when they tried to put a mask on my face. This was AFTER I told them I couldn't have that on my face. I'm deathly afraid of those things and I will refuse to wear one because it makes me feel claustrophobic. I'm mildly claustrophobic and I don't like going under water, under my bed, in super tight places or having that mask over my face. So they didn't put it on my face and I had to suck in the sleeping gas through a tube. I'll have to make sure I'm more firm about the whole IV thing.

I woke up sometime later in recovery where the nurse kept lifting my bed and every time she did I'd ask her why. She'd tell me why every time and I was like that's stupid, I want to sleep. She would just laugh at me and go about her business. I was finally able to get dressed to head on home. Once I was in the car, I can't remember anything until I got home and trudged up the stairs where I spent the first day and night there dozing off intermittently throughout the day and night. I woke up around six and couldn't really fall asleep after that one. I'm pleased to say that I'm actually able to form complex, complete sentences, finally. All in all it was a rewarding process, a bit painful, but rewarding all the same.

At the moment my face is swollen like a chipmunk with nuts in its mouth, my hair is still horribly messed up from the anesthetic and my lip hurts and is still oozing a bit. Not too badly, but just a bit. I've been keeping up with my regimen of Keflex to keep the infection away and using something called Polysporin to keep it moistened there. I have stiches all up into my nostrils and I get them taken out Monday, something I'm not looking forward to, at all. I'm okay with waiting another good week before he takes those out. Then again, I don't know how I'll feel come Monday. But I am almost out of pain meds so I'll have to get some more sometime. Well, sooner than later because I don't want to have to "tough it out" because that, to me, is stupid to do. Pretending you're so strong to be able to "tough" out something like this is just showing me an incredible mark of stupidity. Taking care of yourself comes first, even if you don't necessarily want to have to deal with pain meds.

So this is an obviously more coherent blog than yesterday because I can actually think straight. But I'm doing quite well, very pleased with the results thus far and I can't wait to get the stitches out to see what it looks like. And I might also have another surgery coming up next summer on my nose. I just have to do an online consultation to see if I would be a good candidate for it so I don't fly all the way down to Texas for a bust. Or drive. Whichever. ;P