Today I got to the hospital at 6am for my rapid palatal expansion surgery. After having an I.V. put in, and meeting with 3 anesthesiologists, I was taken into surgery around 8am. I literally remember nothing about the surgery -- I remember climbing onto the surgery table as they gave me some Versed and then waking up in recovery. According to my surgeon, Dr. John Alexander, the surgery went very well and they were done in 1 1/2 hours. I was in recovery for about 3 hours getting periodic doses of Fentanyl for the pain. When I left I was still a little groggy and slightly nauseous, but was otherwise o.k. I realized pretty quickly, however, that the PILLS that I had picked up at the pharmacy were not going to work and that I needed the liquid form. I basically spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch holding ice packs to may face and wiping spit/blood from my mouth and nose.
In retrospect, I would recommend getting the following items prior to surgery:
1) Lots of cheap washcloths/rags to wipe the spit from your mouth and soft tissues for your bloody nose
2) Disposable oral cleaners (these are little green sponges attached to a stick that you can wipe on your palate) to clean the slime from your mouth
3) Liquid Ibuprofen (kids kind)
4) High calorie smooth liquids -- I had lots of yogurt smoothies but they only have 100 calories/apiece!
5) Portable WaterPik (I got mine on http://www.drugstore.com/) -- you want to avoid squirting the incisions but it makes it easy to get the "crud" out of the rest of your mouth.
In retrospect, I would recommend getting the following items prior to surgery:
1) Lots of cheap washcloths/rags to wipe the spit from your mouth and soft tissues for your bloody nose
2) Disposable oral cleaners (these are little green sponges attached to a stick that you can wipe on your palate) to clean the slime from your mouth
3) Liquid Ibuprofen (kids kind)
4) High calorie smooth liquids -- I had lots of yogurt smoothies but they only have 100 calories/apiece!
5) Portable WaterPik (I got mine on http://www.drugstore.com/) -- you want to avoid squirting the incisions but it makes it easy to get the "crud" out of the rest of your mouth.
No comments:
Post a Comment