Monday, July 16, 2007
Jaw Breaker Series - Day 2, 12 July
I woke up in the hospital, feeling somewhat disillusioned. I didn't even take note of the time. Needless to say, the rest of the day was spent trying to piece together what had happened the day before, the where, who, what, how etc. I didn't even know which ward i was in. It took a nurse to tell me that. OK 4D punters, it was Ward 10, bed 15. Go buy 1015. I was in a B2 class, 6 bedded all female ward, with no air conditioning. They only had overhead fans on each bed..which kinda reminded me of my room. But I was thankful for the fans, they provided a lot of respite from the heat outside. I was the youngest in my ward, the rest were elderly old ladies.
The nurses came and asked me if I wanted to take a shower. Hell yeah! My hair was stained with blood due to the puking last night. And my face was extremely oily. Unfortunately, I was still too weak to walk. So they wheeled me to the toilet for my shower. Felt better after a change of clothes. Despite being in the toilet, I never got to see my face initially. Sitting on the wheelchair, I can only see from my nose up. I can't see my lower jaw.
I decided to read for a bit. Couldn't do much else. Also got a visit from my surgeon and her team. They came to check on me. They said that the operation was smooth and everything went well. I asked about last night's puking. They said it was normal becos I ingested blood. One of them said that they will return at lunchtime to remove the lanterns from me.
Yeah, the lanterns. How shall I best describe them? Imagine me to be a turkey. Turkeys have 2 things hanging from their cheeks. I'm no different. The only thing is, these 2 lanterns collect my blood. During the surgery, the docs punctured my cheeks and inserted the lanterns to collect the blood since my face will be swelled up and I will have difficulty swallowing blood all the time. It works by suction. It was unnerving, I can tell. I remember one of the nurses unscrewing the left lantern the night before and squeezing the blood out and screwing it back again. And even during my morning shower, on the way to the toilet, I know a lot of people were staring at me... bloody hell....
So the rest of the day, I just read and slept. Nurses came by to change my drip. Some came by to poke in more needles in my plug to inject the antibiotics in. I still didn't have any food to eat... managed to drink some water with the help of a special shaped syringe. It's head is replaced with rubber hosing, so it's easier to slip in the mouth. My mouth remained parched for the rest of the day and I knew my lips were all cracked up. The corners of the lips were particularly painful. Abrasion, i was told, by the surgeon. Becos they had to stretch the lips. I didn't want to know more...
By the time the doc came by to remove the lanterns, it was about 5pm. But that was another exciting procedure. She first had to remove the water proof dressing on my face. Then she used this special hook to hook up a bit of the lantern. But the point where she said " ok, take a deep breath" I was seriously expecting some pain. But thankfully, she was fast and nimble and removed the lanterns without any pain at all. When I did take a good look at the lanterns, I was surprised that they actually stretched quite a distance inside me.... wow... TMI. She dressed up my cheeks. Hmm.. looks like I can boast of cheek piercings... The doc also advised that I start doing 3 things: 1) start drinking lots of water, at least a cup and hour. This helps to reduce the phelgm
2) start doing some walking on my own, especially to the toilet
3) start trying to take some food.
The nurses came and asked me if I wanted to take a shower. Hell yeah! My hair was stained with blood due to the puking last night. And my face was extremely oily. Unfortunately, I was still too weak to walk. So they wheeled me to the toilet for my shower. Felt better after a change of clothes. Despite being in the toilet, I never got to see my face initially. Sitting on the wheelchair, I can only see from my nose up. I can't see my lower jaw.
I decided to read for a bit. Couldn't do much else. Also got a visit from my surgeon and her team. They came to check on me. They said that the operation was smooth and everything went well. I asked about last night's puking. They said it was normal becos I ingested blood. One of them said that they will return at lunchtime to remove the lanterns from me.
Yeah, the lanterns. How shall I best describe them? Imagine me to be a turkey. Turkeys have 2 things hanging from their cheeks. I'm no different. The only thing is, these 2 lanterns collect my blood. During the surgery, the docs punctured my cheeks and inserted the lanterns to collect the blood since my face will be swelled up and I will have difficulty swallowing blood all the time. It works by suction. It was unnerving, I can tell. I remember one of the nurses unscrewing the left lantern the night before and squeezing the blood out and screwing it back again. And even during my morning shower, on the way to the toilet, I know a lot of people were staring at me... bloody hell....
So the rest of the day, I just read and slept. Nurses came by to change my drip. Some came by to poke in more needles in my plug to inject the antibiotics in. I still didn't have any food to eat... managed to drink some water with the help of a special shaped syringe. It's head is replaced with rubber hosing, so it's easier to slip in the mouth. My mouth remained parched for the rest of the day and I knew my lips were all cracked up. The corners of the lips were particularly painful. Abrasion, i was told, by the surgeon. Becos they had to stretch the lips. I didn't want to know more...
By the time the doc came by to remove the lanterns, it was about 5pm. But that was another exciting procedure. She first had to remove the water proof dressing on my face. Then she used this special hook to hook up a bit of the lantern. But the point where she said " ok, take a deep breath" I was seriously expecting some pain. But thankfully, she was fast and nimble and removed the lanterns without any pain at all. When I did take a good look at the lanterns, I was surprised that they actually stretched quite a distance inside me.... wow... TMI. She dressed up my cheeks. Hmm.. looks like I can boast of cheek piercings... The doc also advised that I start doing 3 things: 1) start drinking lots of water, at least a cup and hour. This helps to reduce the phelgm
2) start doing some walking on my own, especially to the toilet
3) start trying to take some food.
# posted by Xallista @ 7:31 PM 
