Day 1: Let me sleep!

I had slept on and off throughout the night in intensive care and by very early the next morning the place certainly was a hive of activity.  I always seemed to have someone poking or prodding me - either taking my blood pressure and other stats, putting antibiotics or fluids into one of the three lines in my arm or moving me around.  Of course they were only doing their job and making sure that I was well, but it was still really tiring!  To help ease the discomfort though I had my handy self-administered morphine, which I could press every 5 minutes giving me 1ml morphine each time.  Good times!

At some point early in the morning I was moved from my bed to a reclining chair before I was finally able to sleep for a while.

My surgeon came to see me mid-morning and told me that the operation was a great success and that they achieved all they wanted to.  If I remember correctly he said my upper jaw was moved both upwards and backwards 5mm in each direction, my lower jaw was extended forwards 11mm and my chin was repositioned outwards and downwards.  He also said that I had some bone loss in one area of my jaw and he used bovine bone which my body would accept and fuse with my own bone.  His parting words to the team were that they could remove both the gastric tube and the catheter.  While it was not a very pleasant experience having either of them removed, I'll spare you those gory details and just say that I was happy once it was over!

I think one of the most surprising things for me on this morning was that I could talk pretty well and had a good chat with surgeon, albeit with slurred speech and a lot of drooling.  Prior to my surgery I had read blogs where people couldn't speak for weeks, but here I am talking there very next day.  A big reason though will be that here in Australia, they generally do not wire your jaws shut and just use elastics to guide your bite.  While the elastics restrict movement to allow your jaw to heal, they do not completely stop movement.

After lunchtime I was transferred to a ward where I had a private room and I got to have my first liquid meal of fibre milk, clear consommé and water.  I also looked at myself properly in the mirror for the first time - it was not a pretty sight.  Everything was swollen and bruised - my face, cheeks, lips, neck and my arms where the lines were inserted.  On the inside everything was swollen too including my gums and throat - of course this is to be expected after major jaw surgery.

Sing to me, my angel of music!

I was feeling very weak so lots of rest and sleep were in order.  Having to wheel around a drip and grapple with five sets of lines each time I wanted to use the bathroom was tiring in itself.  Later on that afternoon Frankie came to see me in hospital followed by my friends Gerry, John, Jack and Daniel.  They brought me a lovely robe and lots of magazines to keep me occupied.  After another liquid meal I bedded down to try and sleep off the discomfort.