After talking to Dr. Voorhees, I felt a whole lot better about the whole thing. Tonight I'm going to have to reorganize my surgery binder because I have a lot of new information, but here's some of the stuff I learned.
I'll go in at 5:30am, and I'll talk with the anesthesiologist, the OR nurse, Dr. Voorhees, and somebody else, I can't remember. They'll stick an IV in me and maybe put some Versed (Xanax) in there to calm me down if I'm freaking out too bad. Then they'll put a breathing tube in my nose and roll me down to the OR, then put me under. The surgery takes between 4-7 hours. And I have to have a catheter! I'm nervous about that, but the nurse today said they put it in after I'm under and take it out before I wake up, so hopefully I won't even know it was there.
All the incisions will be internal, and there will be stitches that will dissolve after like, a week. So after the operation, they roll me on into something called the "Recovery Room" where I'll have immediate supervision while I come out of the anesthesia, hopefully not too freaked out. The part that sucks here is that Jared won't be able to come chill with me in the recovery room. They say I'll be pretty out of it so I won't notice, but I dunno... I'm pretty sure just waking up from surgery Beth will want Jared there, but I guess if it turns into a big problem, maybe they can bring him in. After I'm sort of aware of what's going on, they'll take me to my room, and then Jared will be able to come and hang with me.
I'll be given meds, and I'll be super sleepy that first day, so I'll be staying in the hospital overnight. I'll start taking liquids as soon as I can, but he said I probably won't want to the first day. Once my pain is controlled with meds, and I'm taking enough liquids, then I can go home.
I'll be sore and swollen, and contrary to my previous beliefs, I'll only have like, 1 band on each side. Dr. Voorhees said that the bands come after, to make sure that the muscles don't push the bones back to where they were before. So right after the surgery, because of the internal rigid fixation, I don't really have to be banded too much. So that was awesome, a big relief. I was also a little worried about my breathing because of the upper jaw surgery, but Dr. Voorhees said I won't have breathing problems.
I was also a little worried about the pain meds, but he said I can try just doing acetaminophen, so I got some liquid acetaminophen and liquid antihistamines, so that's good... if it gets bad I can always take something stronger.
Dr. Voorhees will come and see me every day that I'm in the hospital, and then two times a week for 2-3 weeks, then once a week for 3 weeks, then just up from there. But it's important that I see him relatively often to make sure that I don't "relapse". That's where the rubber bands come in. But hopefully it'll be awesome and the best recovery he's ever seen :)
I also asked him about how many patients out of 100 have permanent numbness and he said 1, which is awesome, that's why I'm excited to have such a good and experienced surgeon.
I also received good news that the doctor's office is going to submit the insurance stuff. I was worried I was going to have to deal with that while I was trying to recover, but since those things take time, it'll probably be at least 2-3 weeks before I have to knock some skulls together.
So, other than that, I'm just trying to get everything set up for work in my absence, although it might be kind of nice to get back to work, kind of distracting, after I have a chance to recover a little bit. Jared has also taken a week off of work full time to take care of me while I'm being a baby (not if...), and my mom is coming down on Friday to give him a little reprieve from the nursing. The swelling is worst at 72 hours, so it will be good to have more support.
I had a panic attack last night, but I'm feeling okay tonight, and the good news is that Jared and I are old hands at panic attacks, so we know how to deal with them, and that they are temporary and pass quickly. I'm sure there will be more, and I don't even know how I'm going to be that Monday, but the best news of all:
THE WORST OF ALL OF THIS WILL BE OVER IN LESS THAN A MONTH.
*pre-sigh of relief*
You go girl! This will be a piece of cake! You can do it!
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