Two days post SARPE

Hi everyone,

So last Thursday, April 16th, I received a call from the Dentistry unit at Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto letting me know that my SARPE surgery had been booked for April 23rd. I have to say - my heart kind of sank at first. I had been waiting for this call for over 2 months (my expander has been in my mouth since mid-February), so it's not like I wasn't expecting it, but when that call finally came, things hit home: "Wow, I'm really going through with this!"

Needless to say, I had an amazing week of eating. Had all my fave foods in that week leading up to the 23rd.

I met with the surgeons on the 21st who brought me through exactly what they would be doing. It was kind of freaky. For all those out there who have had SARPE, you know what it's all about, but for those who don't, here's a quick overview:

Incision along the upper gum line. Two bone incisions made at either end of the upper jaw in orde for it to be separated from its base. After peeling back the nost to get at the upper jaw, a hammer and chisel is used to break the palatal suture. The expander is then activated to ensure the suture remains open.

On top of this, I was told that my wisdom teeth (all 4) would be removed if time in the OR permitted. I figured that it would be great if they could do it then, so that I wouldn't have to worry about another general anesthetic down the line.

So, my Dad came down to Toronto the night before the surgery. My parents are very supportive of this decision, but I have the feeling they wonder why I'm putting myself through this. This is not the first surgery I've had, or second, or third. In all, I've had 8 surgeries prior to this (3 on legs, 2 on arm, 2 hernia, 1 tonsils....so no organs or anything serious like that, but enough to make me the "family history" on operations!), and historically I do not react well to the anesthetic. When my arm operations were done - this was my most recent surgery back in 1999/2000 - I found myself sick to my stomach from the antibiotics, and all-of-a-sudden allergic to things that I had not been allergic to since being 5 years old. Very weird, and not a good experience.

However, I had complete confidence in my surgical team. Being in Toronto, they do several SARPE cases every week, and so this is not a rare procedure for them. Given my history, and the unknowns about the wisdom teeth and all, the part of the process I was looking forward to the least was waking up after the operation. How much pain would I be in?

I said bye to my Dad at the OR, and walked in. It's always a kind of freaky experience in an OR. You see them all the time on TV and stuff, but when YOU'RE the patient, knowing that everyone you see in the room is there to work on you, it is scary. I lied down on the table at 1:43pm and was shivering, not because I was cold, but because I was anxious. The nurses in OR10 were great in trying to keep me calm and my anesthetist gave me a shot of something that relaxed me completely. A mask was then applied to my face, and that's all I remember.

The next thing I know, I woke up in recovery and surprisingly, I don't think I was very groggy at all. I was alert. I did have some immediate pain in my jaw, but the first question I asked the nurse was if my wisdom teeth were removed. She said they were.

My Dad and my fiance Lauren then came into recovery to quickly say hello. I think they were both surprised by how "good" I looked. I guess someone didn't tell them that the swelling had not yet started!!

An hour later, I was wheeled up to my room. SARPE is generally considered to be an outpatient procedure, but since I was the "afternoon" case of the day, and the room was available, the doctors decided to keep me overnight. They started me on antibiotics, and Percocet for the pain. My mouth was very dry, and as my face swelled up, it got harder and harder to drink. Eventually, a syringe was required to squirt water into my mouth and down my throat. 2 days later, I am still using this syringe.

That night in the hospital was a little rough. I didn't get much sleep at all - 2 hours I think - my nose kept bleeding and bleeding (which is apparently normal as long as it's not GUSHING....I would say my nose bleeding was more of a constant trickle), and my cheeks were swollen to the point where Lauren accurately described me as a chipmunk. And my nurse was either really busy, or not very good, because when I woke up from my 2 hour "nap", my gown was covered in blood from my nose. I rang for the nurse over and over and over and over again (probably a dozen times total....each ring about 30 seconds after the last). Then when I FINALLY got a response, it wasn't even my nurse. Oh well.

I came home yesterday around noon or so. I've been drinking nothing but water and juice. But managed to put down a Strawberry Boost last night. Lauren and her family, who came down to see me, had a lovely chicken dinner with salad and bread. Lol. This is going to be tough!!

I am actually writing this after getting a whole 5 hours of sleep. Not bad! My nose is still bleeding, but I think it's starting to slow down. I am now noticing the full effect of having my upper jaw separated.....it looks and feels like I have a denture up there. My upper jaw can freely move up/down, side to side, it's kind of gross. My lips are pretty swollen, so I can't close my mouth the entire way yet. Maybe today.

My Mom, Dad and sister are all coming down today to see me. I think my Mom may be a little freaked out. My Dad knows what I look like, and my sister, who's 15, will probably think it's cool. The next people to see my before/after shots are YOU! I have some before shots taken that I will try to post tomorrow along with the after shots.

I am seeing the surgeon on Tuesday afternoon. This is probably going to be the day that the activations begin. As far as I know, I'll be looking at 2 activations/day for about a 40 days (it has to go about half an inch as mentioned last post). I'll let you know how this goes.

Take care everyone. Have a great weekend!