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Saturday, December 7, 2013

Surgery Update

This week's post is not going to be about beauty or fashion. I just had to say that straight away so you don't get your hopes up.


On the 4th of December 2013, I went to a hospital (not naming it) to get maxillofacial surgery (Google it). I had to get my two eye teeth exposed (don't worry, I was under general anaesthetic the whole time) and connected to a chain which would then connect onto my braces. This procedure will help pull my eye teeth into place and I could look normal in society.

The whole procedure was pretty easy. All I had to do was breathe in a gas to help me fall under general anaesthetic and lie there until I woke up (in the recovery ward, with mum by my side). I am not going into all the details of it because that is all a bit gross.

The doctors (or surgeons, whatever) had put local anaesthetic on my mouth and nose area so I wouldn't wake up in pain. There was an ice pack thing on my face when I woke up to reduce the swelling the anaesthetic gave me.

The nurses at the hospital were really nice and gave me a lemonade (that was the first thing I'd consumed all day) to give me energy for the rest of the day. They also put a straw in the lemonade bottle, which I couldn't use because my top lip was numb, so I told Mum "I suck at sucking" and lifted the bottle to my mouth and drank.

The hospital people gave Mum painkillers and antibiotics to give me throughout the next few days. These were to numb the extreme pain the doctors had given me, and to stop any infection that may occur. They also gave me a pink toothbrush and told me to rinse my mouth with salt water after every brush (to stop infection) for the next I don't know how long.

After about 15 minutes of being at home in my bed, the anaesthetic wore off. I was a mess. I was crying, in pain and Mum could not get the painkillers into me fast enough. Since I can't swallow a tablet whole to save myself, Mum had to crush up the tablet, mix it with jam and get me to eat it. Twenty minutes or so later, the pain subsided and Mum was reading a book to me about magic and pixies (it's called Flitterwig, and it's a really good book, don't judge me).

Then I got hungry. Now, seeing as I had surgery that day, I could not eat anything that you would normally eat (unless you just eat ice-cream all the time). As you could probably guess from the previous sentence, I had ice-cream for dinner, about two bowls of it and it was amazing (and also the second thing I'd eaten that day).

The next day I did pretty much the same thing. I got more adventurous with the food (I tried yogurt) and continued the mix of medicine and jam to keep the pain away.

I don't really know how to end this post, but here goes...

I am still on the painkillers and antibiotics. I still cannot eat most foods. If you have any tips on how I can get through the next few days (I doubt any of you will), then they will be most appreciated.


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