Dental Surgery

Today actually went pretty smoothly with not too many problems.  I am going to write down what I remember but as it is late and I am still kinda 'woozy' I may have to edit this later!

I didn't get to sleep until close to midnight and had my alarm set for 5:15.  Well of course I ended up waking up at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. They had told me to take my morning dose of atenelol before surgery to help keep my heart rate under control.  Mom came with me to the hospital and we had to wait for the patient registration to open up so we could get registered.  Did all that and was sent up to the Day Surgery Ward to wait some more.  All my papers said that my surgery was to be at 8am.  Well all the people around us were being called and people that came after me were getting called.  Mom went up to the desk and we find out that my surgery was changed and that I was scheduled for 8:50!  I finally got called back at around 7:30ish by myself (mom wasn't allowed to come back) to get changed (they have pants now that you get to wear! If only they weren't one size fits all) and to stuff my clothes in a locker.  Then she went through all the registration stuff - signing consents, going over meds etc. She said that in my notes the doctor had ordered some ELMA cream for my hand for where the IV was going but I said it was pointless as they don't work (so basically my chart says I refused it).  I was sent to another waiting room where mom was able to come with me at that point.  A while later (I didn't look at the time) a doctor came to get me and take me up to the pre-op area.  I am not 100% sure where mom went, they said she could stay there or that there was another waiting room.

We get up to the pre-op area and I get settled into a bed and the doctor was very nice and even though he couldn't find me an extra pillow, he brought over three warmed blankets that I could put under my knee.  It was kinda weird as everyone around me had their IV's put in down in the registration area yet I still did not have one.  I talked to my two nurses, the anesthesiologist (Dr. B - I hate spelling anesthesiologist lol) and my dentist (Dr. M) also came down to talk to me before going under (he is a great dentist, very caring and patient oriented).  Dr. B told me that I didn't need the antibiotic I usually got because I just had mild MVP, if it was more serious than I would need it but that I should be fine.  Also strangely he asked if I had ever been on methadone, I wasn't sure what to think about that.  After another while the took me into the operating room.  I got moved over to the other table and they got me a pillow to put under my legs.  The got the BP cuff on and then Dr. B went to look at my hand for veins.  While looking the nurse told him I had EDS and he goes 'You know that is a pretty common disorder now with all the double-jointed people out there'  I corrected him and told him about just double jointed, HMS and EDS and he seemed interested and said he was going to check that out later.  He got the IV in pretty easily.  Just a bit of digging but only one hole.  When all the medical people were in the room, a nurse read out my allergies, diagnosises and what was going to be done.  Dr. B said something then about not needing an antibiotic but Dr. M said no, that I was to get the antibiotic as 'we don't take chances with her'.  So I got the antibiotic and then was put under.

I wake up in the post-op area and while I was still out-of-it I hear Dr. M telling the nurses that I am to get Toradol if I needed anything for pain (that is what helped most the last time I had dental surgery, the narcotics didn't help the kind of pain I was having in the muscles and jaws).  I woke up on my side with nothing under my pillow. Once I was basically awake they gave me an ice pack and took me to the recovery room (around 11ish).  They checked my BP and stuff and all was good with that, they asked how much pain I was in (I wasn't) and brought me water to drink and told me I needed to keep the IV in for an hour.  They tried to raise the head of my bed but that made me very very nauseated to the point that I had the nurse go and check if I could have something for that and asked her to put my bed flat again.  She came back and said that I could have some gravol but that it would be in a needle and would that be okay.  At that point I didn't care I just wanted to feel better so she came and gave me a shot of gravol in my hip/butt area.  Around this time they brought mom in to wait for me.  Between the horribly sore throat (I could barely talk) and the nausea I just kept lying down with my eyes shut.  The nurse came back to do my last check of my temperature (fine), O2stats (fine), pulse (fine) and BP - which was not fine.  I had my lowest reading of my life!  I was 96/48 and apparently I was pure white, even whiter than mom has ever seen me.  For the first time after sugery the nurse asked if I wanted my mom or the nurse to help my get dressed and told me not to get out of bed until I absolutly had to and then sit right in the wheelchair.  Well I just threw on my hoodie and got my pants on and got in the wheelchair while mom went down to get the car.  All in all we were out of the hospital around noon.

Becasue my throat was so sore (from the breathing tube) I originally asked mom to stop at Timmy's to get me a small ice cap (I has no extractions so I could use a straw and had no real limitations - the nurse just suggested that I eat soft food for at least 24 hours just to make sure the fillings set and because my jaw would probably be sore).  Well after sitting up in the car for 10 minutes I was very nauseated again so we just decided to go straight home.  Mom got me out of the car (we had dad gate the dogs upstairs so they wouldn't jump on me until I got to bed) and I headed down the stairs to get my PJ's on and went straight to bed.  Dad had been calling (since he thought surgery was at 8 he was getting worried) so mom called him back (he was at his friend's place) to let him know we were home.  Mom brought me some chocolate milk as we thought it might be best as it was cold and also would get something slightly more substantial then just water for me to take my pills with.  I got that down pretty quickly and took my normal pills and mom brought down my 'to-do bag' and a glass of water for me.  This was when the dogs were allowed down and Shaggy came right to me to check me out and gave me kisses.  Stranger was Tazzy who jumped right up on the bed and was licking my face like crazy and mom literally had to pick him up to get him off me!  At this point I just crashed and went to sleep (it was around 1 - 1:30)

I slept on and off and finally got out of bed around 6 to go upstairs and take over the couch.  My family had already eaten and mom said that she didn't want to wake me up as I needed the sleep and wanted to know what I would like to eat.  Still dealing with an upset stomach I asked her and she made me some vanilla pudding to eat and I had another full glass of chocolate milk. I took one of my pain killers becasue by that point my jaw and face was really sore.  About an hour later I took a couple Advil as well.  I helped Kyler a bit because he came home tonight to tell us that he had a math quiz tomorrow! (Mom talked to his teacher to find out what it was going to be on and said that he might have problems as I wasn't up to help him and mom was exhausted so she said not to worry and she would keep an eye on him).  At 8 we watched AI and mom got me an ice pack becasue my hand was really sore from the IV and then when I went to remove one of my bandaids (the only safe ones I have found) it really pulled at my skin and was hard to get off.  We had never seen my skin stretch that much!  So I rotated the ice pack on my hand and my jaw.  I had a few mini crueller type of donuts (something soft and sugary as I was so light headed) and a few little pieces of chocolate (again to get the sugar) and a full bottle of Sprite (sugar was my friend).  I went to stand up at one point and basically fell right back on the couch and that was the last time my mom let me get up to get things.  We just watched TV and I took another pain killer around 10:30.  Mom finally went to bed at 11:30 and I came down to my room.  Just sitting here typing this up now.  Still have a sore throat, still have an upset stomach and lightheaded / dizzy.

Oh I did forget to mention that Dr. M called around 7ish to see how I was doing (he was calling from home!) and make sure everything was okay!  Talk about going over and above what's needed.  Mom told him I was doing fine, just sore but that I was taking my pain killers.  She asked if I needed to make a follow-up appointment but he said it wasn't needed unless I had problems.  She said that I have an area where my bite feels off (feels like a poppy seed or something stuck in one tooth so I can't bite all the way down) so he told us to try and leave it for a week to see if it wears down but that if it didn't to just call and they would get me in quickly.  I also forgot to mention (see told you my memory would be sketchy!) that when Dr. M came to see me before surgery he told me that he was doing restorations and he didn't expect to have to remove any but that if he felt it was needed he would.  He also told me that he was going to use silver fillings for the back teeth if they needed a lot of work as he thinks they will hold up better for me (I already chipped a tooth with a filling and had a gap under a filling on one tooth).  I told him that whatever he needed to do was fine as I trusted him.

I mentioned to mom earlier this evening that I wondered if I should have taken the Atenelol (beta blocker, to keep my pulse slower and under control that also lowers your BP) before surgery and wondering if that was the reason my BP went so low afterwards.  We are going to ask my Cardiologist / Internist about that when we see her next.  Just still feeling so horribly lightheaded and 'brain foggy'. 

I think that is it, like I said above I will probably have to come back and edit some of it as I remember things that I forgot to put in.  If I make any changes I will underline the new text so any of my readers (like I have any beside JC and Sarah) don't have to go through this long long post again :)