I blame the drugs...

I know, I know... I'm the worst. Pre-surgery, I had all of these elaborate plans to have the most awesome, up-to-date blog ever once I got home from the hospital. But as it turns out, narcotics aren't very conducive to blogging (or anything but sleeping, for that matter). But today is the day. I managed to eat a scrambled egg this morning, so I am riding that top of the world feeling right back into the blogging world. So here we go!

Hospital Stay
My vacation to the lovely Mt Sinai was overall pretty decent. After a ~9.5 hour surgery (that went perfectly, to quote my surgeon!) I was moved to ICU, where at one point I woke up and thought I was still in surgery, and couldn't make noise because I had a tube in both my mouth and my nose. That was quite possibly the most terrifying moment of my entire life. Ugh, I shudder just thinking about it! That was short-lived though, and then I realized where I was. I don't remember a whole lot about ICU except that I felt like I couldn't breathe most of the time. I had a little notepad to write notes on to communicate, and while most are illegible, many can be made out to say something dramatic along the lines of "I can't breathe" or "I'm drowning". There's also one that requests that Steph (who slept over with me) put Call Me Maybe on my iPod...go figure. The heart wants what the heart wants. That night was quite traumatic actually. The nurse was great but I remember only being frustrated by the respiratory tech. I have memories of complaining that I couldn't breathe and her going to look for another tube, and coming back saying she couldn't find it etc. At one point I was freaking out so much that she decided to just yank out the nose and mouth tubes at the same time...that was extremely unpleasant to say the least, but at least then I didn't feel like I was drowning. But all in all, I survived!

Not a happy camper in ICU!

The next day I got promoted to a normal room. The actual move was pretty awful because they reclined my head all the way back, which obviously is a no-go after you've just had surgery on your face. Call me crazy, but that just makes good sense, no? So that was painful, and they also kept whacking my bed into the door/wall etc on my way into the new room. Silver lining of this though is that I was screaming so loudly that within 5 minutes in my new room, my new roomie asked to be moved, so I got a private room! Success! I really should thank the less-than-gentle transporters. (I was going to get a new roommate starting Thursday but my dad saved the day and got them to keep it private. Really made such a difference.) Wednesday was also not much fun, but Steph stayed overnight with me again like a champ. She's racking up mad sister points during this whole ordeal. The pain wasn't completely unbearable because I was given a pain pump. Unfortunately though, I blew through my 4 hour allotment of drugs in the first 2 hours, so the resident Pain Team had to come and give me the instructions again- just because I can give myself a dose every 5 minutes doesn't mean I have to. Thursday morning, 3 of my 4 surgeons came in and told me that my instructions for the day were to not lie down...I had to start walking around and spend my time sitting up in a chair. Scary! This was a good day for the most part. I had an amazing nurse, Mary (I lucked out and had her Friday and Saturday as well), I tore up the 11th floor making laps around the nurses station, and my old roommate Laura came and hung out with me in the afternoon. My family took turns so I was never alone. They rock. Elizabeth even subwayed down all by herself to bring me fresh pjs :)

Thursday- 2 days post-op. Up in my chair!

That night though I received, shall we say, less than ideal care. A few things that weren't the greatest about my night nurse: I got my 9:30 meds at 10:30, she didn't plug in my IV (thank goodness my mom heard the beeping in the middle of the night), she was nowhere to be found most of the time, she only gave me a half dose of tylenol because they were "out" (did you know a hospital could run out of the rare, rare drug tylenol?), and made up my vitals (as in, she wrote down my temp, bp and oxygen levels without actually measuring them). One of my surgeons also informed me that afternoon (Friday) that I was in so much pain that morning because I just didn't receive my night time dose of narcotics. K, COOL. When you have your face cut up for almost a whole day, it's not exactly good times to go medicine-free. I'm not letting that miserable night mar my memory of my hospital stay though, because most of the rest of it was excellent. One of my surgeons was particularly awesome and spent so much time helping me in my room. Her name was also Ali so we bonded instantly! The rest of the time in the hospital until I left on Saturday morning was spent drinking water and apple juice, walking in circles around the hallways, and sleeping. Almost all of the Wither lab came and visited me on Friday which was lovely. I wasn't a very engaging host because I couldn't talk a whole lot, so Steph took the liberty of postponing most of my other visitors til I got home. Here are a couple photos from my last day in the hospital- remember I'm extremely swollen!

Saturday- you should see the other guy

Saying goodbye to Dr. Ali and Mary!

Home time!

I've been home now since last Saturday, the 14th. I came home to my room and house all decorated by Elizabeth with welcome home signs and the like. Sadly, the kiddo had to jet off to camp that Sunday but she's been able to call and check in a few times. It really hasn't been that awful of a recovery, actually. My parents might beg to differ because they have to get me up every other hour for my meds and fresh ice but other than that it's not awful. There's so much more to say about my home life, but I'll leave that for another post. I do, though, want to give a huge thank you to everyone. My room is full of beautiful flowers, and so many people have taken the time to come and keep me company. I've received so many thoughtful cards, care packages and messages of good fortune. I feel so very lucky, and I'm so overwhelmed by the outpour of support I've been getting. It really does make this all that much easier. I'll end this little post with my first "before and after" photo, circa 13 days post-op. More like before and during I suppose, because I'm still quite swollen, but just to give you an idea of the shape change. This isn't the best photo, but this is one of the best angle-matches so that's why I like it. Check out my super cool hairdo and my battle scars! Voila!!

Before & After at 13 days!!

More to come!

A

Day after surgery!!

Hey guys,

Allie's surgery went very well.

I just got home after spending the night with Allie in the ICU. Everyone there was great and very helpful. Allie was unable to talk so she tried to write notes all evening. This morning the doctors took out her breathing and feeding tubes (which was quite an ordeal, especially for 4am). She was also allowed to squirt a little water/apple juice into her mouth for the first time since two nights ago. She is now able to mumble some statements but is still in a great deal of discomfort. By the end of the day we are hopeful that she will be moved out of the ICU and into her own room. They are just waiting for the swelling in her throat to go down so she can swallow on her own and therefore not feel like she's drowning from her own spit and blood!!

The good news is it appears that she still has all of her nerve function, and she was quite relieved that she could close her eyelids.

She's a trooper!!!!!!!!

Anyway, she's exhausted but hopefully will be up for visitors soon. Until then just keep your fingers crossed that its all downhill from here.

- Steph

Paintball, toffee and braces. Oh my!

I'm admittedly a little bit hazy on the actual definition of "irony" but a few things have happened to me in the past 24 hours that I would (hesitantly) deem to be ironic.

First, my quest to eat all things hard and sticky went awry last night. Thanks for all the great suggestions by the way! We went over to our next door neighbours' place last night for a glass of wine and some munchies on the deck, and they gave me this unbelievably delicious toffee that they had brought back from a recent trip to London. My eating frenzy was clearly an endeavor of reckless abandon and a moment of weakness led me to forget that while I'm not on a liquid diet yet, I still do have braces. Long story short, my moment of toffee-induced euphoria was rudely interrupted by some unknown braces disaster. I was convinced I had pulled the whole band off my molar but a quick emergency visit to my orthodontist today assured me all was still ok for tomorrow. She was, of course, completely dumbfounded that I would eat toffee of all things 2 days before my surgery. I mean, it's not like I'm new to this whole braces situation. Not my most intelligent move. But man was it delicious.

The delicious, delicious culprit

Next ironic (?) thing- my brand new driver's license came in the mail today. Hilarious timing. But I must say, after looking at the picture, I'm more than a little glad that it's only valid for another 14 hours. Eek! She had me point my chin up, so it looks like I'm way too short to even see the camera, and she made me close my lips. Now as some of you may know, when you have an open bite such as mine (and the braces don't help), your lips don't sit closed naturally. It looks completely ridiculous for me to force my lips closed for a photo, almost like I'm blowing a kiss or doing a sulky pouty face. My hair is also slicked back and it looks remarkably like how I picture my mugshot would be if I were to ever have one (I won't I promise). Thank goodness I will be getting all new photo identification when this whole ordeal is over. I just keep looking at it and laughing out loud- ah, comic relief. Hey I've just been hit with a stroke of genius- maybe I'll use my new license as my "before" picture...that way, even if I look exactly the same as I do now it will still look like an improvement. Silver lining! I'm not going to post a picture of it for now to try to hold onto a touch of dignity.

Also, the paintballing yesterday was arguably a success in that I didn't die. No ninja moves were made, though. It was so hot in this place, and the darkness + foggy goggles made it nearly impossible to see your opponents, but I'm fairly certain they all looked something like this:

Our opposition

For comparison sake, I think we (I) looked like this:

Us

I'm 99% sure we were playing against a whole army of Rambo-enthusiasts. This was further proven by seeing them after games assembling and disassembling their own guns, strapping on their seemingly bullet proof vests (tougher than our oversized coveralls) and talking about strategy that wasn't just "hide behind things as long as possible and try to shoot as far as possible". I was instantly reminded as to why I didn't pursue a career in the armed forces. Sorry, Canada (or should I say you're welcome?). I came back with some battle wounds: a few to my outer thigh and knee, knuckles, boob, upper arm, and most notably: mouth. This is where the irony comes in. I was the only one who expressed the desire to avoid all face shots and I got hit square in the upper lip. The paint exploded right into my mouth which was unpleasant to say the least. That round ended for me pretty quickly. By some miracle though, it isn't bruised. It would be embarrassing to explain that I actually injured my mouth twice within 48 hours of having this operation. Ah well- it was fun at least! (Honestly!)

It's hard to believe that in 12 hours I will already be at the hospital. It's been such a hypothetical thing for the past 2 years that it doesn't seem real. My surgery starts at 8am, and I have to be there for 6 (ugh). It will be 10+ hours, hopefully not more than 12, and I've instructed my mom or steph to post a little update when I'm out just so everyone knows how it went. I promise I'll be posting again as soon as possible! Get excited for some grizzly photos. This whole thing is so overwhelming, but I've finally convinced myself that the ability to stick your finger into your mouth when your teeth are clamped shut is not a cool enough party trick to warrant canceling it all. Tonight will consist of cleaning my room, going for coffee with some of my girlfriends, and packing my hospital bag. Fun times ahead!

Thank you so much to all of you for the wonderful, wonderful messages I've been getting. I'm feeling pretty loved right about now!

A 

xoxo

The race to eat everything

Now it's crunch time (literally). I have 2 days to try to eat all the best non-pureeable foods. It's surprisingly tough to come up with your favourite foods when the pressure is on, let me tell you. Suggestions and ideas will be met with open arms (and open mouth)!

I've had a great "last weekend of the summer". Friday was my last day of work (shout out to the Wither lab, you guys are the best), so we then went out for lunch/dinner and drinks. The rest of the weekend has been spent actually being social and in the company of civilization. So wonderful.

Today I'm trying paintballing for the first time. I expect I'll probably be doing stuff like this:

They don't call me neo for nothing (perhaps it's my ruggedly goodlooking canadian vibe in combination with atrocious acting abilities?). If my matrix skills fail, I take comfort in the fact that I only have to put up with the pain for another full day and then I'll get some morphine to drown my sorrows.

Hard to believe 48 hours from now I'll already be 4.5 hours into this whole thing. Eek!

A

Maximal imagination, minimal computer skills

I wanted to help myself envision what my new profile will look like. I figured the front view would be too hard to imagine or photoshop, but it would be super simple to photoshop a little forward jaw movement, ya? Well I don't have real photoshop (or any photoshop skills) so I turned to my pal google and what I've ended up with is a program called Gimp (very aptly named I might add). This is so hard- how do they do it so well on magazines? This is what I ended up with:

Here's hoping that my world-class surgeon can do a better job than me! Still kind of cool to see though. Shouldn't there be some kind of computer program in this day and age that can do this better than my unsteady finger/trackpad Gimp action? Is there one?

6 days to go. Freaking out.

A

Dem surgical hooks be menacing...

After work today I got my surgical hooks put onto my braces, 5 in total. These are terrifying looking little metal hooks that clip between my brackets to use in case I need to be wired shut (this is the time to start crossing your fingers that that is avoided...). They really don't hurt, except that my lips keep getting caught on them like some horrible torture device/pseudo snaggle tooth. Attractive all round. Next time I get carded because of my awkwardly bracefaced tween-like appearance I'll just growl (I got carded to see a movie in theatres- true story) and they'll leave me be. It should also be noted that now it looks like I have food stuck between my teeth on the regular...I'm an avid flosser, HONEST.

Here's a photo to really take in how intimidating I look...farewell, babysitting career. Rawr.

Post-ortho appointment I went to see War Horse at the Princess of Wales...really well done! You should go see it. These wee little hooks even provided the perfect excuse to get the classic intermission haagen dazs. Mmm.

Anyway, bed time!

A

ps. one of my sassy sisters informed me that there is a tv show called Pretty Little Liars, and the bad guy signs her emails/letters whatever (presumably lies) with a simple "A". But I have been doing this for years so I'm gonna go ahead and keep it. :)

Hello!

I'm Allie- welcome to my blog! I'm undergoing jaw surgery a week from today- eek- and many people have suggested I blog about my experience, so here goes nothing.

Run down of my deal: I've had rheumatoid arthritis on and off since 18 months old and it has left my poor sad little jaw joints (TMJs) in disarray. They're supposed to be lovely and round, but all the wear and tear of inflammation over the years has worn them down to pretty much nothing. As a result, my jaw has moved so far back in my face that my teeth no longer touch (save for 2 in the back)...you can imagine how silly I look while eating. Having it so far back has also given me breathing problems and it does ache most of the time...also, who doesn't want a greek-god-like jawline?

So what is the solution you may ask? Why, total joint replacement of course! The big day is next Tuesday, July 10th. For all you TMJ problem friends, what I'm having done is bilateral total TMJ replacement, a Lefort I osteotomy, a maxillary segmental osteotomy, and a genioplasty. In layman's terms, that is a replacement of both jaw joints (ball and socket on both sides), a wedge of bone cut out between my top teeth and my nose (due to a "gummy smile"), my top teeth split into 3 between the incisors to pull wider, and a chin augmentation. Phew! It's going to make for one very long surgery- good thing I'll be asleep!

Today I get my surgical hooks put onto my braces, and then I anxiously wait the rest of the week and try not to go insane and cancel the whole thing. So much steak is going to be consumed in the next 7 days.

A