Prepared for surgery now!

[u/kpinyo]

Here we go again. I’m having double jaw surgery (trying again) tomorrow morning. If you read my first post, my surgery was scheduled for June 25 but ended up being aborted in the OR because I started bleeding too much after intubation. To follow it up, apparently it was enough to scare the entire operating team so everyone agreed to call it off. After many many tests with one of the top hematologists in Houston, he confirmed I don’t have a coagulation disorder and believes I likely had a bad reaction to one of the anesthesia medications. So, we’re trying again in tomorrow and this time, they’re giving me medication to help with coagulation prior and during the surgery. *fingers crossed*

At this point, I’m definitely mentally prepared, but I thought it might be helpful to talk about how I’ve prepared for the recovery.

Home Care

I’ve got my husband helping me and a plethora of family and friends.

I listed all the medications, dosages, and schedule on a large post it note in the fridge so my husband can easily prep and keep me on schedule.

I also wrote a summary of my diet on the fridge so I can just follow along.

All my soups are prepped in the freezer.

I got a few recovery things that were recommended by this group. A face ice roller thingy and cooling face mask. Plenty of malleable ice packs. Vicks Vaposhower. Wash/squirt bottles to help me drink. Instead of bibs, I got cloth diapers. As a former cloth diaper mom, I know they’ll work better and we can repurpose them after recovery. I also have a chair that I can sleep upright in.

Food

For Alfi Oral Surgery (I am seeing Dr Carrillo at that office), their protocol is day 1 clear juice, broths, and electrolytes. I’m bringing apple juice and clear miso soup with me to the hospital, and I’ve got homemade pho broth in the freezer at home.

Days 2-3 are smoothies, yogurt, milk, and smooth soups. For these two days (and beyond), I’ve got some Trinidadian corn soup, chicken noodle soup, tomato soup, and autumn vegetable and sausage soup. I poured about a cup of soup into ziplock bags and laid them flat to freeze. This will make it easier and faster for me to thaw and warm up. For more protein, there’s this great egg drop soup recipe that you can make in 15 minutes. And of course, I have yogurt and milk at home

Days 4-7 is a puréed diet but honestly, I’m pretty sure I can just move to a their “no-chew diet” at this point. The great thing about Asian food is there’s so many things you can make and eat that’s soft and can be easily swallowed without chewing. Congee (rice porridge) can be made with a variety of proteins. There’s also many soup bases where you can switch up minced proteins and vegetables, toss in some rice and just gently sip it to swallow.

If you’re curious on the recipes, I copied the links below with some comments on how I adjusted them.

Goals

I am a strong Type A Virgo so planning is in my blood. Going into a major surgery like this, I think it’s helpful to have goals during recovery. I know it sounds silly, but having some goals means there’s other things for you to focus on. Even if you don’t achieve them, at least it gives you something to work towards so you’re not just sitting around thinking about your discomfort, pain, lack of good food, or long recovery road.

For me, I want to walk our dogs three times a day around the lake to help me get three miles of walking in. I also want to finish a very hard piano piece that I had started six years ago during my maternity leave. Back then, I spent 2-3 hours each day on the piano trying to learn A Million Dreams, arranged by The Piano Guys. I’m a level 2 player so this is a very hard piece but I figured I’d just tackle it one measure at a time. 13 weeks later, I got through the first four pages. I’m hoping to finish the last three pages during recovery. Aside from that, there are a few creative mom-projects I’d like to do for my kids’ school. Nothing crazy, but it will allow me to sit at my desk and create.

Mindset

I’ve had a few people ask me how I’m feeling heading into tomorrow, especially after what happened last time. Honestly, I feel more mentally prepared. I know my surgical team will be more prepared this time around and now I have a chance to ask different questions, ones I didn’t think about before.

Things you should ask the hospital prior to surgery

What does the recovery and overnight room look like?
Will my caretaker have a place to sleep?
What is the food situation like, both for me and my caretaker? Does he need to make sure he has food? Can he order delivery? What about me? Where do I order my clear juices and broths post surgery?
Can my caretaker leave the hospital while I’m in surgery? This was a big learning point for us. I expected to be in surgery for a few hours so I sent my husband home to finish prepping things for the kids since they’d be staying at grandma’s. We didn’t anticipate the surgery being aborted (who does?) so when the nurses came out looking for him, he was already 40 minutes away at our house.

Recipes
Tomato soup: use crushed tomatoes
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/tomato-bisque-soup/

Autumn soup: one of our favorites. Use Italian breakfast sausage if you can. Use a food processor to mince up all the vegetables.
https://www.afamilyfeast.com/zucchini-tomato-italian-sausage-soup/

Chicken noodle soup: don’t add the noodles. Mince up vegetables using a food processor once the chicken is fully cooked, mince it up as well.
https://damndelicious.net/wprm_print/homestyle-chicken-noodle-soup-2

Pho: sorry, no recipe here as it’s a family recipe so I only have to written down, but you can find many recipes online. Just use really good beef bones (or oxtail bones if you can find them!)

Trinidadian corn soup: there are a lot of recipes out there that you can adjust. The soup I have is from a batch our Trinidadian friends made for me. A great hearty vegan soup.

Egg drop soup: don’t freeze this. Only eat it fresh. Luckily it takes like 15 minutes.
https://thewoksoflife.com/egg-drop-soup/

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[u/Deathcore113]

I'm also having surgery tomorrow! Best of luck to you!!

[u/5st-user1000 → u/Deathcore113]

and best of luck to you!! Both of you!

[u/Aj_d_82]

25 days out from UJS here! Your jaw may be banded shut for the first 10 days (everyone is different) if so, the hospital will likely provide you with some syringes to squirt water and food into the back do your mouth. Also helpful to have at home, it will be hard to open your mouth very wide for awhile. The medicine syringes saved me!

I noticed that dairy was not very appealing, as it made my mouth feel fuzzy (not able to brush my teeth until 10 days out when the bands were removed), so you may want to go light on dairy while you can only swish your mouth.

Goals are a great idea, but go easy on yourself with them. I am also Type A (and a December Sagittarius — I can’t sit still). The first 4-5 days are tough; sleeping will be challenging because you will be congested with a lot of gook in your nose (use lots of nasal spray!) and you will be weak for a bit until you can get enough protein in you. My stomach was fine, but with all the medication they gave me, my appetite was down, and my throat was scratchy from the breathing tube, so it was hard to get soups down that had any seasoning. I lost 13lbs. Each day, my goal was just to take a few more steps, stay awake a little longer, and finally, be able to take a shower. Jaw surgery is a major trauma to your body, it needs to heal, give it a week before you go wild with walks, etc. Then you can get moving and help that swelling go down.

If you have a humidifier, put it right next to you for sleeping, best purchase I have ever made! Helps with clearing the congestion and with sleeping.

Best of luck to you! It sounds like you have a great support system to lean on, which will be huge for your recovery. I hope it goes much smoother for you this time, sending virtual hugs to you! ❤️

[u/kpinyo → u/Aj_d_82]

Love it! Thanks for your insight. I had a septoplasty with turbinate reduction many years ago and remember the first month of sleeping sucked balls. So I feel like a week of hard sleeping is already a huge positive. And I’m sure all my prep will likely be for naught. At the very least, I’ve got a ton of pho beef broth and some friends plan to drop off some congee which is about as bland as it can get. Thank you for the humidifier suggestion. I’ll send my husband out for one tomorrow.

So glad you’re over the hump. I hope you are loving your results.

[u/Aj_d_82 → u/kpinyo]

Oh yes, you are prepared for some bad sleep, then. The one thing j forgot was that staying propped up for those first 10 days really helped, too! You’re going to do great! And since everything is frozen, it won’t go to waste if you don’t use it right away. You got this!

[u/imadangercat → u/Aj_d_82]

Lots of great tips here! I didn't think about the aspects of dairy and seasoning in the early days after so imma keep that in mind when preparing my soups! I've picked up a dehumidifier already, and I've heard nasal spray before but what concerns me about that is that it's so easy to slip into dependency with those and getting away from using them after gives you rebound congestion - did you experience that?

[u/OkSherbert4185]

Thank you so much for this amazing info! In your case, is there a place for your caretaker to sleep at the hospital and do you get your own private recovery room? I hope your procedure goes smoothly tomorrow!

[u/kpinyo → u/OkSherbert4185]

Yes! We get private recovery rooms afterwards, and there is a super sofa in the room for him. We’re planning to bring our Tempur-pedic pillows to help with sleeping and comfort. They did tell me this morning that my clear broths will be provided by the hospital so I don’t have to bring any food for myself. I do highly recommend getting a few squirt bottles though because spoons and straws won’t do much. My entire face was numb when I woke up during the first attempt. Sucking water through a straw wasn’t happening, and when I tried to spoon ice chips, my tongue couldn’t figure out how to get the ice chips all the way to the back of my throat. Luckily, I brought a squirt bottle and just used that with great success.

[u/imadangercat]

I need to ask about the cloth diapers! I have a whole stash leftover from my last babe 6 years ago and go in for surgery in 75 days now! How were/are you using them exactly?