Day 1 - Surgery Day

Woke up at 5:00 AM in the morning. Got the hospital just before 7:00 AM. They checked my vitals and I was fit for surgery! Then they made me wait around for an hour, gave me my robe, more waiting and finally at about 8:45 AM, I waved goodbye to my Dad and in I went on my stretcher.

Then they made me wait a little more in the hallway. My surgeon came by and told me he would have to do a multi-piece surgery and have to widen my upper jaw by 1 cm. I guess that's a lot! He also mentioned I would have a plastic splint in my mouth for 4-5 weeks. I wasn't thrilled about that!

I agreed but that's when it hit me. I was about to get my jaw sawed into pieces and have it re-screwed together again. Yikes! What if something went wrong? I would look like a freakshow! Or even worse, what if I woke up mid-way through it?!? Fortunately none of that happened... but at that point I just wanted them to give me the anesthesia and knock me out.

Oh yeah, and to make things worse, I heard the nurses talking about some equipment not working in OR 4. I figured as long as I wasn't in OR 4, I was ok. Then I got wheeled in... to OR 4!!!

They hooked up the IV, started giving me the anesthesia and I no longer had a care in the world. The last thing I remember telling the nurses was I would love to take a vacation to Greece and meet all kinds of attractive women. I'm sure they had a chuckle!

3-4 hours later, I woke up. I remember feeling better than I expected. I had my face wrapped in an ice-pack, a tube to drain blood from my nose and an oxygen mask on my face. The person beside me was groaning and moaning in pain. I couldn't turn my head to see what was going on and they wheeled me out as soon as I woke up so I didn't get to find out either.

They moved me to a Constant Observation Unit (COU), which is kind of like ICU but for patients that aren't as critical - I just needed to be watched in case I had trouble breathing due to nasal congestion and the like. The rest of the day was spent sleeping. I have recollections of my Dad and my surgeon coming by. I gave them the thumbs up and tried mumbling to them but that's really all there was to the rest of the day.

Day 0 - The Day Before Surgery

This is the first in a series of posts that will describe my post-op experiences from orthognathic surgery. I'm currently at Day 9 but I'll recall what I was going through as best as I can.

Before I get started, I've got to credit Rebecca for the idea. I always intended to show a progression of photos but her blog inspired me to do the day by day commentary.


-- Flashback to Day 0 - The Day Before Surgery --

Surprisingly I'm not very nervous and even somewhat excited to have surgery. I've known for the best part of 10 years I would need surgery to fix my open bite and this is the last big hurdle before the home stretch. Can't wait to have my jaw broken to bits, reconstructed and be back to normal in 8 weeks! And hopefully the braces will come off 2-4 months after that.

So what did I eat before regressing to a liquid and soft food diet?
- A Schezwan Chicken Sandwich for lunch
- Leftover pasta and a potato curry for dinner

What a waste of normal chewing force!

L.A. - Here I come!

I've been pestering my manager to send me on a trip somewhere and he's caved (or I like to believe so). I pretty much grew up on a plane - my Dad worked for an array of airlines through his career and well, I got to travel a lot when I was younger! Yeah, I know I'm spoiled but I just love experiencing new sites and sounds. And it's awesome that I can do it for work reasons too now.

On my very first business trip, I get to go to Los Angeles! I leave on Tuesday and return Thursday evening so that won't leave much time for checking out the city but that's OK - I already did the touristy trip back in '99.

Despite the short stay (and the work) I'm sure I'll have a blast!

And since traveling is on the cards, here are some useful Travel Tools courtesy of The Man From Mars.

I'm back!

Wow... I can't believe I took a 3 month break from blogging!

I can't promise I'll keep posting regularly but it's worth a shot. So, what's happened in the last 3 months?

• I went on my vacation to India. I wrote a blog post while I was there but wasn't connected at the time so it's going to have to be added at a later point in time. I had an awesome time while I was gone but it was way too short.

• Work's been crazy and I find I usually have very little left in the tank when I get home. I don't regret my move to Project Management though. I'm having the time of my life (or something like that...)!

• I upped a level in Seikido (it's the type of Martial Arts I'm learning). I'm all the way up to a lowly green belt now. Woohoo!

• While I'm talking about Seikido, I competed in a tournament a few weeks ago and took away 2nd for my pattern and tied 3rd for sparring (it was only with 4 people so not that impressive!).

• I was on the organizing team for this year's PMI - South Western Ontario Chapter Annual Symposium and it went off great on May 3rd. We made a wad of cash to make up for the massive hole from last year! I couldn't be happier for our success.

That's all folks!

Serena Williams vs. Conan O'Brian

The Man from Mars posted this link on the forums at work and it's straight up hilarious! I think I'm going to have to start watching Conan again...

Freezing My Fingers Off

I can't believe how cold it is out there today... Actually, I don't care too much with it being cold out there as much as it being too cold in my apartment. The Weather Office claims it to be -17 Celsius with a wind chill of -28 Celsius right now and with the leaky windows in my apartment, I'm in danger of losing a few fingers.

Usually, I don't mind my leaky windows since it brings down the temperature to comfortable (the temperature is controlled by the building's management but I'm surrounded by retirees so they like to crank up the heat) but I'm seriously cold today!!

I can't wait to start my vacation at the end of the week and go off to London, England (where it's currently 5 Celsius) and then to Mumbai, India (where it's 24 Celsius right now).

The Superbowl

It's that time of year when everyone in North America huddles around their big screen TV (except me who huddles around my little screen TV) to watch the big football game while the rest of the world doesn't even know what the Superbowl is. And if they do, they still have no idea what the significance of a large plate is in a game called football when it's not even primarily played with the feet.

That's what I used to think some 10 years ago too but I'm quite a fan of the game now, although not so much of today's game. I really wanted to see the Patriots and/or the Saints in there but it wasn't meant to be.

Indianapolis vs. Chicago - They say defense wins championships. Comparing the Bears defense to the Colts offense, the Bears are more than capable of shutting down the Peyton Manning show. The Colts defense on the other had aren't guaranteed to stop Rex Grossman (despite him not being that special of a QB). Logic tells me the Bears should win however the Colts have looked better and better as they've advanced through the playoffs, which is almost reminiscent of the great Steelers team of last year. The bottom line is it's going to be a defensive snore but since I need to pick a team, advantage - Indianapolis Colts.