The Day of My Double Jaw Surgery

I was admitted to the hospital a night before my surgery on 8:30AM, 10 August 2010. I don’t think I slept well that night because I was feeling nervous about the surgery. I was thinking of how it would feel to wake up after my surgery with all the inconveniences and that made me feel sick but I know it is something that I have to go through.

A nurse woke me up at about 6:00 AM. I went to brush my teeth, wash my face and had a nice relaxing shower. I had to stop drinking and eating after 12 midnight to prepare my body for surgery. I was told to wait by my bed for someone  to send me to the operating theatre.

Take Me to the Operating Theatre to Saw My Jaws

Soon enough, a nurse in a green gown and cap arrived. I was asked to change into disposable underwear and a green gown like hers, which is like an apron with 2 strings at the back. I was seated on a wheelchair while she pushed me to the operating theatre’s holding area. I saw over 3 people in the holding area and we were all dressed up in the same operating theatre garments. While I was waiting for my turn to be pushed into the operating theatre, I was given a pair of black socks to keep my feet warm and a cap to cover my head.

At about 8:20 AM, I was pushed into the operating theatre. I was greeted by my general anaesthesia doctor and my oral & maxillofacial surgeon. I noticed there were at least 5 people in the room, including the nurses. There could be more but I was not counting. I don’t recognise most of them.

My general anaesthesia doctor explained to me that he was inserting a tube up my right hand for the drip and anaesthesia. Other tubes like an urine catheter and tubes on my left hand will be inserted into me after I fall asleep. I was concerned about the urine catheter and asked if it can be removed after my surgery. The doctor told me it should be removed about a day after the surgery. I had a feeling that tube would cause me more discomfort than pain from the surgery wounds.

“Okay, it is time to sleep!”, said one of the doctors as he prepared the anaesthesia. He told me the time was about 8:30 AM while he put a gas mask over my head and asked me to breathe in deeply. I was trying to see how long I could last before losing consciousness and I was disappointed I got knocked out within 10 seconds.

Jaw Surgery Time…

I woke up and felt like I was only asleep for seconds! My surgeon said something like,”Hi Vincent! The surgery went smoothly and we finished ahead of time. The time now is about 1:15 PM and we started at about 9:00 AM.”. I guess my double jaw surgery took about 4 hours to complete.

I was still in a heavily sedated state and couldn’t really see the faces of the people who were talking to me. I was pushed out into a holding area with other patients who have had surgery done. I could hear the moaning and cries of the other patients as I moaned about my pain myself.

I heard a nurse say something like, “Hi, I’m XYZ. Are you feeling any pain?”. I nodded as tears streamed down my face. My heart was beating furiously and my body was feeling a bit tight as I was trying to endure the pain. I wondered why I was feeling that much pain. I needed a pain killer and I needed it fast.

It was during those moments of intense pain that I started to wonder negative thoughts like:

• Why did I choose to go through this pain?
• Am I going to feel this much pain during my recovery?
• I want to be put to sleep. I don’t want to deal with this pain!
• I feel like crying out load in pain!

A doctor came to inject me with some morphine. I didn’t feel like it helped a lot. It took at least 2 more applications of morphine before I felt like my pain was manageable. Now I was feeling like jelly. I hardly had any strength left and I just wanted to sleep but I couldn’t.

My nose, mouth and throat was getting filled up with blood and mucus due to the tube that went through my left nostril, down through my throat and into my stomach. I couldn’t swallow anything because it hurt a lot when I tried. I asked the nurse for help and she used a suction tube to remove some of the goo, which helped to ease my discomfort for a while.

I was given another pain killer through the tube on my right hand. It felt really strong and I threw up within 10 seconds of receiving it. It was hard coughing out all the blood and crap in my body and I made a mess trying to force it out of my mouth.

The Rude, Unprofessional and Uncaring Nurse

The nurse wasn’t very pleased with me for creating a mess and I felt she was very unprofessional and uncaring. Throughout most of my time at the post-surgery holding area, I could hear her whining and complaining about someone. She didn’t seem to want to work on me too much because I could hear her asking an Indian nurse else to take over.

If I could spit and swallow my own blood, saliva and mucus with my jaws wired shut, I would have done it myself. I understand that it is dirty work sucking out all that goo from a patient’s mouth but as a nurse whose job is to relieve the pain of patients immediately after surgery, I didn’t think she was doing her job right that morning.

I can’t remember her face or her name but I can tell from her accent that she is a Chinese Singaporean nurse. She said, “This is ?? (jia lat)”, as she cleaned me up while I was throwing up. What she meant by that statement is this is going to take a lot of work or trouble.

Once I have recovered enough to talk a bit more, I will make an official complaint about this nurse. Customer service in Singapore is generally bad but this incident really upset me more than the usual bad service I receive because I felt very disrespected.

Transfer to a High Dependency Ward

Vince hours after jaw surgery

After waiting for my bed to be allocated to me after my surgery, I was pushed to a high dependency ward. I was so weak and sedated that I couldn’t do anything on my own. I felt very helpless and embarrassed as a group of female nurses wiped my body and changed my clothes.

I had a small air-conditioned room to myself. The medical equipment looked more high-tech than the normal wards but it comes at a price – more discomfort due to the additional tubes and monitors they placed on my body. I will be in this ward for at least 1 day before I get moved to a normal ward.

I hated the urine catheter and the tube that went down into my stomach through my left nostril. The urine made me feel like I had to pee constantly but I didn’t feel anything flowing out. The tube in my throat created a massive sore throat and prevented me from being able to swallow properly.

The night of my double jaw surgery day was tough because I had to be cleared of the mucus, saliva, blood and other crap from my nose, throat and mouth every 1 to 2 hours, because it was getting very difficult for me to breathe. Some nurses did a thorough job while others were lazy. Luckily for me, I had 2 nurses who did a great job of clearing out the goo from me.

Sleeping through the first night was not easy. I don’t think I had a good rest with all the tubes connected to me and the constant need for a nurse to use the suction tube to clean me up. I knew the first few nights after my surgery would be the toughest and if I can get through that, everything else will seem like a piece of cake.