D-Day.

I am feeling so excited and anxious at the same time! Can't believe that it's already tomorrow! What if I develop some complications during the surgery or the recovery period? No wait, stop it girl. Put your trust in the Lord and commit to Him everything.

Those were the thoughts that ran through my mind the night before the surgery, and even till I was in the OT. 

23 June 2014

6.30 AM - Alarm rings. I wash up like it's any other day; wake my parents up, and had a short prayer before we left the house.

7.30 AM - The car zooms out from the lot, we reach the hospital at 8.

8.30 AM - Our queue number gets called and my mom settles all the administrative matters with a trainee officer. Could see my mom getting increasingly dominant as the clock ticked.. but oh c'mon, everyone starts somewhere :) Still, I'm glad to have my mom settle all the paper work for me. I just need to plonk myself on the bed heehee!

9.15 AM - Time for the lab tests samples to be given: my pee and more blood drawn from me. Don't really know what they're testing for though hmm.

9.30 AM - The hospital porter (I didn't know they had that) brought mom and I up to the ward for more admin procedures to be done by the nurse. It was a really decent ward. No frills, plain but tastefully and warmly done. Totally my style. Mine was a 4-bedder and right next to a window. Soooo pretty :)

9.50 AM - Time to head to Dr Tan's clinic! Mom signed a indemnity form from the hospital holding herself responsible should anything happen to me outside. Our appointment was supposed to be at 10, and we really had to speedy gonzales there. 

10.05 AM - Waited for a tiny bit before being called by the clinic's nurse to go in. Saw Dr Wee and Dr Tan for the last time before the surgery. On a side note, their clinic is really nicely done. Each consultation room has a view outward towards a settlement of bungalow and terrace houses amidst rather lush foliage on a hill. A really calming view for the patient and it brings in natural light too.

10.45 AM - We leave the specialist centre and Dad, Mom and I sit at the void deck to eat breakfast. Well, excluding myself. I was just watching them eat.

12 PM - We return promptly to the hospital at 12 and I was so dying of thirst. I could feel body telling me that I was heaty and really needed water, but yet, I couldn't drink!

1.45 PM - The nurses bring my surgical gown to change into and a bed to wheel me to the OT. 

2 PM - Surgery is supposed to start, but the anesthetist is late. Dr Tan comes over to greet me with his 'hello deaaar' (rather odd, but sweet), and assure me that this was a big decision to make, but a good one at that. I had no idea why I kept tearing throughout waiting to enter into the OT. Perhaps it was the lack of familiarity in environment and I couldn't see well because I couldn't bring my glasses in. But most of all, I think I was deep down afraid of unprecedented things that could happen during the surgery. Can this be called pre-surgery depression?

2.45 PM - the anesthetist FINALLY arrives and looks at my file and asks for my weight. His speaking had this really annoying atas accent, an impression made worse by him making me wait so long >:/ I was tearing all that while :(

2.50 PM - Was wheeled into the OT and transferred myself unto the operating table. Totally went against my fantasies. I thought I was going to be lifted by brawny doctors and nurses haha! The anesthetist begins to sedate me although he was just supervising a junior staff. When she pressed the wrong spot he went: "No, not here! Hereeeee." He told me that the table had a bed warmer installed so I'd be toasty warm and i replied "Oh, cool." My head began to feel so heavy and I knew that the drug was taking effect. It was like the gravity pull on my head was 5 times heavier just on my head, and at the same time, I felt like blood was rushing away from my head. 

6.15 PM - Dr Tan called my mom to inform that the operation was successful. 

7.30 PM - Dad, mom and sis arrived at the ward to see my bloody state (as I look at the pictures my mom took). I remember continuously drifting in and out of sleep and the nurse asking how much pain I felt on a scale of 10. I signaled to her 5-6/10. That night, I woke up countless times because I couldn't breathe and kept wanting to suction all that bloody gunk out. My throat was so hoarse, partly from the tubing inserted during surgery and my continuously breathing from my mouth. I saw my mom sleep over and having to wake up each time I did, to observe the nurse help me and be on standby for any more help needed. I felt so bad that she didn't have a good posture for sleep - she was sleeping cramped up on two chairs.

Recount to be continued..

Pre-Op Visit to Orthodontist & Surgeons

Hello, it's been a really long while since I last posted. Sorry I didn't keep to my monthly postings :(

As I write this, my bones are trying to heal... yup, I've been for the surgery and am back home already. So these posts are going to be in retrospect.

While my surgery was initially projected to be in August, the orthodontist, Dr Cheng, gave the green light for the surgery to proceed during my visit in end May, since my teeth were ready already. What he meant by 'ready' was that my incisors were straight enough for the surgeons to know how to position my jaws together during the surgery. Yay! I was so happy that it could be done earlier because I had to much wanted to start working as early as possible (instead of bumming around at home - human nature). 

So after that visit in May, I was to return to his clinic for the last pre-op visit in early June, where he would collect two sets of mould for the surgeons and take some x-rays. If you would look at the picture below, the braces look really unorthodox haha. Thin metal wires replaced the coloured bands and those 'T' hooks between every tooth was installed (with much force). 

Everything silver!

With my two sets of moulds in hand, I gladly marched into the surgeon's clinic, where Dr Tan had a last look at me while Dr Wee (the assisting surgeon) took down the measurements for my face. Only then did I realise that my face was really longer on one side than the other. I'm not being nit picky on facial asymmetries (for that is what humanizes us) but mine seemed quite serious (to me at least haha). If you'd look closely at the picture on above, the right side of my face shows more gum on the upper when i smile. I don't know the term for it, but I will find out. So that's my maxillofacial problem, so to speak, in addition to my crossbite.

I had one last consultation with Dr Tan and Dr Wee on the day of surgery (only because I was overseas the week before). They ran me through the  things I would be experiencing in no less than 24 hours - post surgery depression, difficulty breathing and swallowing, weakness, uncomfortableness factor x10 (as per Dr Wee's lingo haha). Many more.

As with any surgery, I had to fast 8 hours before the surgery. I felt it so difficult, especially when I saw my dad buy some of my favourite teh from the hawker centre. Sigh. It really worried me because if I couldn't handle this, how would I handle the initial days of recovery? Thank God it's been well so far. 

4th & 5th Visit

Hello! I am uber late in my monthly posting once again :/ Will need to do something about that. Heeh.

Just came back from my 5th visit today. But before that, just a quick update on the previous visit:

Dr Cheng changed my wires to 'copper-18 and copper-20'. No idea what it means (and I hope that I've spelled it correctly, if not please do pardon). Anyway, it was a thicker wire. HAHAHA yey! Some pain! Finallyyy, after another month of wait. :3 The colour of the bands also has a story. Here's another case of colour distortion under the dentist's light: I went there determined to try the dark blue shade. But after having seeing the range of colours, I saw this shade which looked like teal to me. And me being me, liking the colours of in-between, chose it. But alas, the colour turned out to be light blue haha. Oh well, it wasn't so bad - the colour is actually very pretty. Because, it's not exactly a very light shade of blue, so it tones down a bit as the weeks pass by, turning it a bit greenish. Ageing with time: I love concepts like these. In the end, I did get my wish for a teal colour! Sort of.

Anyhoo, Here's the picture taken at the end of the 30-day cycle (which is today).

Above: May not be so clear in the photo, but the bands are actually twisted for two pre-molars on the lower left jaw - I think it was to add more force to rotate the tooth.

So for today's visit, I know for sure at least one of the wire was changed. He asked for 'copper upper' -- MY GOODNESS I AM DYING TO KNOW WHAT THOSE THINGS MEAN even if it didn't really concern me. Uhhm, well the wire for my lower jaw is a lot thicker and more painful. But what's new for this visit is that he put a band on my upper left row, pulling the canine tooth towards the back. Yep, because there is a gap between the canine and pre-molar of my tooth since the visit with the purple band across my 4 front teeth. And I didn't notice it until i got home. No wonder I kept feeling this really strong force on the tooth, one that has not been felt since the first put on my braces. MUAHAHAHA so exhilarating.

Above: TADAA can you see the extra translucent band? keke~

And I also want to mention that I'm already eating all the food I once told myself I wouldn't, before I had braces on. Foods like bread, chocolates, my favourite teh-peng, etc. Not that it's anything bad for braces, but that I initially just didn't want additional trouble cleaning the nooks of the braces. But in the end, I think I couldn't take laying off them and c'mon man, what's cleaning when food just keeps enchanting you to it! Ohhh :/

That's all for this month. Farewell! And till next time, be well!