Kevin's Jaw Surgery: Extreme Makeover, Kevin Edition

The surgery is over. I am alive.

On Feb 22, Sharon dropped me off at Kaiser Permanente on Kiely in Santa Clara. Eventually, I was admitted to pre-opt, after reading US Weekly and People magazine in the lobby. Dr. Surpure and his assistant came by to take some pictures of my jaw for his personal records. Then, the anesthesiologist gave me a couple of shots (into the IV). The first one was a steroid, designed to reduce the swelling during the operation. The other was a narcotic "cocktail" to calm me down.

Did it calm me down? Nope! It had the opposite effect. I became kind of squirmy and uncomfortable. Also, I felt depressed, as if I was making a huge mistake. This, my friends, is why narcotics are bad for you. The orderly came by and told me to shoot some chemicals up my nose. Once I did that, I became unconscious. I don't remember anything else.

The next thing I knew, it was 6pm (about six hours later) and I was in tremendous pain. No, it wasn't from my jaw. The nurse was yanking the tubes out of my nose and out of my lungs. My nose was bleeding and my throat hurt like crazy. My lips were completely chapped, and my tongue was trapped behind my teeth. I also had the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. Plus, everything was REALLY REALLY loud. I read from another jaw surgery patient that when she woke up, it felt like someone was hitting all the keys on a piano at once. Yeah, it was sort of like that.

I could hear someone yell MR. SUNG over and over again... REALLY LOUDLY. But still, I couldn't wake up. I was just in pain. Do you remember how in Last Action Hero, Arnold's character pulls out a homing beacon out of his brain from his nostril? That's what it felt like... but up my esophagus. Finally, I opened my eyes, shifted my body from the stretcher to the hospital bed, and fell asleep. Stacy, Gilbert, and their daughters were there too, so they prayed for me and provided some nice emotional support. At this point, the nurses pumped up the morphine.

Surprisingly, my jaw wasn't in any sort of pain. My throat and nose hurt like crazy, but the jaw was fine. Even now, my jaw doesn't really hurt... and I'm not on any pain medication. I do have lots of ice on it though, in an attempt to minimize the swelling and better enunciate my words. Also, I did not suffer from any nausea either. Although I had some gas (burping and farting), I never felt the need to vomit. Even after eating some chicken broth for breakfast, I was fine. I guess it's because the doctors had the foresight to pump my stomach after breakfast to get rid of all the leaked pus and dirty black blood.

I also found out this morning that my surgery lasted much longer than anticipated because there were some complications with the left side of my face. My jaw refused to stay in place. I'll find out the whole story eventually. But it's most likely the reason why I don't have much feeling in my left cheek and lip. Dr. Surpure says that it's a good sign that I still have SOME feeling, because it means I can get it back in a few months. We'll see. I sure hope those nerves repair themselves. Otherwise, when I kiss in the future, it'll feel like I have half a lip.

I spent the night in the hospital. However, the nurse woke me up every two hours to take my temperature. Also, I had a hard time peeing. Because they had put a catheter up my urethra during the operation, I was stuck with a perpetual erection. However, I really really had to go. However, I couldn't. This was the most painful part of the night. I tried everything from pinching myself to thinking unsexy thoughts. No dice.

Eventually, I did manage to pee. And when I did, I ended up having to pee every hour. I suppose that since I will be on an all liquid diet for the next 3-4 weeks, I should get used to this.

As you'll be able to see below, I now resemble the child of Sammo Hung and Jabba the Hutt. When I finally saw myself in the mirror, I chuckled a bit. However, the ice has certainly helped reduce the redness. Dr. Surpure told me this morning that Sunday will be the worst day of swelling. After that, things should improve. I will go and see him again on March 2. In the meantime, I just have to eat (drink) well and take my temperature every day to check for infection.

I'm currently at Stacey and Gilbert's house. They will take care of me until I can take care of myself... or until they have to return on Taiwan on March 1. Thanks to everyone for your support. I'll post daily updates on my condition in this blog.

Before the Surgery
Day -2 (February 20, 2007)