I was told to be at 8 am at the hospital. The reason behind is because on my last visit to his clinic (two days after getting my mouth moulds done at the hospital) my orthodontist placed an elastic chain on my lower teeth braces in order to close the gap between some of my teeth. If they had moved considerably since the chain was placed then making new moulds would be necessary.
I got up early and got ready very quickly because I wanted to avoid my children seeing me leaving to the hospital. After my son’s reaction when we spoke about my surgery, I knew he would panic again if he saw me leaving and I would not be able to hide my anxiety this time around. My plan failed as my daughter woke up earlier than normal on this day and she was following me everywhere I went like if she was my shadow. It seemed like she knew I was going to be away for some days. There were extra hugs and kisses and cuddles and I struggled to hold back my fears and tears. I got her ready for Kindergarten, prepared her breakfast, said goodbye to her and my mom (who was already feeling very nervous, anxious and half-panicked), sneaked a kiss on my son (he was still sleeping), double checked if I had all the necessary documents with me and left with my little suitcase. In the garage we met a couple, friends/neighbours of ours, and when they greeted me and wished me good luck I just could not hide my anxiety anymore. I let all the tears I was holding back stream down my face until I calmed down. I felt really embarrassed afterwards but I am a very emotional person and despite most people thinking that I was freaking out because of the surgery, I was in truth having a harder time accepting that I would have to be away from my kids.
When we arrived at the hospital we went straight to Prof. Dr. Watzke’s clinic. The doctors from the surgical team checked my teeth alignment and they decided that making new moulds were unnecessary. They went through some more paper work (I signed some more documents), confirmed the kind of surgery I was going to have (BSSO and genioplasty) and asked me if I had any further questions I wished to ask. Last but not least, they gave me a bag with elastic bands and a toll (to help me place the elastic bands in the surgical hooks). I also found out that my surgery was scheduled to be the first one, at 8 am, the following morning. As my splint wasn't ready yet, I was sent to an office to get officially admitted to the hospital.
Arriving at the admissions office the guy that attended us asked if I had also a private insurance. As I do, I had the luck to be accommodated in a single room (a real dream come true!). The hospital does not have a station only for patients having orthognathic surgery so anyone having this kind of surgery stays at the Dermatology Station.
Once we got all the paper work done, my husband and I went to the Station 74. I was introduced to the nurses and I was really relieved they were all extremely friendly (one of my fears was getting grumpy nurses to take care of me!). It felt like checking-in in a hotel. My husband left me then to go to work and all my medical check-ups started. A very friendly doctor came over, asked me loads of health related questions and did a ECG test on me. We spoke a lot about London ( It seems we are both London lovers!) and once she was done I got called back at the clinic of Prof. Dr. Watzke. As soon as I got there, one of the doctors checked the fitting of the splint in my upper teeth and then called Prof. Dr. Watzke, who had a short talk with me.
Back in my room, I got very hungry and seeing that I did not really enjoyed the food offered by the hospital I asked the nurse if it would be ok to leave for a while just to go down to the lower level of the hospital to get something to eat. He said I could leave at any time however, I needed to let them know it so they could lock my room (Apparently some dirty souls are stealing patients at the hospital…Which kind of person does that?). I went to bakery located at the ground floor and I bought all things that looked very tasty; a pastry, a piece of plum’s cake, half a litre of chocolate milk and a can of coca-cola (which I normally rarely drink). With all “healthy” stuff safely stored inside my shopping bag, I went back to my room and I ate, and ate, and ate until there was nothing left. As soon as my private feast was over, another nurse came in and she filled another health questionnaire and took my blood pressure. She was really lovely and friendly and before leaving she advised me to stay in my room because soon the anaesthesiologist would come to talk to me.
And so I did. I stayed in the room and waited. Took some selfies (to make later some before and after photos) and waited some more. One hour passed by and no anaesthesiologist came to see me. One hour became two and still nothing.. As I was beyond bored at this stage I got my headsets and phone and started listening to music (very loudly). I went to the bathroom to wash my hands and looking at the mirror I thought: “ok, Andrea. You have two options; either you let bad thoughts get the best of you or you can make the best of the situation, stay positive and sing your sorrows away! Come on girl! stay positive”… And then I started dancing in front of the mirror, making thousand facial expressions and singing “Shake it off” from Taylor Swift really, really out loud. After a few minutes I suddenly see a shape/ shadow next to the door (which I had forgotten open) and who is standing there seeing me “shaking it off” like a mad woman? The anaesthesiologist! OHHH MMMYYYY GGOOODDD! How embarrassing! And, on the top of everything the guy was young and very good looking (I mean, very-hot-good-looking-I-am-going-to-hyperventilate-type) just like the ones from “Grey’s Anatomy” series. He apologised and said he knocked the door before entering but because of my headsets I did not hear it! We laughed at the situation and he said that was the first time in his career that he ever met a singing/dancing patient! Laughter aside, we spoke about the anaesthesia procedure. I asked him about anaesthesia awareness occurrence and he told me this is really difficult to happen and the cases are so rare that if it happens it would most likely be heard of the next day on TV. He asked me if I had total anaesthesia before and if I had nausea after awakening from it. I told him my medical history and also let him know that I can handle anything but vomiting, and I asked to be given medicine against nausea after awakening from surgery.
As soon as he left a nurse came in to put my IV on and also to collect blood to test my blood group (The hospital did not accept the test made at the lab). At night a Doctor came to check on me and a nurse gave me a medicine to protect my stomach. I was also offered a sleeping pill (which I denied) in case I had difficulty to fall asleep.
Right before going to bed my husband surprised me and came to visit me again. He said he had a hard time putting our son in bed.. It was a short visit but one that meant a hell of a lot to me! I truly love him!
So, once Michael was gone I went straight to bed and it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep!
To be continued...
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