prmc

first off, before i forget, id like to thank the nurses who made my stay a pretty good one. they are melissa, elieen, megan, jill, gail, chris, julimol and 2 others with short brown hair that i unfortunately didnt get their names. they made my stay pretty awesome, for a hospital visit.
secondly i would like to thank my wonderful doc, dr ascher, the oncall doc, dr acle and all the or nurses tat helped me through my surgery!

so around july 14 i started to have pain in my tooth. it wasnt the worst, just a little, nothing some tylenol couldnt take care of. it still hurt after a few days so i called the oral surgeon (os) and made an appt. maia had her mri on the 22nd and by then my face was starting to swell. i couldnt eat food anymore and my mouth wouldnt open very wide. i was having a lot of pain so i tried to move my appt up with the oral surgeon(os). they had nothing open so the next day i went to the dentist, suspecting i was getting an infection. the dentist put me on antibiotics and i was on my way. on fri the pain had gotten worse and my face was getting worse also. i started to develop this big hard knot under the swelling. i called the dentist back, left a message and went to agh. they said my meds must not be working and put me on new antibiotics. by monday, the 28th, my face hurt so bad and the knot was so hard all i could do was cry. the dentist called me back and asked me to come in. he suggested i make an appt with an oral surgeon(os) asap, to which i replied i already had one (my original appt). he then numbed me up until my appt at 1.

when i got to my appt with the os i was crying so bad i was shaking. he checked my xrays, tried to look in my mouth and started feeling around on the huge knot on my face. he said a few times how he didnt like it and was worried there was a pus pocket under the swelling. he said if there was antibiotics wouldnt do anything for it. he said if i didnt get it taken care of asap, then it could turn into something serious. i told him to do whatever he needed and he said he was admitting me to the hospital and i needed a cat scan to check it out and either mon night or tues morn i was having emergency surgery to get it out.

so i drove over to prmc, had my cat scan and tried to get some relief with pain meds. i believe it was around 10 or 11 that i was wheeled back to the recovery center for my surgery. he then said i had no pus pocket and he was thinking about trying to drain my abscess. i told him i did not care if he cut my face open, i just wanted it gone.

the anesthesiologist came in and did the run down. because i couldnt open my mouth anymore and with the risk of me stopping breathing and not being able to get a tube down my throat fast enough, they had to put the tube in my throat while i was in a twilight sleep. he assured me that i would be okay and i braced for it.

they wheeled me into the or and strapped me down, started my sleepy meds and before i knew it they had shoved something that felt like a friggin xxl pen barrel up my friggin nose. it hurt so bad i screamed and instantly started crying. i can not tell you how bad that felt. it was horrible. absolutely horrible. so im laying there screaming and crying and then they start feeding the breathing tube. i literally couldnt breathe and i seriously thought i was going to die before they even put me to sleep. the last thing i remember is mouthing that i cant breathe and the wonderful nurse who was rubbing my arm told me to just relax and as soon as i did the tube took over and i was asleep. that was the weirdest thing to feel air coming into your lungs without actually breathing it in on your own. horrible, just horrible.

so they did the surgery, i woke up, was in a lot of pain, got lots of morphine, and got back to my room around 2-230am. got a morphine pump(every 8 minutes), some toradol and went to sleep. needless to say with all the pain meds, the next day my stomach hurt (besides the fact that i hadnt ate or drank anything for about 25 hours) and i was throwing up blood and blowing blood out of my nose. not fun.

tuesday was a little better, as long as i had the pain meds. they took me off my pump around 12 because i was getting sick and put me on percoset. that didnt help much so they put me back on the toradol. that stuff is pretty nice. tuesday night was better. i talked to the doc and he put the drain in my face (its still there now) and he said he couldnt get anything out of it. he said it was so hard, but he go tthe tooth out and hopefully with all the antibiotics i was also on in my iv it would help.

wed i was better and by wed night i was starting to go a little stir crazy.

thursday (today) i got to come home. i was given the option to stay another day but i said no.

now a little about my room. i was pretty excited about this. monday i started in the regular rooms, dark, dingy, not private. then on tuesday they moved us all to the new tower! we were the first people to use the new rooms/wing. everyone was so excited and they called it my "princess suite" lol. all the nurses did such a great job moving everyone amidst all the chaos. the beds were so cool. they were air filled and every so often they would adjust to help people not to get pressure sores. it was a little weird to get used to. they had new flat screen tvs and huge bathrooms and all the rooms are private. it was so hard not to get attached being the first person to use my room. i got to take the first shower and be the first person in my bed. it was a little sad leaving "my" room. i was feeling a little attached...lol. i was also feeling a little attached to my nurses. i cant imagine how people feel who are there for a long time.

anyway, that was my week. i still hurt, esp when the pain meds wear off but its bearable. i have to go back to the docs to get my drain out, i still have my massive hard lump. i am hoping it goes away soon. as soon as my camera batteries charged ill have to get some pics up. i got quite a few. ill try to do that tomorrow!