We reached a milestone this week! We visited M>D> Anderson, and came back with more parts than we went over with! Progress!
Day 1 - Prep
We drove over in the morning, since the first appointment was not until 10am. The drive was nice, especially since the car knows the way and only needs minor guidance (I wish!). Cheryl drove, since I prefer not to drive in the dark, and it was not especially light when we left home. We stopped for Kolachies in La Grange, as usual, and everything went smoothly until we hit rush hour traffic in Houston. The last five miles were stop and go.
Anesthesiology
We got to the hospital around 9:30 and went right to our meeting with the anesthesiologist. I had my vitals stolen, and visited with a nurse who went over my history. Nothing special was noted, so this meeting was quick.
Dental
The next stop was up to the dental area to see Dr. Hofsteade, who was going to do the dental plate work. The doctor came in right on time, and looked my mouth over. She told us that the flap placed over the new jawbone was pretty thick, which made her job tougher, but she was confident she could get in there and get the job done.
I had a 3D X-Ray taken of my head, and she brought the image up to look at the area where the work would be done. My first thought was that the Terminator had reached into my face and stonel all the bone from above my left eye, all the way down my face. There is nothing left in there! Yikes. WHen she spun the image around to look at the right side, it looked normal, but the left side. What a train wreck!
I could see the bicycle-chain titanium strap that is now my lower jaw, but the added bne was not showing up much. There were three short posts sitting close together in the area where the new teeth will end up. Dr. Hofsteade will place extensions on those posts that rise up to the top of the skin flap, then place a plate over that to cover the area so it can heal and not re-close over the posts. After a couple of weeks, she will add the plate that will hold the teeth, and that plate will snap onto the posts. A bit of wire to provide support will extend over my lower front teeth (the few remaining real teeth), and I will be done. Sounded simple enough, so we left with a good understanding of the game plan.
Eclipse
Today was the total eclipse of the sun. We managed to see a bit of this oon TV in the waiting rooms, and saw a few folks using the special sun-glasses on the patio outside of the cafeteria where we had lunch. ALl in all, we missed the action, but that is the price you pay to get care here.
Plastic Surgery
The final stop of the day was to Dr. Yu, my plastic Surgeon. He has to do the cutting on the flap to expose the posts, and while he is at it, he plans on doing another round of "fat grafting" to fill in more of the side of my face. We did not see Dr. Yu, but spent a few minutes going over everything with his PA, Brooke. (She is a native Nebraskan, so Cheryl likes visiting with her!).
Brooke went over everything that could go wrong. Boy, if you believed any of that would happen, you would run screaming from the place!. In the end, we were fine with the plan, so we left for the day!
Rotary House
Rather than stay at our local La Quinta, we spent a bit more to get a room at the Rotary House, a hotel attached to the hospital. That way, the trip from the room to the surgical floor is just a walk away, and it is easy to move back and forth.
We checked in a bit before the right time, but they gave us our room anyway. We went to the floor, and used the key to get into the room. SO far, so good. I puled the suitcase in, and Cheryl decided to check out the bathroom. She pushed open the door, and there was some poor man in there using the place. About then, I noticed that the TV was on, and there was a pair of shoes by the bed.
Seems this guy did not check out, and the cleaning crew declared the room ready when it really was not. We beat a hasty retreat from the room, and went back to the desk to discuss this situation. I promised not to use any colorful language when we got there. They gave us a new room as far from that one as possible, at the top of the building. Everything was fine after that!
Once we were settled into the room, we headed out for the required visit to Microcenter. I tried to get Cheryl to stay in the car while I took a quick look at the inventory, but she decided to come along. When we got to the aisle where they have all the parts I use in my classes, she got fascinated by a new stash of "cute" parts hanging on the wall. $125 later, I escaped the place. I did not plan on spending much at all, but the did not last! Oh well, I can use the parts in class, and the students should enjoy playing with these new toys.
Finally, we headed up to Humble, TX to visit with Cheryl's high-school friends, Sharron and Dan (and Little Bits). We had a nice dinner at a Mexican Restaurant nearby, and went back to the hotel for an early bed time.
Day 2 - Surgery
The surgery was scheduled for 7:30am, and we had to report at 5:30am to get ready. MDA is oddly quite at that time of day, we hardly saw anyone except for a guard. When we got to the surgery floor, there was one other couple there, so we checked in and they took us right back to a prep room.
A nurse appeared, stole all my clothes (except for the BHO - butt hanging out - gown, and I ended up laying on the bed for a half hour.
Then a nice older man walked in. He looked Japanese, but I an not sure. He said he was the anesthesiologist, and we talked about the procedure he would be doing. I asked him how long he had been at this. "100 years" was his answer. "Fine, you should know how to do this then!" was my reply.
Then we talked about my job, and whn he found out I was a college professor, he launched into a story of going to school in Paris. Since we visited Paris, we ended up talking about travel in Europe, and our planned trip to Italy next summer.
Finally, another nurse came in to set up the IV. This is not my favorite part of any procedure, but she used a Lidocane injection to numb the area, and the IV went in with no feeling at all. She should get a bonus for that!
Around 7am, another nurse came in with a bag of "happy juice" which he said was to relax me. He pushed that into the IV, and I will admit I got relaxed. Before I knew it, they were wheeling the bed out of the room and down the hall. I got more relaxed as we went on, and I barely remember going through a few doors. Cheryl was walking by my side, and she tells me she told me to "break a leg" as they took me into the surgery room. I do not remember that, and I do not remember saying "they already did that!" back to her.
Night - Night Time
Recovery
Next thing I know, I am in a big room looking out at a window and see Dr. Hofsteade talking to a nurse. Then the doctor left, and the nurse came up to me and said "I am going to count to three, then pull out the air tube in your nose".
Great, I had not noticed that I had one.
"Three!", and she grabbed the hose and pulled. A foot of plastic came out before I knew what was happening. I would have grabbed her if she had been closer. But she was giggling far enough away to escape my grasp.
Turns out her name is Brittany, and she did a great job of getting me back into focus as the effects of everything wore off. They brought Cheryl into the room, then I managed to get out of bed, and use the bathroom. All too soon, they called for a wheel-chair to take me to my room. I thought I might end up staying in a recovery room overnight, but the man with the chair, Raymond, showed up and got me seated, then pushed me all the way back to our room in the Rotary House. Wow, fast and furious!
Raymond had been a patient here, and decided to stay and help others. He was a pretty cool man, with an exceptional attitude. Listening to him was a very nice experience for both Cheryl and I.
In the room, I got settled into t:1 he bad, and I dozed some. Cheryl ordered room service for her meal. I managed to drink an Ensure, since I had to stay on a liquid diet for a few days, then soft food for a few more.
Finally, we crashed for the night. The day was not that bad, and everything went exactly as planned. I managed a look at the new filling in my face, and it looks pretty good. The depression on the side near my ear is pretty much gone. One odd thing, with the new "stuffing", my left lip does not sag as much, and I could notice that drooling was not happening as badly as before. I am hoping this is a good sign that we may get that problem under control!
Day 3 - Final Checks
I managed to sleep a bit, but it was hard since I could not really lay on either side. We had a visit with Dr. Hofsteade scheduled for 8:30, so we got up, I had another Ensure while Cheryl had nothing. Around 8am, we headed out of the room and Cheryl grabbed some coffee at the Starbucks in the eating area of the hotel. Then we walked across a walkway to the hospital, and up an elevator to the Dental area.
This time the place was packed. Even so, I was called in just about on time, and we waited for Dr Hofsteade to come in.
When she arrived, she looked at the surgical area, and declared that everything looked fine. I had a new plate I could feel, but little to no pain, except in my leg where Dr. Yu had "harvested" fat for my face.
Dr. Hofsteade then started getting ready to make molds of my teeth, so she can build the next dental plate, apparently the one that will be the final one. What is in my mouth now, goes away on my next visit.
After sticking a gallon of silly-putty in a metal mouth tray to make the impressions, she cleaned me up and said we would get together in a couple of weeks. Wow, I did not expect the next step to happen that fast.
Finally, we were done, and Cheryl and I checked out of the Rotary House, and headed back to Austin. W did stop at an antique car place near La Grange, but we were home in a bit over three hours. All in all, a very successful trip.
Follow Up
Back home, I managed to get through the day with no issues. I did not have any pain, so the pain medicine they prescribed is sitting unused, which is fine. Cheryl got out a flashlight to look at my mouth, something she did not do at the hospital, and almost freaked out!
She thought I was bleeding, and saw what looked like an infection on the inside of my mouth. We decided to call my local dentist and get her to take a look.
So, I fought Austin Traffic for an hour and managed to get to my dentists office. She saw me right away, and looked things over. It turns out the did stretch my lips a bit too far during surgery, so there was some blood along my mouth, but I was not bleeding from the surgery. And the infection Cheryl though she saw was just tissue coming loose from the sides of my mouth. That probably was also surgery related. It was white, and did not look normal at all, but my dentist said it was normal, and would wash off as I cleaned my mouth.
So, the bottom line is I am fine after this round of surgery. My next visit to Houston in in two weeks, after Hurricane Harvey fades away. Right now, we are sitting in Austin, watching for the expected 20 inches of rain over the next few days, and waiting for school to start on Monday.
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