The VA and Surgery

27 MAR 17

I have snored for most of my life and I was referred to a sleep study by the Veteran's Administration (VA) near me (Overton Medical). The first doctor I saw took a look down my throat and said surgery may be an option and so did the sleep study Doc. When I got to Dental, the actual doctors that would be cutting me open listed what they wanted to do. It sounded pretty severe. 

The most minor of the THREE surgeries was removal of my uvula, the little dangler in the back of your throat. Not sure what it does but I assumed it could be snipped off without too much consequence. And it is obviously in prime location to get in the way of a quiet of sleep. Okay, sounds good so far. The second surgery was a removal and change up to my septum. They were wanting to cut at the bottom of my nose, peel it open, remove the septum, cut it up and use it to make changes to the interior of my nose. The last thing on the schedule was the most drastic-sounding to me: they were going to cut a cubic centimeter chunk of my chin (a piece attached on the backside to my tongue) and move it and my tongue forward a few millimeters. All three surgeries together should stop all snoring forever!

Wow.

Surgery took hours longer than they thought, but when all was said and done, everything went all right. No complications at all. I was even able to go home the same day. It is pretty amazing that the only stitches to be seen on the outside were on the underside of my nose. Everything else was done inside my body.

This is me at the hospital in recovery. I was the first one in for surgery that day and the last one to leave.

Nobody told me I would peeing so much after surgery! Every hour on the hour for forever!

The pain medicine also did a number on me. Made me constipated, itchy all over and gave me nausea. I had all the side affect symptoms listed. 

This is me ready to leave the hospital. Well, maybe not quite ready. lol

And this is me after a day at home.

I have bandages over my nose and chin. The only stitches are on the underside of my nose. Swelling of my nose and chin as well. Stints up each nostril that will come out tomorrow. One thing you don't see in the pictures is the bruising in and under my chin.

The docs did a good measure of the level of pain meds I would need, but I encountered a lot of side affects. The itchiness, constipation, and wooziness were big obstacles. I was definitely in enough pain to take the medicine though. Over the week I tried various times to pace out the meds, but ended up on Sunday (surgery was on Monday) switching to taking a half dosage for each time.  That left me hurting, but I could think a little more.

I'm not looking forward to teaching tomorrow, but we will see. I have a relatively easy day, hoping I can do it! Then an appointment in the afternoon to get the stints out and then should be done!

UPDATE: So the x-ray below is from a follow-up visit to the dentist. It shows that they did not cut a piece out of my jaw, rather they broke off my entire chin and moved it about 6 mm.  Wow, well no wonder it still hurts! It's numb, they said will most likely take around a year to heal completely. Five screws and a little plate.