Office Pre-Op
The first appointment was at Dr. M's office. The room we went into was a corner office that had a really pretty view of some of Atlanta's old architecture.
This picture doesn't seem that pretty, but it was nicer in person.
This was one of my views while sitting in the chair.
The Margaret Mitchell House
(Author of Gone with the Wind)
There was not too much involved with this appointment. Dr. M came in for a quick update. He explained again that the purpose of this surgery is to cut my palate bone, which will allow new bone growth, resulting in widening my upper jaw since it is narrower than my lower jaw. Luckily, it is not too big of a difference. Hopefully this means the gap I will get between my front teeth won't be as wide as I originally thought!
Dr. M also went over what he will be doing in the OR. Once I am under anesthesia, he will access my jaw and palate bones by going above my teeth. After he reaches jaw bone, he will do some cuts in the bone. I am unsure of how many or the exact placement of the cuts. I will ask again before the surgery, but I do know he will separate the palate bone. With the bone no longer connected and with help of the Hyrax expander and the "key" for it, Dr. M will do a few cranks/turns to start the jaw expansion. When I leave the OR, I will already have a small gap between my teeth.
After reading through the scary "worst case scenario" liabilities, I signed the consent for surgery. We left the office with a few more directions and a lot of prescriptions!
Hospital Pre-Op
The second pre op appointment was at the hospital around the corner from the office.
First, we had to go to admissions and register me as a patient. This took a little time, but the lady helping us was so nice and funny, it wasn't a problem. Once she was done registering me, she gave me a hospital band with my information on it. She told me to check my name and birthday, which were both correct, so she pointed us to the pre op check in desk. I handed over all of my information to the man behind the desk. While we were waiting for him to process the papers, I noticed there was a random "M" on my wristband. I looked at it for a second, wondering if it was some sort of label or organization, but the other part of me wondered if it stood for male or female. I asked him about it, and he started laughing, saying that it definitely stood for male! He and mom and I went back and forth laughing about it, but it got confusing with all of us talking at the same time. Haha!
Mom: She's a girl!
Him (jokingly) : She's too pretty to be a man, but Jordan is a guy's name.
You're not a man?
Me (agreeing with mom): Yeah, I am!
*....wait.*
We were told that our wait would be a while, so mom and I had lunch at the hospital food court. During lunch, mom texted her friend who works at the hospital who came to sit with us for a little bit. When we were done eating, she walked over to the pre op office to see if she could get any information on where we were on the waiting list, and actually got us on the "fast track." (Thanks Jane!) It helped, but even the fast track took a while. When I was finally called back, the nurses did an in depth medical history interview with me, took some blood samples, and explained some important instructions for the day of the operation.
Then we were home free (seven hours later)!!
Then we were home free (seven hours later)!!
No comments:
Post a Comment