It took about a half an hour to get vitals taken, get ready for surgery (including being covered with a blanket), and start the IV.
I left shortly after Dr. Andrus came into the room and then proceeded to wait for over two and a half hours while Kristen was in surgery and then in recovery.
I was beginning to get worried that things were taking too long around 11:30, but Krissy came out to get me shortly after that. Oh, my poor girl. She was in tears when I came to her in Recovery. I held her hand as Krissy went over care and pain medication instructions. I said to Krissy, "I wish I had just recorded you saying all of that." She kindly went over the key points again as I made a few notes. Kristen's entire lower part of her face was numb and the nurse cautioned me not to let her touch it too much because there was a tendency in not feeling it that they would hurt themselves.
At Kristen's consult earlier in the week, Dr. Andrus had said to Kristen, "Most people end up looking like a chipmunk a couple days after surgery. Your face is going to look like a pumpkin." He was just trying to prepare her for the realty of her surgery.
A short while later, Kristen was wheeled down to the car that I had pulled up to the entrance and was soon settled, though not happy. She cried and complained that her arm hurt and thought the IV needle was still in it, so I stopped at the entrance to the medical center to take a look. I think that bandaid was pulling on her skin, so I just loosened it and that seemed to help.
Kristen began to flip at her lip, amazed that she couldn't feel it. She pulled open the mirror on the visor and got a glimpse at herself before I closed the mirror and told her not to look. She cried some more, "My lips are fat. I look like Kylie Jenner. I'm ugly."
Kristen was fairly loopy. She told me I was being a crazy driver. She said that if she had to choose between apple and orange juice she would choose apple juice because orange juice was... orange. I took a couple of videos of her and sent them to family.
We stopped at Wendy's for a frosty and Amy tried to Facetime with us. We weren't able to see Amy's face because my phone was connected to the car. Both Kristen and I had thought Amy had hung up the phone. Kristen said, "Is that Amy calling? I like her. She's nice." We could suddenly hear Amy giggling over the speakers.
Kristen asked Amy where she was and Amy responded that she was at the library between classes. "Why? You don't read!"
Kristen had me pull the band-aid off her arm and said, "My arm is having a period!"
Once home, I got Kristen settled into bed and I helped her eat a little of her Wendy's frosty. Shortly after that, we started with her first round of ibuprofen and switched between that and Vicodin every three hours over the next couple of days.
Chris just bought a new tv for the living room, so Kristen lucked out with the old tv in her room while recuperating. I think it made the time pass more quickly and helped her doze off to sleep.
This is Kristen on Saturday morning. She felt fairly good but her face was getting puffier and puffier.
