SURGERY. it's over. awesome.

Thank you guys for your encouragement and prayer, the surgery went well! I am a bit swollen now, the day after. Here are some pictures to catch you up.

Some of these pics may be gross, so...sorry if they sick you out. Here I am shortly after my procedure finished around noon yesterday, mustering a smile. I was still pretty loopy from the sleeping pills they gave me. Funny thing - they had to give me a third dose because I was too conscious before the surgery. I don't know if I have a high tolerance to sleeping pills or if I'm just good at pretending I know what's going on. They turned the TV and lights off in the room to I'd conk out...I remember thinking "aw C'MON! What if they show Soledad Obrien?!" Just kidding about the Soledad part, but I was disappointed.

This is how it went - one hygienist put braces on, then I was supposed to be pretty well out. I wasn't, so they gave me another dose and turned the lights out so I'd fall asleep. I wake up only twice that I remember - once for the Novocain shots, which stung but felt like it was happening to somebody else...then again to the smell/sound of my facial bones burning with the laser. I was thinking hard to describe the taste, but it was almost nutty. gross. They took two pictures, one on each side up into the cavity where they cut the bone. The nurse said they'd email them to me (SWEET).

Here you can see the stitches between my teeth. Awesome. I'm so thankful that my brother was able to come and take care of me. The nurses said I wouldn't be able to remember anything, but I actually did. They forgot to give me my oral rinse (I can't brush for a week or so) and I remembered that and asked Collin to go back and grab it. God is good.

Below I'm with my bro in the surgery room. Awesome smile, Drew.

While driving home with my brother I decided to take some gross close-up pictures for posterity. The crusty blood on my lip with the drooping eyes really make this one.

I wasn't in much pain yesterday. Probably because I popped two Percocets around 1PM, right before calling Comcast to get our internet figured out...toward the end of the conversation I started sweating profusely and was somehow able to get the payment info across over the phone for my housemate who didn't pay the bill on time. My brother said I got pretty mean/impatient at the end of the call. haha I don't remember that. I passed out for the next hour. I didn't need any more pain meds the rest of the day, though.

Now I'm sitting around the breakfast table with Collin, and started writing so my malt-0-meal could cool down. Here we are. Not terribly swollen. I'm glad to have the day off, but I honestly probably could have gone to work. Armed with luke-warm soup. Well, my hot cereal is now cool, so adios for now.

Side note - I'm not supposed to work out for 5 days, so I guess I'll just focus on recovery and reading for now.