He started the day with a mood and a shake.
Good heavens. I feel the need to tell you all about my day in great detail, so if you're uninterested you may wish to simply skim past. (Note to self: explore Livejournal as letter correspondence.)
Today was, as Mr. Bricker dubbed it, "Double the pleasure, double the fun" day. suzanami and I both had surgery for the removal of all four wisdom teeth each. I've been technically calm in the days leading up to today, but with some deep-seated worries and nervousness. Back in October or so when I found out I'd have to have the surgery, I had a terribly discouraging conversation. On the way home from the puppetry conference in Columbus (driving the entire three and a half hours back nine-thirty at night instead of going home with the others the following evening because we had ACTs in the morning), Katelyn, Kristen, Sarah, and Kristen's father regaled me with tales of their (or their acquaintances') wisdom tooth experiences. Stories about having jaws dislocated, waking up during the surgery...
Me: Thank you so much for comforting me.
Those fears mostly passed, though, and lately I've not been too concerned. I knew the aftermath and healing would, with my luck, either be absolutely horrible or not all that bad, so I stopped worrying about that (except that I have to go back to school Tuesday and am going to be busy with Drama Club and speech all week, so I do hope any bruising and swelling is down by then... but we'll discuss that later). My main worry had come to be about the anesthetic itself, partly because of the stories I'd heard about waking up during it and partly because the whole thought just makes me dreadfully uncomfortable. I don't like the thought of being put into a chemically-induced sleep that I can't wake myself from. Sticking chemicals of any kind in my body always weirds me out - I don't even like taking medicines - and the whole idea just seriously creeps me out. I also don't people seeing me when I'm asleep. If I'm napping in the family room on the couch, I always always get a blanket and pull it up mostly over my face. When I wake up in the morning and notice that someone has been in my room - someone has taken something out or brought something in or whatever - I get mildly upset that they probably saw me sleeping. Whether it's control issues or vanity or insecurity, I have to be in control of how I present myself or I feel uncomfortable. I need to make sure I'm aware of my behavior and appearance at all times because I have a sick dread of giving a bad impression. (Even though this is hardly as strong a drive when I'm with people I know well, and even though I honestly am getting better about it, this applies even when I'm among intimate friends or my family.)
So the idea of being completely passed out while people are all around me freaked me out as much as the concept of the anesthetic did. It was funny, actually, when they hooked me up to the heart moniter; I could feel my heartbeat and how the beeps came just slightly after the actual beats, and I was trying so hard to breathe slowly and deeply and just stare at the ceiling and calm down, and the moniter kept slowing down and speeding up as I got myself almost calm but then became more nervous, over and over. And when the doctor tied on the rubber band on my arm to give me the anesthetic and put in the IV, the stupid moniter went crazy. I think I did giggle a little then, and possibly apologize.
I have issues with needles, too. I can handle them in the upper arm, but ones in the inside of the elbow - drawing blood or, as here, anesthetic - give me the jibblies in the worst way. I'm just glad the IV was there and I seriously pray I never had to have one in the back of my hand like some people do. The only thing worse than a needle on the inside of my elbow is a needle in my hand. Ewwie, I'm getting freaked out just thinking of it.
Once I was out, I had strange dreams in sepia-toned colors, the closest thing to a black-and-white dream I've ever experienced. (And on that thought, a quick poll - how many of you dream in color, and how many in black-and-white/greyscale? I've always dreamed in color and was literally shocked when I heard most people don't, although I don't know how accurate that is.) I do think I woke up slightly a couple times - I seem to vaguely recall noticing the doctor and a nurse or two around me - but only vaguely. Maureen said something about me making a bunch of noise and flailing around, which I absolutely do not remember in the slightest. I'll have to ask her about that when she wakes up.
Coming back from the anesthetic was interesting. The first thing I remember is wondering where the heck I was, then remembering but thinking that the room looked different. Then I tried to focus my eyes on the overhead lamp but it kept sliding into two pictures, which I apparently thought was the coolest thing evar and tried to lift my hand in front of my face to see if that, too, was subject to sliding apart. (PS, it was.) I dozed on and off for a while until the nurses came and said it was time to go, pulled off the moniters and took out the IV ("Oh, she's a bleeder!" one said jokingly before mopping up my arm and putting on a bandage). They helped me into my coat and told me to walk slowly. When I made it out to van and crawled in, my father joked, "What've you been drinking?"
"Eeugh," I replied though my mouthful of gauze.
I slept most of the way home, then sat down in the recliner with some fresh gauze and ice packs for my face. After dozing a while I ate some pear baby food and a little yogurt, took my anti-swelling and painkiller pills, and dozed some more. Mom took TJ to the vet's to have his eye checked because it's been scabby-looking and full of drainage the past few days, and we thought Kennosuke might have accidentally scratched him while they were playing. But it's apparently just a little infection and he only needs some eye-drops for a while. He came right into my lap when he got home, and we two doctor-traumatized kiddos took another nap.
I have to take another dose of the medicines in a little while. The painkillers are about the size of our Vitamin C tablets, aka too big, but they can easily be snapped in half and I managed to get them down in some yogurt. The anti-swelling pills are beautifully tiny. I also have to take six today. Six! But then only five tomorrow, four on Saturday, et cetera down to just one on Tuesday to finish those off. I have not yet taken the antibiotics, which is just one pill every eight hours until they're gone, because they are monsters. They're capsules so they're supposed to slide down more easily, but that doesn't do much for me. The year we went to León, Lisa gave me some olive leaf capsules when I was getting sick to make sure I didn't (and I was 100% better - that stuff is amazing), and those were the same size as or just a little bigger than these antibiotics. I couldn't even stand it, so I opened up the first one and mixed the contents in some water, which I managed to drink; but it was so disgusting I decided to try swallow the other five capsules. Somehow I got them down. So I'm hoping I can get these antibiotics down. Good Lord, I hate taking pills so much. (I also think the painkillers are going to be harder when my tongue is no longer numb like it was with the first dose. Ugh.)
Speaking of numb, my entire lower jaw is still dead, although I am getting some feeling back in my lower lip. Hooray.
The overall effects don't seem to be bad thus far. I'm groggy and have been napping all evening, and for a while my jaw ached something fierce, but the painkillers helped that out. I haven't bruised yet, though that's supposed to start happening tomorrow, but I have a feeling it won't be too bad. (Maureen, poor dear, will probably be worse. She takes after our mother in having banana-sensitive skin.) Of course, my feeling could be wrong. The swelling isn't bad, either. The right side is a little puffy, I think, but you can't really tell unless you're trying to notice. (Actually, I think the last time with the ice pack took it down compeltely.) My left side looks like a chipmunk, though. Nothing monstrous, but definitely funny-looking. Ah ha ha. And I've pretty much stopped bleeding, so here's to hoping I don't ooze tonight. (That happened with my gum surgery way-long-ago in third grade or whatever; I bled on my favorite pillowcase. Much of the suckage.) If things just stay where they are now or get only a little bit worse, I think I'll be fine. Unless there's some drastic turn of events tomorrow (or when the novocaine finishes wearing off), I'll probably get off pretty easily (and get to eat lots of tasty baby food - right now, oatmeal cereal with applesauce and bananas, mm!).
In not-health-related news, a few things ordered from Amazon came the other day - Snow by Tracy Lynn (I finally got ahold of it, tangledwood!), Shadow Puppets by OSC (completing our Shadow collection - hoorah!), and The Polyphonic Spree Together We're Heavy, which I have been listening to since and have been listening to for the past forty minutes while typing this entry. :D This current song, Section 17/Suitcase Calling, is one of my absolutely favorites. (Is the seventeen a coincidence? I THINK NOT!) Eventually I'll have to acquire the first album (Sections 1-10), but I'm quite content, actually quite elated. I love this group so much. The songs I've listened to while writing this entry:
Section 11 (A Long Day Continues/We Sound Amazed) 8.32
Section 12 (Hold Me Now) 4.30
Section 13 (Diamonds/Mild Devotion to Majesty) 4.55
Section 14 (Two Thousand Places) 5.19
Section 15 (Ensure Your Reservation) 1.41
Section 16 (One Man Show) 5.01
Section 17 (Suitcase Calling) 8.48
Section 18 (Everything Starts at the Seam) 1.54
The last one just started as I finished up the list... it's another favorite, I think.
Fantastic. If you've never heard them, you desperately need to. As in, right now. Whee! ♥
Allrighty, I've been boring enough for one day, and this entry has taken precisely fourty-seven minutes to write, so I'm off to finish my baby food, take my medicinces, read my Oscar Wilde things, and start typing my notes from Alberto Manguel's A Reading Diary, to which I am addicted. Opposite of bonjour!
Today was, as Mr. Bricker dubbed it, "Double the pleasure, double the fun" day. suzanami and I both had surgery for the removal of all four wisdom teeth each. I've been technically calm in the days leading up to today, but with some deep-seated worries and nervousness. Back in October or so when I found out I'd have to have the surgery, I had a terribly discouraging conversation. On the way home from the puppetry conference in Columbus (driving the entire three and a half hours back nine-thirty at night instead of going home with the others the following evening because we had ACTs in the morning), Katelyn, Kristen, Sarah, and Kristen's father regaled me with tales of their (or their acquaintances') wisdom tooth experiences. Stories about having jaws dislocated, waking up during the surgery...
Me: Thank you so much for comforting me.
Those fears mostly passed, though, and lately I've not been too concerned. I knew the aftermath and healing would, with my luck, either be absolutely horrible or not all that bad, so I stopped worrying about that (except that I have to go back to school Tuesday and am going to be busy with Drama Club and speech all week, so I do hope any bruising and swelling is down by then... but we'll discuss that later). My main worry had come to be about the anesthetic itself, partly because of the stories I'd heard about waking up during it and partly because the whole thought just makes me dreadfully uncomfortable. I don't like the thought of being put into a chemically-induced sleep that I can't wake myself from. Sticking chemicals of any kind in my body always weirds me out - I don't even like taking medicines - and the whole idea just seriously creeps me out. I also don't people seeing me when I'm asleep. If I'm napping in the family room on the couch, I always always get a blanket and pull it up mostly over my face. When I wake up in the morning and notice that someone has been in my room - someone has taken something out or brought something in or whatever - I get mildly upset that they probably saw me sleeping. Whether it's control issues or vanity or insecurity, I have to be in control of how I present myself or I feel uncomfortable. I need to make sure I'm aware of my behavior and appearance at all times because I have a sick dread of giving a bad impression. (Even though this is hardly as strong a drive when I'm with people I know well, and even though I honestly am getting better about it, this applies even when I'm among intimate friends or my family.)
So the idea of being completely passed out while people are all around me freaked me out as much as the concept of the anesthetic did. It was funny, actually, when they hooked me up to the heart moniter; I could feel my heartbeat and how the beeps came just slightly after the actual beats, and I was trying so hard to breathe slowly and deeply and just stare at the ceiling and calm down, and the moniter kept slowing down and speeding up as I got myself almost calm but then became more nervous, over and over. And when the doctor tied on the rubber band on my arm to give me the anesthetic and put in the IV, the stupid moniter went crazy. I think I did giggle a little then, and possibly apologize.
I have issues with needles, too. I can handle them in the upper arm, but ones in the inside of the elbow - drawing blood or, as here, anesthetic - give me the jibblies in the worst way. I'm just glad the IV was there and I seriously pray I never had to have one in the back of my hand like some people do. The only thing worse than a needle on the inside of my elbow is a needle in my hand. Ewwie, I'm getting freaked out just thinking of it.
Once I was out, I had strange dreams in sepia-toned colors, the closest thing to a black-and-white dream I've ever experienced. (And on that thought, a quick poll - how many of you dream in color, and how many in black-and-white/greyscale? I've always dreamed in color and was literally shocked when I heard most people don't, although I don't know how accurate that is.) I do think I woke up slightly a couple times - I seem to vaguely recall noticing the doctor and a nurse or two around me - but only vaguely. Maureen said something about me making a bunch of noise and flailing around, which I absolutely do not remember in the slightest. I'll have to ask her about that when she wakes up.
Coming back from the anesthetic was interesting. The first thing I remember is wondering where the heck I was, then remembering but thinking that the room looked different. Then I tried to focus my eyes on the overhead lamp but it kept sliding into two pictures, which I apparently thought was the coolest thing evar and tried to lift my hand in front of my face to see if that, too, was subject to sliding apart. (PS, it was.) I dozed on and off for a while until the nurses came and said it was time to go, pulled off the moniters and took out the IV ("Oh, she's a bleeder!" one said jokingly before mopping up my arm and putting on a bandage). They helped me into my coat and told me to walk slowly. When I made it out to van and crawled in, my father joked, "What've you been drinking?"
"Eeugh," I replied though my mouthful of gauze.
I slept most of the way home, then sat down in the recliner with some fresh gauze and ice packs for my face. After dozing a while I ate some pear baby food and a little yogurt, took my anti-swelling and painkiller pills, and dozed some more. Mom took TJ to the vet's to have his eye checked because it's been scabby-looking and full of drainage the past few days, and we thought Kennosuke might have accidentally scratched him while they were playing. But it's apparently just a little infection and he only needs some eye-drops for a while. He came right into my lap when he got home, and we two doctor-traumatized kiddos took another nap.
I have to take another dose of the medicines in a little while. The painkillers are about the size of our Vitamin C tablets, aka too big, but they can easily be snapped in half and I managed to get them down in some yogurt. The anti-swelling pills are beautifully tiny. I also have to take six today. Six! But then only five tomorrow, four on Saturday, et cetera down to just one on Tuesday to finish those off. I have not yet taken the antibiotics, which is just one pill every eight hours until they're gone, because they are monsters. They're capsules so they're supposed to slide down more easily, but that doesn't do much for me. The year we went to León, Lisa gave me some olive leaf capsules when I was getting sick to make sure I didn't (and I was 100% better - that stuff is amazing), and those were the same size as or just a little bigger than these antibiotics. I couldn't even stand it, so I opened up the first one and mixed the contents in some water, which I managed to drink; but it was so disgusting I decided to try swallow the other five capsules. Somehow I got them down. So I'm hoping I can get these antibiotics down. Good Lord, I hate taking pills so much. (I also think the painkillers are going to be harder when my tongue is no longer numb like it was with the first dose. Ugh.)
Speaking of numb, my entire lower jaw is still dead, although I am getting some feeling back in my lower lip. Hooray.
The overall effects don't seem to be bad thus far. I'm groggy and have been napping all evening, and for a while my jaw ached something fierce, but the painkillers helped that out. I haven't bruised yet, though that's supposed to start happening tomorrow, but I have a feeling it won't be too bad. (Maureen, poor dear, will probably be worse. She takes after our mother in having banana-sensitive skin.) Of course, my feeling could be wrong. The swelling isn't bad, either. The right side is a little puffy, I think, but you can't really tell unless you're trying to notice. (Actually, I think the last time with the ice pack took it down compeltely.) My left side looks like a chipmunk, though. Nothing monstrous, but definitely funny-looking. Ah ha ha. And I've pretty much stopped bleeding, so here's to hoping I don't ooze tonight. (That happened with my gum surgery way-long-ago in third grade or whatever; I bled on my favorite pillowcase. Much of the suckage.) If things just stay where they are now or get only a little bit worse, I think I'll be fine. Unless there's some drastic turn of events tomorrow (or when the novocaine finishes wearing off), I'll probably get off pretty easily (and get to eat lots of tasty baby food - right now, oatmeal cereal with applesauce and bananas, mm!).
In not-health-related news, a few things ordered from Amazon came the other day - Snow by Tracy Lynn (I finally got ahold of it, tangledwood!), Shadow Puppets by OSC (completing our Shadow collection - hoorah!), and The Polyphonic Spree Together We're Heavy, which I have been listening to since and have been listening to for the past forty minutes while typing this entry. :D This current song, Section 17/Suitcase Calling, is one of my absolutely favorites. (Is the seventeen a coincidence? I THINK NOT!) Eventually I'll have to acquire the first album (Sections 1-10), but I'm quite content, actually quite elated. I love this group so much. The songs I've listened to while writing this entry:
Section 11 (A Long Day Continues/We Sound Amazed) 8.32
Section 12 (Hold Me Now) 4.30
Section 13 (Diamonds/Mild Devotion to Majesty) 4.55
Section 14 (Two Thousand Places) 5.19
Section 15 (Ensure Your Reservation) 1.41
Section 16 (One Man Show) 5.01
Section 17 (Suitcase Calling) 8.48
Section 18 (Everything Starts at the Seam) 1.54
The last one just started as I finished up the list... it's another favorite, I think.
Fantastic. If you've never heard them, you desperately need to. As in, right now. Whee! ♥
Allrighty, I've been boring enough for one day, and this entry has taken precisely fourty-seven minutes to write, so I'm off to finish my baby food, take my medicinces, read my Oscar Wilde things, and start typing my notes from Alberto Manguel's A Reading Diary, to which I am addicted. Opposite of bonjour!