Wisdom Removal Journey
SO. On Monday morning, I got up at around 7:30, after having woken up several times already due to anxiety dreams about getting my teeth removed. In comfy clothes and crooked glasses I went with my mom to the dreaded Dental Surgeon's. I had followed instructions by not eating or drinking, taking a little antibiotic pill, and gargling some nasty blue "oral rinse." They called me in quickly, and I waved goodbye to my mom. I wasn't too nervous at that moment. It wasn't really until I sat down in the chair and looked at the tray of dental tools that my heart started to race. I found myself exhibiting all of the classic "I am super nervous!" body language: crossing my arms AND legs, tensing up, constantly glancing all around the room, answering questions with only one word, sucking in my cheeks. That tray of tools. Guhhhksjdfnaksldgm. And then I just got more nervous as the woman taped some electrical thingies to my wrists and left ankle, strapped a blood pressure strap around my arm, and asked me to roll my sleeves way up. I was fearing the IV shot VERY much. My discomfort around needles has randomly increased as I've gotten older. If I were ten years old, I would be fascinated watching the needle slip into my vein. But now it gives me the heeby-geebies and makes me want to cry a little. But it turned out to not be so bad, of course. My main surgeon came in and strapped my arm super tight, and I looked away and cringed even as he walked over to just GET the needle. A long pinch later, and it was gone. Then someone said, "You might feel a little dizzy." The room turned into crazy swirling colors, and I said, "Whoa!" Then they told me they were giving me an oxygen mask, and as they placed it over my face, I started to say something like "Oh, that's good cuz--" and conked out mid-sentence.
I don't remember closing my eyes, feeling myself conk out, or opening my mouth. Next thing I knew, I heard the various adults saying "It's time to wake up now," and, "Open your eyes now." But I couldn't! Well, I could for a moment, but it was really really hard to keep my eyes open or keep myself very conscious. They had to tell me quite a few times to wake up and open my eyes. They must have led me over to a little recovery bed in a seperate room, which is where I saw my mom, and then was carefully led outside to the car. I was awake for the walking to the car and sitting in the car, except I think I was tripping pretty hard on the anesthesia because I kept closing my eyes and visualizing the world, but then changing it to do crazy things and go all funky. Now that I think about it though, I don't know if I was always closing my eyes when that happened. I may very well have been just outright hallucinating. It was really entertaining.
At home I was carefully led to the sofa, where I collapsed and waited for the sleepy drug hallucination trip to fade while watching (if you can call it watching) "A Prairie Home Companion." Then after a while I was able to get up, and I took some more meds and looked in the mirror. My face was pretty puffy, but not enormously so. Mostly, it FELT absolutely ENORMOUS because it was completely numb. I opened my mouth a teensy bit more than it was naturally, and saw all this drooly blood begin to ooze out, which was really nasty. There was a lot of blood to spit. Asldfmaksdghaskldg. I stuffed some gauze in my mouth after trying to eat a tiny bit of applesauce, which was a laugh. It was like being a baby again. My mouth was so totally numb and could barely open, so I tried to insert a small spoonful, which resulted in all of the applesauce dripping onto my chin without my being able to feel it. Then it was back to the sofa with bags of frozen corn around my face until the pain set in, at which point I took one painkiller and promptly fell asleep. Five hours later, I felt quite refreshed!
That night, dinner was a very slowly consumed (not really eaten so much as carefully placed onto the back of my tongue) amount of coffee ice cream. I remained on the couch watching tv and icing my face until bedtime, when I took more meds and spat more blood and hoped that the perkiset (or however you spell it) would knock me out for the night. Sadly, it only did for a few hours. The discomfort kept me up for a while, and I woke up really early. To my horror, my face seemed to have inflated over night. I had officially reached the chipmunk phase of this recovery. It. Was. HUGE.
The giant face day was basically spent on the sofa reading, watching tonnnns of television and chunks of movies, trying to nap (but not really succeeding), consuming applesauce and juice, and the usual meds and blood spitting and cradling frozen corn against my cheeks.
The third day, yesterday, my face deflated somewhat. It was still very puffy, just not quite as horrific as the initial inflation. I had a bit more energy, so instead of spending the entire day on the sofa, I went out with my mom to do an errand (stayed in the car though; wasn't quite ready to be viewed by the public eye), did a bit of animation, randomly made a good chunk of my capstone presentation powerpoint, and put warm compresses against my face instead of frozen corn. Exciting! Oh, and I could finally close my mouth, which was nice. Still ate mostly liquidy and gelatinous foods, but for dinner I was able to slip down some mashed potatoes and a bit of salmon!
Today was great! My face puffiness went down considerably, and I can talk 87% normally. I had more energy, which was really great, especially since Emma and Katherine came over! It was so great to see them, to have fun and socialize, and to not be alone on the sofa all day. I was motivated to get washed and put together like a normal human, and I able to speak and eat more foods (though still nothing really hard), just like my old self again (nearly)! Wooo!
Hopefully tomorrow my face will return completely to its normal state (not guaranteed, but I'm hopin'). I've got a follow-up appointment at the dental surgeon's and a much needed hair cut. Then it's time to pack, because on Saturday afternoon I'm off to sunny Florida! That visit shall be a journey in itself; trust me, it isn't just sunshine that awaits. There's also..............ARLENE. (Duh duh duhhhhh!)
I don't remember closing my eyes, feeling myself conk out, or opening my mouth. Next thing I knew, I heard the various adults saying "It's time to wake up now," and, "Open your eyes now." But I couldn't! Well, I could for a moment, but it was really really hard to keep my eyes open or keep myself very conscious. They had to tell me quite a few times to wake up and open my eyes. They must have led me over to a little recovery bed in a seperate room, which is where I saw my mom, and then was carefully led outside to the car. I was awake for the walking to the car and sitting in the car, except I think I was tripping pretty hard on the anesthesia because I kept closing my eyes and visualizing the world, but then changing it to do crazy things and go all funky. Now that I think about it though, I don't know if I was always closing my eyes when that happened. I may very well have been just outright hallucinating. It was really entertaining.
At home I was carefully led to the sofa, where I collapsed and waited for the sleepy drug hallucination trip to fade while watching (if you can call it watching) "A Prairie Home Companion." Then after a while I was able to get up, and I took some more meds and looked in the mirror. My face was pretty puffy, but not enormously so. Mostly, it FELT absolutely ENORMOUS because it was completely numb. I opened my mouth a teensy bit more than it was naturally, and saw all this drooly blood begin to ooze out, which was really nasty. There was a lot of blood to spit. Asldfmaksdghaskldg. I stuffed some gauze in my mouth after trying to eat a tiny bit of applesauce, which was a laugh. It was like being a baby again. My mouth was so totally numb and could barely open, so I tried to insert a small spoonful, which resulted in all of the applesauce dripping onto my chin without my being able to feel it. Then it was back to the sofa with bags of frozen corn around my face until the pain set in, at which point I took one painkiller and promptly fell asleep. Five hours later, I felt quite refreshed!
That night, dinner was a very slowly consumed (not really eaten so much as carefully placed onto the back of my tongue) amount of coffee ice cream. I remained on the couch watching tv and icing my face until bedtime, when I took more meds and spat more blood and hoped that the perkiset (or however you spell it) would knock me out for the night. Sadly, it only did for a few hours. The discomfort kept me up for a while, and I woke up really early. To my horror, my face seemed to have inflated over night. I had officially reached the chipmunk phase of this recovery. It. Was. HUGE.
The giant face day was basically spent on the sofa reading, watching tonnnns of television and chunks of movies, trying to nap (but not really succeeding), consuming applesauce and juice, and the usual meds and blood spitting and cradling frozen corn against my cheeks.
The third day, yesterday, my face deflated somewhat. It was still very puffy, just not quite as horrific as the initial inflation. I had a bit more energy, so instead of spending the entire day on the sofa, I went out with my mom to do an errand (stayed in the car though; wasn't quite ready to be viewed by the public eye), did a bit of animation, randomly made a good chunk of my capstone presentation powerpoint, and put warm compresses against my face instead of frozen corn. Exciting! Oh, and I could finally close my mouth, which was nice. Still ate mostly liquidy and gelatinous foods, but for dinner I was able to slip down some mashed potatoes and a bit of salmon!
Today was great! My face puffiness went down considerably, and I can talk 87% normally. I had more energy, which was really great, especially since Emma and Katherine came over! It was so great to see them, to have fun and socialize, and to not be alone on the sofa all day. I was motivated to get washed and put together like a normal human, and I able to speak and eat more foods (though still nothing really hard), just like my old self again (nearly)! Wooo!
Hopefully tomorrow my face will return completely to its normal state (not guaranteed, but I'm hopin'). I've got a follow-up appointment at the dental surgeon's and a much needed hair cut. Then it's time to pack, because on Saturday afternoon I'm off to sunny Florida! That visit shall be a journey in itself; trust me, it isn't just sunshine that awaits. There's also..............ARLENE. (Duh duh duhhhhh!)