the week of pain
On Thursday, March 15, 2007, I had my wisdom teeth extracted. It was painful, plain and simple. Luckily for me, I was knocked out during the procedure, but I do know how it was done. That was all covered during my consultation the month before - there was a lovely video involved. Since all four were impacted or partially impacted, the doctor had to make incisions and fold back gums in order to extract the teeth. My lower left tooth was growing in horizontally and puching against the rest of my teeth causing very expensive orthodontic work to be ruined, as was the lower right tooth. Both were partially impacted, meaning they had broken through the gumline, but they weren't fully exposed. Both my upper teeth were fully impacted, meaning that they had not broken through. All four came out beautifully according to the doctor, but they had to break one of them in three pieces in order to get it out, which they expected.
Since I was knocked out, I had to had an I.V. drip. Due to the many surgeries I had to endure as a kid, once having to be on an I.V. drip for 11 days, they had problems trying to get it in. After three attempts and two blown veins later, they succeeded in placing the needle and I was out soon after. Now I have three tattoos and not a single one of them hurt and I never cried, but they try to put an I.V. drip in me and I turn into a wimpering child all over again. I don't get it. Anyhow, I woke up after surgery with a mouth full of gauze and a little woozy, but I don't remember much after that. I know I got a little care package with chap stick, a coupon for a free Frosty from Wendy's (they have vanilla now for those allergic to chocolate like me!!!), an instruction sheet and more gauze should there be excess bleeding. However, much after that is a drug induced blur. I was on three medications for the next four days: motrin, vicodin and dexamethasone (to reduce the swelling).
The second day was the worst. The pain was significant, as was the swelling. The vicodin barely took the edge off the pain, but it did make me drowsy so I slept much of the day. By the third day, the pain was much less but still there. However, even with the pain meds, I kept waking up through out the night because of the pain. I think my dog, Zoey, also had a hand in this since she hardly left my side for the first four days and she kept moving around on my bed trying to get comfortable thereby waking me up. Each day that passed, as was expected, there was less pain and less swelling. My diet pretty much consisted of cinnamon applesauce and banana pudding since I couldn't chew anything. I tried to eat some scrambled eggs, but they made me sick which reminded me why I don't usually eat them.
Lauren came over and kept me company on Tuesday. She brought me mashed potatoes from KFC, which were yummy and a welcome change. It was nice to have human contact with someone other than my family. I could actually talk by then, which was a plus. However, I busted my stitches because we were laughing so much. I won't lie, it hurt but I got over it.
Wednesday I woke up with a super swollen, sore throat and the feeling that I was choking. That of course cleared up by the time of my check-up appointment yesterday. My dad played hooky from work to take me - he offered to, so I took him up on it . I was proclaimed to be healing nicely after the fastest trip to any doctor's office I've ever been to (we arrived 15 mins. early and i was out in less than ten mins. later, five mins. before my scheduled appt. time!). Then we spent the rest of the day together, talking about a lot of stuff - mostly my situation. It was conculded that the best solution for me is to move in with my grandmother in North Carolina for awhile to see about the job market there. I have to say that I am seriously considering it. If I do it, it will be in the next few weeks - after everything heals and I get my cavities filled, which will be before May. I don't know what I want to do and that seems to be my biggest problem of all.