Dental implant and LASEK, part 5: pushing my limits
The 29th I note I was able to take a nap at work. Clearly I was not looking forward to that Friday's dental work. Clearly too the flaw in the air mattress was costing me sleep. Got a new one. I have a memory foam mattress but it's hard on my ankles, which are a perpetual problem especially given my substantial weight.
The dental implant was a special level of Hell. The doctor was satisfied with my grafted bone so decided to go ahead. I was taken to their surgery floor and prepped, given a muscle relaxant and mild sedative in a pair of shots, and then painted with the same antiseptic the eye surgeon used, the one that smells suspiciously like mercurochrome. I'm layered in drop cloths, talked to to make sure I'm properly sedated, and told to open wide.
When the tooth was extracted the previous month and the bone rot scraped out, I damn near passed out, not from the pain but from the horror of having the inside of my face scraped. This was no better, and despite the drugs was worse. I remember what I'd swear was a power drill shoving the screw into my bone--merdifuly it went fast. Cruelly it was one of four. The next two were also drills and whizzed apparently until the bone dug in and stymied them. After that was what I'd swear was a hand-held socket wrench--mind you, I'm under drop cloths and not seeing any of this--that the dentist torqued until my neck muscles hurt from trying to hold my head still. On the bright side there was less blood squirting than during the extraction/scraping. Yeah, and I like horror movies, but it's quite different when it's your facial bones. Stitched up and given directions about what to do and not do, though I didn't have to bite on gauze for two hours this time. I took a cab home and sat in my recliner, dreading the moment when the drugs would wear off and the pain would hit past where buffered iboprofen could handle it. Kindly they sent me home with take-out porridge, a nice soft dinner and a signal that I could eat hot food as soon as I felt up to it. Of coursee, when you're swallowing blood food is not what's on your mind; I dabbed the blood and phlegm off my tongue with paper towels because I didn't want to swallow it. I toughed through it Saturday. Sunday at noon I didn't care about side effects and took some PMS pills I keep around to stop the pain. I also got some smooth ice cream, finding the cold to be comforting. The nerve through the roof of my mouth was pissed off and would not let up until that Thursday. There was a sensation of trouble between the two molars behind, but that went away when the stitches were removed. The doctor also pointed to another molar, one giving me no perceptible trouble at all, as needing re-crowned ASAP and possibly a root canal, look at this x-ray. I can't read x-rays well enough to know if he's being truthful or gold-digging me, so I plan to get a second opinion from a doctor in Gangnam, who will have no incentive to invent cavities he won't get to fill.
My anxiety levels were crazy after the drills in my face, and I'd take another PMS pill later that week. Just before my dental appointment today I got the runs, one of my body's more dramatic ways of telling my brain to back down. I told the dentist I had nightmares (I don't, just anxiety) to get him to delay the drill.
I really must learn to read dental x-rays.
Yesterday I got the dental stitches out and my face feels so much better. My eyes are well though I'm still quite nearsighted. In low contrast situations I can see the building across the parking lot clearly, though it looks further away than I know it is. Faces in the hallway, though, are too ghosty to make out. Faces in desks aren't bad inside of three meters. The starbursts on close-up lights are small to the point of pretty, but far headlights are still too starry.
I was able to go biking for the first time since the LASEK tonight (September 10th). I kept to familiar roads and went out around dinnertime under nice low contrast cloudy skies. I considered crossing a traffic lane at one point, looked in my rearview mirror and the image seemed clear, and no car in the road. It's a good thing I trust my hearing, however, because there was a car coming up fat behind me. So, no biking in traffic for me, though biking on trails even at night is reasonably safe as long as I don't go too fast.
Tired eyes, and it's time for bed.
The dental implant was a special level of Hell. The doctor was satisfied with my grafted bone so decided to go ahead. I was taken to their surgery floor and prepped, given a muscle relaxant and mild sedative in a pair of shots, and then painted with the same antiseptic the eye surgeon used, the one that smells suspiciously like mercurochrome. I'm layered in drop cloths, talked to to make sure I'm properly sedated, and told to open wide.
When the tooth was extracted the previous month and the bone rot scraped out, I damn near passed out, not from the pain but from the horror of having the inside of my face scraped. This was no better, and despite the drugs was worse. I remember what I'd swear was a power drill shoving the screw into my bone--merdifuly it went fast. Cruelly it was one of four. The next two were also drills and whizzed apparently until the bone dug in and stymied them. After that was what I'd swear was a hand-held socket wrench--mind you, I'm under drop cloths and not seeing any of this--that the dentist torqued until my neck muscles hurt from trying to hold my head still. On the bright side there was less blood squirting than during the extraction/scraping. Yeah, and I like horror movies, but it's quite different when it's your facial bones. Stitched up and given directions about what to do and not do, though I didn't have to bite on gauze for two hours this time. I took a cab home and sat in my recliner, dreading the moment when the drugs would wear off and the pain would hit past where buffered iboprofen could handle it. Kindly they sent me home with take-out porridge, a nice soft dinner and a signal that I could eat hot food as soon as I felt up to it. Of coursee, when you're swallowing blood food is not what's on your mind; I dabbed the blood and phlegm off my tongue with paper towels because I didn't want to swallow it. I toughed through it Saturday. Sunday at noon I didn't care about side effects and took some PMS pills I keep around to stop the pain. I also got some smooth ice cream, finding the cold to be comforting. The nerve through the roof of my mouth was pissed off and would not let up until that Thursday. There was a sensation of trouble between the two molars behind, but that went away when the stitches were removed. The doctor also pointed to another molar, one giving me no perceptible trouble at all, as needing re-crowned ASAP and possibly a root canal, look at this x-ray. I can't read x-rays well enough to know if he's being truthful or gold-digging me, so I plan to get a second opinion from a doctor in Gangnam, who will have no incentive to invent cavities he won't get to fill.
My anxiety levels were crazy after the drills in my face, and I'd take another PMS pill later that week. Just before my dental appointment today I got the runs, one of my body's more dramatic ways of telling my brain to back down. I told the dentist I had nightmares (I don't, just anxiety) to get him to delay the drill.
I really must learn to read dental x-rays.
Yesterday I got the dental stitches out and my face feels so much better. My eyes are well though I'm still quite nearsighted. In low contrast situations I can see the building across the parking lot clearly, though it looks further away than I know it is. Faces in the hallway, though, are too ghosty to make out. Faces in desks aren't bad inside of three meters. The starbursts on close-up lights are small to the point of pretty, but far headlights are still too starry.
I was able to go biking for the first time since the LASEK tonight (September 10th). I kept to familiar roads and went out around dinnertime under nice low contrast cloudy skies. I considered crossing a traffic lane at one point, looked in my rearview mirror and the image seemed clear, and no car in the road. It's a good thing I trust my hearing, however, because there was a car coming up fat behind me. So, no biking in traffic for me, though biking on trails even at night is reasonably safe as long as I don't go too fast.
Tired eyes, and it's time for bed.