i'm alive and well

Friday, December 3, 2010

Teeth of wisdom

I got my wisdom teeth out today.
Before you start thinking "Unicorn After" on me, I did not rap about Jesus.
(Though that would've been super cool)
I'm more wondering how that girl managed to speak so well with the gauze in her mouth, and judging by how numb my mouth was, she must've bitten her tongue or cheek a couple of times.
Anyway. For those who haven't gotten yours out yet, let me describe it.
When you first get there, you'll probably wait for a bit in the waiting room (of course, haha) and then you'll be called in to one of the rooms. The nurse lady will ask a couple questions about allergies and meds you take and then she'll explain what all will happen.
She should take your blood pressure and then start hooking up the electrode monitor for your heart. Then she'll put on the oxygen mask that will also give you the laughing gas when it comes closer to starting the surgery.
The anesthesiologist person will come in and hook up your IV. If you've had your blood drawn before, it's a poking feeling and then a little irritating/discomforting, but it won't be for long. After that, they'll give you the laughing gas and the IV drugs. They also gave me a sugar-water mixture in the IV, but I'm not sure if that's normal procedure or if they did it for me because I'm diabetic.
You'll black out pretty fast once the drugs start pumping. The surgery should take around 30 to 40 minutes, but when you're out, it'll feel closer to a couple seconds. When I first came to, I kinda went back under for a couple minutes and then woke up again. They didn't seem too concerned about it, so I think that's relatively normal. I feel exhausted afterwards but not in pain. The nurse waited till I didn't feel nauseous or anything, had my dad pull up the car and helped me into the car. That's when I started feeling really tired. I slept the way home, other than mumbling at my dad to get me a chocolate frosty.
When I got home, I took out my gauze and ate my frosty- though I was too numb to actually taste it. I thought I could feel a little pain, but it wasn't terrible. I replaced my gauze and I slept for about an hour and a half.
Then it really hurt. I woke up and realized it hurt like a you-know-what. I took out the gauze, practically screamed, then put more gauze in. I crashed on our couch and walked tv while icing my cheek. The nurse said to alternate 20 mins on and 20 mins off, but I just did what felt good- didn't go by actual time increments. I made sure not to keep it on for long periods of time though, because it really didn't feelthat good.
The bleeding stopped (to the point where I could stop using the gauze) at about 6- like 5 hours after the surgery. They said to start soaking the gauze in ice water if it doesn't stop after 4, but I didn't and it was fine. lol.
So now I'm still icing my cheek and every once and awhile I'll eat some pudding or drink water, but even that hurts so I have a feeling I won't be eating much the next week.
Anyway, that's how it went!

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