Wisdom Teeth

not sure what purpose they serve....other than INTENSE mindblowing pain...
The Friday before Thanksgiving I HAD to have mine removed. "They" were impacted... and one had become infected.
Contrary to (my)LOGIC - you are NOT supposed to use ICE on an infection in your gums... (sure, my dentist had mentioned this...but while in pain...I did NOT care or even remember..ice felt NICE and kept the throbbing to a minimum)
I woke up the Thursday after our last class (you might have noticed the BIG cup of ice I was holding to my face) with a bright RED BLOTCH with fever in it on my right cheek. (Apparently, the dentist knew that it would cause the infection to MOVE - and "pool" in my cheek!!)
NOTE TO SELF...pay attention, Bekka
I was scheduled for surgery at 10 the next day and showed up NERVOUS (and a little cranky from NO COFFEE). I tried to be patient... I did NOT get up and harass the ladies at the front desk when I had sat there for an HOUR and had still not been called back for surgery. (its not like I had "plans" for anything else that day) I knew that it was NOT their fault that the surgeon was running late (AGAIN, I learned) but by 11... i was getting antsy...
By this point I was glad that I had chosen to be SEDATED for the whole thing. I was a wreck by the time they got the IV in! (but only for about 1 minute after!! :) )
I woke up in a recovery room, packed full of gauze, and REALLY relaxed...
I thought I was GOLDEN!
the pain wasn't too bad yet...I was relaxed and Mike got to sit in the recovery room with me... I was ready to leave, eat the painkiller that was prescribed and SLEEP!
Of course - that is NOT the way that it worked. I sat in the TINY recovery "stall" (I didnt realize at the time that Mike couldnt actually sit all the way down) for OVER AN HOUR waiting for the surgeon to come back and release me... an hour is MORE than plenty of time for the sedation and most of the lidocaine to wear off!
By the time the surgeon came in to say "did the nurses explain everything?" RW mumbles "wwwwwwwwweefff ee wwid" through the massive amounts of gauze "okay, have a good weekend" he says!! I was in TEARS (and ready to KILL SOMEONE)...
we were supposed to wait on someone to walk me to the car (YEAH RIGHT) Mike grabbed my arm to steady me and we were gone!
We made it home by about 2:00
(they had "promised" at my consultation that the surgery would only take 45 minutes and that I would be home and asleep by noon, again, YEAH RIGHT)
This is when the fun began!
I really thought that my face was going to explode! It took 3 doses of the painkiller to get me to SIT STILL! (literally, I paced my house for almost 4 hours)
My dad came by to check on me (and make sure that I had not KILLED mike) but left pretty quickly when he realized that I was in NO SHAPE for guests.
(I will admit, I am NOT a GOOD PATIENT. I was borderline HOSTILE and my poor dad has seen this LOVELY side of me after a tonsillectomy and knee surgery)
What I have NOT mentioned... is that I am one of those WEIRD people that gets WIRED from painkillers or cough syrup.... so by this point... I am in extreme pain AND I am ready to scrub my house with a toothbrush!
(I'm attempting to make a long story short here...)
We ALL lived through the weekend and went back to work on Monday!
(I was swollen like a chipmunk, still keeping an ice pack on my face constantly and had a purple/green/black/yellow bruise the size of a golfball on my cheek!)
For some reason...people think that when you have a bruise on your face and you are in obvious pain... that it is funny to make jokes about "Mike keeping me in line" ETC.ETC.ETC.
NOTE TO EVERYONE ELSE*** These jokes are NEVER funny... much less when you are in pain...
On Tuesday I went back to the surgeon to see if he would remove the stitches (they were driving me BONKERS...the knots had strings hanging that tickled...and my left side was pulling everytime I tried to smile) He removed ONE!!! (it happened to be the stitch that was attached to both my GUMS and my CHEEKS!! -- YES! MY CHEEK WAS SEWN TO MY GUM....I'm still crossing my fingers that there was a medical reason for this... ) He removed the ONE and I was pacified... at least I could smile again.

Luckily it was a short week at work (and NO CLASS) so I could go home and lay on an icepack as much as I wanted!


AND -- I was able to eat tiny bites of "mushy" foods by Thanksgiving!
(thank goodness for mashed potatoes!)


It has now been about a week and half... I am still a little swollen, I cant eat anything bigger than a CheezeIt, but at least the bruise is gone!!
(Oh - and when I went to my follow up appointment this morning.... the surgeon was "late" AGAIN.. I ended up leaving... I'll let the rest of the stitches dissolve on their own!! )