Alive and well
I slept right through the quadruple extraction, which ended up taking only thirty minutes. John came in and sat with me in the recovery room for twenty minutes, of which I remember about two. Apparently I was pretty goofy, which really makes me mad I forgot my video camera. I was totally planning to post a video like this one.
John says I lamented not bringing my camera several times, and I also repeatedly stuck my fingers up my nose while mumbling something incoherent through my gauze. He only later realized that I’d been trying to tell him I’d had a nasal cannula.
I was a little shaky on my feet for the first fifteen minutes or so after leaving the surgeon’s office, but almost as soon as I got home I felt totally normal. The nurse told me I’d probably sleep for the first three or four hours, but I was awake and comfortable, except for, you know, my face. I did manage to drool blood down my shirt a few times before I got feeling back in my lip, which I imagine thoroughly disgusted everyone around me.
The pain hasn’t been all that bad really—much better than I expected. I’m keeping it under control with one Advil at a time. I do have a bottle of hydrocodone, but it pleases me immensely that I haven’t had to take any yet. Looking back, and now with the additional evidence of this so-far-non-dizzy surgical recovery, I think it was the pain meds that started me down the wrong track last time. They messed me up in ways I wasn’t expecting, and after that the anxiety about the dizziness and nausea recurring took over and of course caused them to recur. I’m unspeakably relieved to be free of that nasty cycle this time around.
Eating has been the most difficult part of the recovery. I’ve been subsisting mostly on applesauce, pudding, jello, Ensure, fruit juice, and ice cream. Today for lunch I managed some tomato soup and a tiny bit of cheese, but anything less pureed than that is difficult to manage. I’m trying to take care of my poor gums the best I can; the phrase “dry socket” strikes fear into my heart.
Luckily I’m not hungry. Maybe the constant slow trickle of blood down my throat is like a protein drip. Hey, at least I’m not wasting those nutrients, right?
In short: the surgery was nearly painless (just the IV stick in my elbow) and a more pleasant experience than I expected. The recovery, without hardcore drugs this time, has surprised me with its uneventfulness. I’m glad I get to do this during the summer, when I have no school or job to get back to and I can just sit around my parents’ house all day, eating pudding and editing videos. Huzzah!
Tags: food, surgery, wisdom teeth