cedar’s blog

Cedar May 30th, 2008

The actual extraction was excruciating but very short-lived. It wasn’t nearly as painful as it would have been without the Novocaine in my gums. The numbing of my mouth with Novocaine was a new experience for me, and it was actually kind of fun. (Not the kind of fun where I’d do it again, but the kind of fun where I’ve had an interesting new experience.)

Dr. Tarabishi and his assistant Kadesia were both really nice. He knew I was scared, so he told me to close my eyes anytime there was a needle or anything scarier than a needle (like a scalpel or forceps.) So although I know there were, I think, 3 needles involved, as well as a scalpel, forceps, wrenching, cranking, and blood, I never had to actually see any of those things.

And my husband was there for moral support, which helped a lot. He was sitting at my feet and holding my ankles. He had to watch the whole thing, which seemed to slightly traumatize him. But I had to watch when he had laser eye surgery, so now we’re even.

The worst part was the 5 hours afterwards when I had to keep biting on pieces of gauze to get the bleeding to stop and the bleeding just would not stop. My face was all swollen and I had to keep ice on it, 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off for 5 hours. It hurt really bad. I tried to watch movies but was in so much distress that I couldn’t even follow what was going on. I was really hungry and really thirsty but I had to keep biting the gauze, so I couldn’t open my teeth at all to eat or drink. When the bleeding finally slowed down, I discovered I couldn’t really open my mouth anyway because it hurt too much.

So, in the 24 hours after the extraction, all I had to eat was one cup of pudding and one cup of yogurt, and all I had to drink was very tiny sips of water.

But after those first few horrible hours, I slept like a rock for 13 hours. The next morning the bleeding had stopped and the pain was still bad but much better. On day 2 of recovery, the pain was still there but not bad at all. At that point I made the mistake of assuming I no longer needed the prescription pain medicine, and substituted it with an over-the-counter pain killer. Apparently, without heavy pain meds, it does still hurt a lot.

So, I’m now on day 3 of recovery, and still taking the prescription pain meds they gave me, but I’ve moved from codeine to ibuprofen. Eating is now much easier, and the pain is not painful so much as nagging.

The worst part now is that being drugged all the time makes me not feel like myself, and it’s hard to think clearly, or to focus on getting anything done. Also, I’m not allowed to do some of the very active things I’m used to doing, like weight training and working in the garden, until I’m fully healed. Yesterday I thought I was feeling fine, so I went with Kevan to walk the dog, and by the time we got home, my heart was pounding and I was woozy and so exhausted I could hardly move. More than anything I’m just tired, and impatient to get back to normal.

The one great thing about the past few days is that I’ve had an excuse to lie around watching TV and reading all day. (I’ve discovered a show: The Office. It is absolutely hilarious.)

Even so, it’ll be nice to get back to work and feel productive again.

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