I’m Baaaaack.

So my oral surgery went well, so they tell me.  Apparently it was “difficult,” but it also took a much shorter time than they expected.  For some reason I was totally paranoid that I would be conscious enough to feel pain, but not awake enough to tell them so, but I don’t remember a thing, so that was good.  The last thing I remember was when they told me, “We’re putting the IV in now, and you’ll drop off pretty fast.”  I remember the room going a little fuzzy, and the next thing I remember is waking up on the recovery bed.  I guess they wake you up in the surgery room and walk you to the recovery bed, but I don’t remember any of that.  When I woke up, I had the worst taste in the back of my mouth, and I wanted to spit so bad.  I asked the nurse if I could spit, because I felt like I was going to choke on it, but she said I wasn’t allowed to.  They gave me flowers to take home, which was nice of them.

I’m still a little sore, and a little swollen, but that’s normal.  I’ve been living on my couch, spending more time on it than off, mostly because it’s easier to reach stuff than it would be if I was in my bed, plus that’s where the TV is.  I’ve been sleeping there too, since they told me to sleep with my head elevated, and I know if I tried to sleep in my bed, I would promptly unpile all the pillows and sleep on my stomach like I normally do.

The first night I was home was pretty rough.  I was fine all day, just a little groggy, but at about 2:50 am I took another pain pill, and at 3 I promptly threw it up.  My dad came and cleaned out the bowl and brought me a new one (he’s a hero!) and stood with me while I proceeded to puke a whole bunch more.  I tried to take another half of a Vicodin, because I didn’t want to start hurting, but the second I swallowed that, I threw it up too.  So I decided to wait and try to eat something, and that stayed down alright.  We thought maybe I was reacting to the Vicodin and that I might need a new prescription, but I woke up at 6 am and threw up again, not having any Vicodin in me.  So the doctor said that sometimes the leftover anesthetic can make people nauseous until the liver processes it.  So I think that’s what happened.  So far, since then I’ve only felt queasy once, which was the next night, but I tried to think about something else, and I managed not to throw up, so that was good.

So I’ve just been watching movies (to be honest, I’ve been watching 1/3 of every movie and sleeping through the rest of it) and eating pudding and applesauce and mashed potatoes and chicken noodle soup.  Want to know something really strange?  I usually hate Campbell’s chicken noodle soup… it’s always just seemed like there’s not enough substance, and it’s too salty and just not my favorite.  But y’all.  When my mom brought me that first mug of the stuff, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.  I was pretty sure that I would only eat about half of what she brought me, but I ate the whole thing.  It was the best thing I’d ever tasted… I think because up to that point I’d only been eating applesauce and vanilla pudding and yogurt.  It was so great to eat real food.  Then Smalls made me mashed potatoes, and I had her put some chicken bouillon in with it, and that was delicious also.  I think I needed salt or something.

And I just want to say, thank you all so much for your wonderfully kind words.  You all were really encouraging!  It’s cool how we can be friends and care about one another even though we’ve never met.  You guys are the best.

P.S. You are now free to share your own wisdom tooth extraction stories, good and bad.