Chadster Chipmunk

When the pain subsides and my mouth is back to normal, I will then be happy that I got all 4 wisdom teeth extracted on Thursday, 3 days ago. The worst part is the healing, and not the procedure, like I was afraid. All 344 people that I talked to about their experience told me that I wouldn't remember it, that going under was "actually quite pleasant" (quoth the receptionist, who had nothing to gain ;) ). And she was right. All I remember is telling the dentist I was terrified, him saying "this should help" as he pressed on the plunger of the morphine capsule attached to my arm, the window shades in front of me all of a sudden twisting sideways as I said "wow i'm really dizzy", then hearing something about stitches as the nurse removed my eye shade.

It was craziness, I had never been under before, but what I expected was something like the stories told by car accident victims of floating above their body, going somewhere pleasant for an hour and then sidling back to consciousness. This was not that. Just a missing hour, time cut, discarded and stitched back together. I remember being led to the recovery room, very unstable on my feet, as I was expected to sleep and/or get my bearings back. After closing my eyes for maybe 10 minutes, I really wasn't tired. I was ready to leave.

The rest of the day was spent in the process of insert gauze/bite down/ice pack/remove gauze, every half hour for the first day. I wasn't sleepy, and I didn't even want to take the Vicodin. The second day was the worst. More pain, more swelling. Today, the swelling is pretty rapidly subsiding, and I can finally sort of brush my back teeth, but the stitches are nestled in between teeth, so I still can't floss back there. I can't wait to be able to fully clean my teeth- it's not like I'm eating enough to matter, but it still feels gross.