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Friday, May 4, 2012

Pleasurable, It Was Not

Last Thursday, I had my wisdom teeth removed. (Hence only one other post in the last 16 days). What's funny is that when I was younger, I was told that I wouldn't have any wisdom teeth, mainly because my mouth was too small to get any. So imagine my surprise when visiting the dentist in February with pain complaints, they told me I had four of those bad boys. Awesome. And they were impacted, and some of my jaw bone had been growing the wrong way to compensate for the teeth. Even more awesome. So a week ago, I went in and had them all surgically extracted.

I was nervous right before the surgery, but that laughing gas kicked in pretty quickly, and I was good. I remember laughing so hard, and I remember thinking, "Hey Halez, chill out. Nothing funny is even happening. Ok for real - why are you still laughing crazy woman?!" But in a heart beat, I was passed out. I woke up later thinking it was too fast and they couldn't possibly be done, only to find out it had been almost an hour and a half, and they were completely finished.

I was super sleepy, my whole face was incredibly numb (from jaw to eyebrows), and I didn't really care about anything, nor have any sense of pain. Later that night though, that all changed. As the numbing effects started to wear off, I became very aware of how much my head hurt. I was taking the pain meds they had given me, but those offered zero relief. I slept very little Thursday night (like maybe two or so hours), and Friday morning my head hurt even worse. Mixing in some Tylenol didn't offer much more relief either. I was using ice packs as instructed, but continued to be in so much pain.

Fast forward to Sunday morning after two days full of excruciating, tearful pain - I continued to only sleep a couple of hours each night, was running a fever all the time, and my head was hurting so bad it made me cry multiple times. I called the oral surgeon to check on all this, and he was basically no help at all. So on Monday morning, I left the house for the first time since Thursday to go back to the oral surgeon again. They carelessly shoved those medicated treatment packs in my empty sockets, but refused to write me new prescriptions even after I practically begged him for them. I was still in so much pain and growing more fed up with it by the minute.

Tuesday, I attempted to go to work, but only lasted for two and a half hours before calling it quits and heading back home to curl up in my little cave. Finally on Wednesday, I went back to the oral surgeon for another time. They changed out my treatment packs, and he finally wrote me new prescriptions. Basically - my mouth was too tiny for this procedure, and it was put under severe stress during the operation. It then caused my jaw muscles to freak out and have constant spasms, which resulted in a major headache.

My new meds are specifically for muscle relaxers and headaches, and I can tell they're finally helping my head, and helping me sleep. In fact, it's extremely difficult not to curl up under my desk and take a nap during work. I haven't been able to keep my normal schedule, and I miss things like zumba and bike riding and hanging out with my boyfriend. But mostly I'm just extremely tired of my head hurting. I'm seriously ready to be over this and just move on. I go back to the oral surgeon one last time this afternoon to get the medicated packs removed, and then all I'm wishing for is the remains of my headache to go away once and for all. And then I'll be one happy, wisdom-tooth-less girl.

Luckily for me though, I did have some pretty great caretakers during this whole ordeal. My parents, grandparents and boyfriend did all they could to make me comfortable and take care of me. They brought me soup, pudding, mashed potatoes, ice cream and other goodies that required no chewing. My aunt and uncle also brought me some yummy soup from Newk's as well. Thank you to those that cared for me during my pitiful, whining week of pain, and to those of you who said extra special prayers for me as well. Prayers are always much appreciated.

At least I had plenty of entertainment in the form of Netflix. I was able to watch three or four movies, and catch up on about a season and half of One Tree Hill that I had missed. I also made some cute bookmarks on the day my head was still mostly numb, and that was fun. But I'm really just ready to be myself again. I'm finally getting better, and the new meds are a blessing. But this has definitely been the worst experience of my life so far! Thank you Lord for bringing me through it.

Love to all my friends and family :) Thanks again for all the prayers, encouragement and love during this rough week! And thanks for reading my extremely long, wordy post today!

P.S. - The title is dedicated to my dear (albeit nerdy) boyfriend in honor of Star Wars day today. And yes, he's managed to make me a nerdier girl as well... But anyways, the title is written how I think Yoda would say it. And remember, May the 4th Be With You...

1 comment:

Dani said...

I'm so glad you are starting to feel better!!! I love you girl!