I have a hole in my head

[vanillafluffy]

Driving back and forth to Melbourne has become such second nature that I was able to cruise back post-op with nary a quiver. It was a little strange to be going north in broad daylight, but it wasn't rush hour, so it was business as usual.

Getting there stressed me out, because the oral surgeon built a new building, and I was looking for the much smaller one he used to have. I drove around for fifteen minutes and finally resorted to a payphone. (Good thing I copied the office number on a sticky note and brought it with me.) Pulling teeth must pay pretty good---his new place is three times the size of the old one and dead posh.

I've been to Dr B enough times that I know he knows what he's doing. Strawberry flavored topical to numb the gum, two quick sticks with the needle, ten-fifteen minutes for that to go to work...the room I was in had a flat-screen fishtank---have you ever heard of such a thing?!---four inches deep and lit with an underwater scene as neons, guramis and a angel fish fluttered about.

Then Dr B comes back in, apologizing for the wait---which doesn't bother me, because that way, I know I'm good and numb. I counted---from the time he put the first instrument in my mouth to the time he held up the tooth, ten Mississippi. The man's a genius. The office offers anethesia, but for something that fast, why bother? I'd have to get someone to drive me back and forth---and I have the impression that at my size the risks would far outweigh any benefits.

There's a script for generic Vicodin being processed at Walgrens, but I have enough to tide me over tonight, unless my head falls off. I stopped at Publix and stocked up on tea bags, applesauce (with cinnamon, damn it!), rice pudding, and chocolate milk. I've been warned not to drink carbonated beverages for three days, and to stick to soft foods. No caffeine?! Horrors? Hence the teabags.

And I know why---losing the scab from an extraction? It's called having a 'dry socket', and it's the most excruciating pain I can imagine. (I hear labor is intense, but that's only going to last a finite amount of time, and you'll have something to show for it.) With a dry socket, you're positive your head will implode, and you wish it would hurry the fuck up and do so. Unlike labor, no one rallies around to encourage you and hold your hand. And it lasts for WEEKS. I could've matched House pill for pill, and it dulled the pain, but the pain was still there, always.

I do not EVER want to go through that again. So applesauce it is. And most of a container of Edy's Limited Edition Pumpkin ice cream. Not as good as Baskin-Robbins, but it's cold and sweet...and maybe if I'm out and about, I'll snag a Frosty....

The novacain is giving hints of wearing off, so I'm going to take a pill and maybe catch a nap before CSI: Miami.

Comments

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

You're right about the speed of Novacaine. I had all four wisdom teeth, including two that were impacted and had to come out in chunks, done with shots when I was 36. (I put it off as long as humanly possible.) And I was in and out in under an hour. The people who got I.V. Valium probably were there half the day getting sober enough to walk to the car.

I got very amused when I took the boy in a couple of years ago for some oral surgery to find an adult tooth that had never descended. All the people in the waiting room with multiple piercings and major tattoos were signing up for I.V. sedation. Which I'm pretty sure they don't give you for the piercings and tats, so their selective lack of bravery was pretty funny. The boy got his done with just a shot and we were in and out in no time. And he was very brave. As long as I held onto his ankle, he was fine, and he has a major needle phobia.

Be careful using a straw to drink so you don't dislodge the clot over the extraction site. The tea is a good choice, though, because it's healing for wounds.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

I know people who've had all four wisdom teeth done simultaneously, and yow! I'm glad I'm not one of them. Three of mine have been removed at various times, the upper right one is still in.

I don't usually use straws, but I'm aware of the potential peril. For now, I'll make do with tea, but I'm weighing the idea of popping the tab on a couple cans of soda to let them go flat overnight---not tonight, Wednesday night, because Thursday, I have to go in 2 hours earlier than usual for LeSnobbi training.

[rivers-bend.livejournal.com]

when I went to have a broken wisdom tooth out, the doctor offered me Ketamine. I was having none of it. Veterinary drugs and street drugs not being really my top choices and that being both. He was a horrible dentist and I hated him, and the injection was the most painful thing that has ever happened to me, but I can't imagine what it would have been like to have been drugged as well. I wasn't given any vicoden or anything though. Just told I could take paracetamol if I wanted. Which is just tylenol.

Anyway. I hope that your soft food helps and you recover quickly and with no dry-socket!

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Thanks, love. Considering I'm out of pocket $150 (deductible, and out of network), he'd damned well better cough up a scrip!

The quack I had the dry socket experience with---NOT Dr B!---was about 70, and when I said something about the way he injected me, said, "I've been doing it this way for forty years!" Which, as a friend pointed out to me, meant that he was doing it the way they did it forty years ago. Hmmm....

Dr B is a few years older than I am, but I suspect that by the time he's ready to retire, I'll be toothless and won't need an oral surgeon any more!

[rivers-bend.livejournal.com]

my dentist here uses a technique he learned in his wife's childbirth classes, and I swear you cannot feel the needle going in at all, even without topical anaesthetic first. This damn english guy just jabbed me so hard I cried out in shock, and then he shouted at me because i'd declined valium and if I was scared I should have asked for valium! whatever. Good thing was that he was an NHS dentist so the extraction was all of 23 quid.

horray for fab oral surgeons/dentists though. I have no dental insurance here, but liking the guy does help.

[smtfhw.livejournal.com]

Ow! Still, at least it should soon be over and you'll be pain free...

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

So far, I've taken The Drugs as needed and haven't been hurting. Compared to how much pain I was in over Labor Day weekend, when my face was so swollen I could hardly talk, I feel fine.

That said, I'm still happy to have two more days off!