I'm alive...for now...

...until I die of starvation.

Okay, I'll see how this goes...see if I can get a whole post written! :)

I'm feeling...well, not great by any means, but much better! I kept frozen washcloths on my face until this morning, and now I switched to putting the heating pad on my face, and it feels like my jaw is loosening up some. Ah yes, Ana, a chipmunk...that's what I look like! :) A sick chipmunk at that...

Let's see...so I didn't get to eat any breakfast Tuesday morning, and of course, out of the few days where I actually wake up very hungry, Tuesday had to be one of those days! So when we got there, the nurse had me sign a consent form and stuff, and asked Dad if he wanted to go ahead and get my prescriptions filled, etc. Then Dad left and Dr. Kretzschmar came in and asked if I was excited. Uh, no not really! "Ah, I didn't think so," he said, "you didn't have that really thrilled look on your face."
He's really nice, and he tried to get me calmed down by talking about my shoes. He told me his daughters wear those shoes too, and asked me if I knew who Chuck Taylor was...I said yes, he was a basketball player! "Oh good, you actual know who he is!" :p He told me that he used to wear those when he was a kid, and he always wanted the white ones, but the white ones were two dollars more than the black ones, and since there were four kids in the family to buy shoes for, his dad bought him the black ones. He also said that since his girls wear Chucks, their younger brother won't wear them because he thinks they're girl shoes!

So he managed to calm me down a tiny bit...it obviously couldn't work very well when I could see that's what he was trying to do, but anyway. He said the IV wouldn't hurt much more than a pinch, which it didn't, and he was able to get it in very easily. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but I was able to stand it for as long as I was conscious of it. I remember him putting it in, saying "That wasn't so bad was it?" and when I said no, asking if I wanted another one? :p I told him one was fine!, and I remember thinking, "I wonder how long this takes to work? And will I feel it working?" And that was all I remembered except for sort of waking up once and having the sensation that he was stitching up the hole on one side, and then when they took the IV out.

What's really funny is that at the time, I felt fairly alert, I remember the nurse helping me across the hall to a recliner and I could hear Dr. Kretzschmar talking to my dad, and it just felt like I had been asleep and could quite easily wake up and pay attention if I wanted to, but I wasn't going to bother! :) And I got settled in the front seat with a pillow and my blanket, and I dug my iPod out of my purse and listened to it on the way home. I looked at it the other night, and it had gone through six songs, but I only remember hearing maybe two of them! :p

I had my mouth all stuffed with gauze, so if I said anything loopy while I was out, it would have been before they started the surgery, and he didn't say I'd said anything weird. Sorry, Rebecca, I know you were hoping for some good stories! :D

By afternoon I was awake, but my lower jaw was still numb. The doctor prescribed pain medicine and an antibiotic and Dad went to Target and got those filled when we got home. I wouldn't recommend the prescription pain meds though...he gave me Lorcet (I think that's what it was) and it didn't seem to really work all that well.

And I managed to become very well acquainted with the hallway floor! :p I don't know for sure if it was the Lorcet, or the loss of blood, or the lack of much food, but I was feeling rather woozy. Twice when I got up to go to the bathroom I ended up lying in the hallway...the first time I was washing my hands and I could tell I needed to sit down, fast! So I sat down, and then lay down in the hallway...I don't think I actually passed out that time. The second time I foolishly thought I could make it back to the couch, so I went from clinging to the door frame, to crashing in the hall....poor Dad, that's the second time he's tried to catch me before I hit my head on the floor. Last time he did that was years ago when I was sick and got up too fast...he didn't catch me that time either. Luckily my head is hard! LOL! And the hallway is nice and cool and a fairly peaceful place to recover as long as no one's worrying about you, or about to step on you. :p

So I've been taking liquid Motrin instead...it's for kids, so I have to take 4 t. of it, but it's long-lasting and seems to be working really well! And I haven't passed out since I stopped taking the Lorcet. Dad went to Walmart and got the Equate version of Motrin, so it was cheaper even. So for anyone getting their wisdom teeth out, you might want to try the Equate liquid ibuprofen before a prescription! And I have amoxicillin for an antibiotic...I don't remember if I've ever had it before, but it's the pink stuff and tastes really good.

So, my jaw is swollen, but I think at least half of it is probably from the local anesthetic...I had to have teeth out before I had braces and the local really, really hurt for a while. I can't chew anything, and I can only eat things that I can manage to swallow straight down, so nothing gets stuck. I didn't realize the eating was going to be such a problem! I mean, I like soup and yogurt and stuff like that...what I didn't realize was that I wasn't going to be able to even eat enough of that stuff! I'm craving junk food too...like chicken nuggets, or fries, or a chicken wrap, or pizza... I should be able to manage eating more soup soon though, since I've put heat on my jaw I can open my mouth a little bit further. Mom said I look really mad...well, yeah, I can't really smile, and I have to try not to laugh or yawn either!

So, all in all, it wasn't really that bad! Now that I know what it's like, I could go through it again...it was mostly not knowing what it was going to be like that scared me. Dad told me on Monday that if I just didn't want to have this done, I didn't have to, and maybe they could buy a computer instead! So, no computer for them...this took a huge chunk of the tax refund and the washer took the rest. Sorry! :) It really was just as well I got this done with though...it was pretty certain the wisdom teeth would have eventually caused problems, and I could have been married with little kids to take care of when it had to be done...and in that case it wouldn't be great to have to lie on the couch for a week! So Olivia, it's not too bad...don't worry! :)

So I look like a sick chipmunk and I have bruise on my arm in a lovely shade of blue-grey. And I'm weak, I guess from not eating much...it's really annoying to not even be able to get the lid off of your water cup. Sheesh...

Wow, this turned out really long! Sorry y'all! I haven't been able to talk much at all, so I guess it's all coming out here! :p Colin says I must be feeling a lot better if I'm blogging. :)