Thursday, February 24, 2011

Minus the Molars and Feeling Great

Actual Date: Friday, January 21, 2011
I made it!

A little after 10:00 a.m. this morning all four of my wisdom teeth were removed.   Everything went smooth but he did tell me that I would be a little sore for awhile because of the amount of work it took to get the bottom ones out of there.  

Great...

The first night was a little rough after all the numbing medicine wore off and the swelling set in, but those ice packs were amazing.  That is until the ice melted and the water started to soak through and I woke up soaking wet the next morning...  After that we had to put the ice in plastic bags and then put it into the handy little holder.  That seemed to work pretty good.  

Everything seemed like it was going good, until Saturday night when my gums started to swell in the front...  I figured this was just post operation swelling and it would clear up with time.  By Sunday night it was getting worse and I was starting to worry that this was not normal after all.  I called the Doctor Monday morning and they said that it didn't sound like something that should be happening but I couldn't go in that day because Brian could not get out of work to watch the kids.  So I made an appointment for Tuesday and I prayed that things wouldn't get any worse in that time.

Tuesday afternoon I went in and the Doctor looked my mouth all over.  I was concerned because my gums had actually started to blister and skin was peeling off.  It was getting quite painful and uncomfortable.  In fact, my stitches and the surgery site didn't hurt at all compared to everything else that was going on.  

I was worried that they had accidentally used something Latex on me because I usually break out in blisters whenever I'm exposed to Latex.  But the Doctor assured me that the whole surgery room had been Latex free.  He said it looked like I was either having an allergic reaction to the prescription mouth wash or that the mouth wash was too strong for me.  Either way he said to stop the mouth wash immediately.  

Good grief.  The mouth wash?!  Are you kidding me?  I had been using it more and more these past couple days because my gums hurt too bad to brush so I figured if I was at least using the mouth wash that was good.  Right?!  Obviously it was doing more harm than good.

Well, once I stopped the mouth wash the swelling cleared up in the next day or so and the blisters slowly started to heal.  I guess the best thing about that whole ordeal is that the actual surgery site never really bothered me.  Everything healed up just like it should and it wasn't as painful as i was expecting it too be.

Now I'm just trying to get my tooth to stop hurting...  Back in the end of December I had a cavity filled.  I had some sensitivity when cold things would touch it and a few days later my jaw was still hurting.  In the beginning I figured my jaw was hurting because of having to hold my mouth open for the filling but when it didn't go away after a few days, I looked back there.  That's when I saw that my Wisdom Tooth was popping through.  Fast forward though that.... after that healed up I noticed that when I would bite down on the tooth that I had the cavity filled on, it felt like it would hit a nerve.  It seriously would send me through the roof.

So I went back in and they said that maybe a part filling was high and it was causing my bite to be off, so they shaved it down a little and put me on a steroid to help it heal faster.  A week or so later it was still hurting so I went back in and the Doctor said that he was going to put a crown on it to cover that nerve and give it some protection and that should help.  They even put some special medicine that tasted like cloves under the temporary crown to help settle the nerve.  That helped for about two days but after that it got worse.  So finally last Thursday (Feb. 17) I went back in and they started a root canal.  It was at the end of the day so they didn't have time to finish the whole thing but they scheduled to finish it when my permanent crown came in.  

Well, today I went back in because it's still sensitive to cold and now it feels like the tooth behind it is hurting when I bite down!  They took some x rays and they said that it looks like, dispute the antibiotic they placed down there when they did the root canal, I have an infection down at the base of the root of the tooth they've been working on.  And they think that my other tooth is hurting because of all the work I have had recently and that it just needs some time to heal.  So the Doctor gave me some antibiotics and hopefully everything clears up in the next week or so.  

I had only ever had one other cavity in my whole life.  Now I get this stubborn one and it's making up for all the time I never had to spend at the Dentists office.  At least my Dentist and his whole staff are super friendly so that makes going there at least a little more pleasant.  It's a family owned company and they are seriously one of the sweetest families I've ever met.  The first time I went there I ended up being really sick (I think I might have written about this before so sorry if you're hearing this more than once) and the Wife/Mom who also works there actually called me the next day to see if I was ok and see if we needed anything or help with the kids because she knew that it was just Brian and I here doing it on our own. I couldn't believe it.  Who does that these days?  And especially to their patient whom they've just met.  

I seriously feel so blessed.  It seems like since we've moved here God has just put us where we need to be and he's put some incredible people in our lives.  Like our Pediatrician, our Dentist, our Neighbors, our Hardie family and of course our Church family.  I could not imagine how different our life here on our own would be without all of these amazing people in it.   

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