I was trying to think of a great title for this post, but alas, I went with the default Wisdom Teeth; how exciting, right?
I want to thank everyone who wrote me IMs and said get well or something along the same lines. 99% of the last week I was not at my computer and was not able to thank everyone individually, so I am doing it here, to everyone: Thank You. And even though my mom will never read this, Thank You to her too, she really helped me along.
Now onto what I like to call the 7 Pits of Hell. Sure, a few years ago, I was told I should get my wisdom teeth out and didn’t, but I am pretty sure that most of the last week’s events have little bearing on that one decision. As most of you know, one week ago today, I went to the dentist and got my wisdom teeth out. I had never been “put under” before so I had no idea what to expect. I wondered: will it feel like 45 minutes of sleep or will it feel like a split second of rest or will it feel like I am hallucinating? The doctor was talking to me about both of us graduating from UC and the nurse pricked my left arm and the next minute, or second, I was awake in a different room with 4 less teeth waiting for my mom to bring me my shoes.
I know I was out of it, but I don’t really remember if I was in pain or not. I do remember trying to drink something through a straw and my bottom lip being ten times its normal size forcing me to try and find the whole for my straw. I went home and I believe I slept for the rest of the day and night, eating random soft foods simply so I wouldn’t take my pain medicine on an empty stomach. I believe the same happened Tuesday, with not too much pain. Wednesday I woke up in a lot of pain and really hurting. I took my pain medicine, put some ice on the side that hurt, and went back to sleep. When I awoke, I was feeling good, well, good enough that I could go in to one of my freelance jobs for a few hours. I did that with really no problem and I had thought that everything was on the right track.
I believe the fun began Thursday or so, I am not really sure. I do remember thinking that at some point Thursday everything was getting better but that is here nor there. The fun I mentioned was me being hot and cold every 5 minutes, sweating so much that I had to keep changing my t-shirts, having a horrible taste in my mouth/nose almost making me throw up on multiple occasions and not being able to sleep for long periods of time because I had to sleep on my back or my teeth would really hurt. Eventually the aforementioned smell became a discharge from my right nostril that was brown colored (dried blood, yum). Simply looking at it would make someone want to run to the restroom. This lasted Thursday and Friday. At one point, we had called the dentist(s), but there was some miscommunication there and they said its going to hurt, deal with it.
By Saturday, I was still not feeling well and especially not sleeping. A quick tangent: The local shows on before the Today Show and Good Morning America are horrible. I know every half-hour they have to repeat themselves because many people tune in at different times, that is not even my complaint. My complaint is their banter at 5 am; it is so fake and annoying and blech. Ok, back to my teeth. So on Saturday my folks and I went to a local Urgent Care to see what they had to say. After waiting in the waiting room and then in the room, the nice doctor came to the conclusion that I had an infection and that anti-biotics would definitely help. It did. It helped with the gross leakage, stopped me from sweating and killed the fever I forgot to mention. I still had some problems sleeping Saturday night, but I believe that was still because of the pain where my upper-right wisdom tooth was extracted.
Last night, the drippage came back with a bang. The smell, the brown color, it was bad. I tried to ice it and that seemed to help, even though according to the dentist, in actuality it did nothing. I slept pretty well, just waking up at 430 in pain, but then being able to fall back asleep with little problem. This morning I went back to the dentist, at the recommendation of the nice doctor from Saturday. The dentist checked me out and said that the leaky nostril was not bad, just that it was dried blood coming through the sinuses and cleansing itself. He told me that I should pick up a nose-spray and use that 3-4 times a day and it should clear up in a day or two.
It was really Hell. I would wake up every 2 hrs in pain and soaking. During the day the highs were high and the lows were low and I can definitely see how and why someone gets addicted to drugs; they can take the highs, which are great, but can’t take the lows at all so they keep with the drugs. The nose dripping, brown, blech. I don’t want to make this post longer than it is, because it is a book already, so yeah. Thanks to everyone who IMed me and to everyone who kept with me during this long ass post. Hopefully by Wednesday, my birthday, I should be 75% – or at least coherent to go to the Indians game. Signing off.
