I am lucky enough to proclaim that I have never had surgery before. For the most part I've been a text-book picture of health my entire life. My immune system is on fleek (did I use that correctly? Trying to keep up with pop culture...) and aside of seasonal allergies and a recurring broken ankle that terrorized ten years of my life I think I've been doing okay. I combat the allergies by eating local honey and I've strengthened my ankle immensely by taking a more holistic/therapeutic approach in order to avoid ever having to get surgery. I balance running and strengthening on opposing days of the week....working in physical therapy has taught me a lot of exercises to get my once sub-par ankle strength up to marathon-running performance. It has an ugly bone that protrudes out of it...but in this scenario I choose quality over aesthetics. Can't have it all, ankle, can't have it all...
I digress...
Going into wisdom tooth extraction I did not know how my body would react. From what I've noticed, basically everyone gets their's out in their college years with minimal side effects. It's just a part of life...you grow up and get teeth ripped out of your mouth. Obviously.
For lack of dental insurance and lack of urging pain I put off the extraction until this month when I noticed, while late-night studying, that my mouth was swollen, painful, and suffering the intrusion of the oh-so-elusive wisdom teeth. I would've put off the extraction to spring break; I do not, however, have spring break so I opted to get them out on a Friday...hoping desperately to be back to class by Monday.
I was not so fortunate.
A scheduling mishap pushed the surgery to Tuesday. Me, never surgically touched, opted just to have the procedure performed with novocain. Sans laughing gas, approximately an hour into the hacking, drilling, and mumbling of the oral surgeon about how "tightly compacted and complicated" my teeth were I began to regret my decision.
Clearly, I live to tell the tale.
I thought, though, that I would be back to normal in a day or two. I have a very high pain tolerance, I consider myself extremely resilient, and I believe 90% of healing/staying healthy is mental. Well, on Friday I still looked like THIS:
Okay, I uploaded a photo and then changed my mind because it's too horrifying. I'll leave it to your imagination. Just know, not pretty. Not pretty at all.
I attempted to keep up with classes online while icing my face in bed.
Aside of a bit of a hunger-induced-emotional melt-down, the recovery wasn't too bad.
(I hadn't eaten in 36 hours, so avoided the pain killers, and went downstairs to serve myself some ice-cream when I found my brother eating the last of it out of the carton with a spoon...I was not pleased)
My friends were kind enough to smuggle in (contraband!) chicken soup, ice-cream and shamrock shakes. My mom pureed soups for me and was even a good sport and I hangrily demanded Boston Market mashed potatoes.
I still am avoiding solids after and incident on Saturday leaving me with slight PTSD:
I finally got out and about Saturday for my friend Jess's birthday. Her parents took us into the city to see Fish in the Dark. After, we dined at Carmine's. My love for food and roaring hunger after 5 days of soft foods lead me to lunge at the first site of the shrimp appetizer. Bad idea. A chunk got caught in my wisdom-tooth-hole and did not pop out until a couple hours later as I drove home. Worst part, it still tasted good. Okay, best part. Still, I spit it out, horrified, and I write this as I drink a smoothie for breakfast in hopes that I will be completely healed soon..but not risking anything getting caught in that gross mouth pocket again. I'm sorry, TMI I'm sure.
To the play on Saturday I wore:
I digress...
Going into wisdom tooth extraction I did not know how my body would react. From what I've noticed, basically everyone gets their's out in their college years with minimal side effects. It's just a part of life...you grow up and get teeth ripped out of your mouth. Obviously.
For lack of dental insurance and lack of urging pain I put off the extraction until this month when I noticed, while late-night studying, that my mouth was swollen, painful, and suffering the intrusion of the oh-so-elusive wisdom teeth. I would've put off the extraction to spring break; I do not, however, have spring break so I opted to get them out on a Friday...hoping desperately to be back to class by Monday.
I was not so fortunate.
A scheduling mishap pushed the surgery to Tuesday. Me, never surgically touched, opted just to have the procedure performed with novocain. Sans laughing gas, approximately an hour into the hacking, drilling, and mumbling of the oral surgeon about how "tightly compacted and complicated" my teeth were I began to regret my decision.
Clearly, I live to tell the tale.
I thought, though, that I would be back to normal in a day or two. I have a very high pain tolerance, I consider myself extremely resilient, and I believe 90% of healing/staying healthy is mental. Well, on Friday I still looked like THIS:
Okay, I uploaded a photo and then changed my mind because it's too horrifying. I'll leave it to your imagination. Just know, not pretty. Not pretty at all.
I attempted to keep up with classes online while icing my face in bed.
Aside of a bit of a hunger-induced-emotional melt-down, the recovery wasn't too bad.
(I hadn't eaten in 36 hours, so avoided the pain killers, and went downstairs to serve myself some ice-cream when I found my brother eating the last of it out of the carton with a spoon...I was not pleased)
My friends were kind enough to smuggle in (contraband!) chicken soup, ice-cream and shamrock shakes. My mom pureed soups for me and was even a good sport and I hangrily demanded Boston Market mashed potatoes.
I still am avoiding solids after and incident on Saturday leaving me with slight PTSD:
I finally got out and about Saturday for my friend Jess's birthday. Her parents took us into the city to see Fish in the Dark. After, we dined at Carmine's. My love for food and roaring hunger after 5 days of soft foods lead me to lunge at the first site of the shrimp appetizer. Bad idea. A chunk got caught in my wisdom-tooth-hole and did not pop out until a couple hours later as I drove home. Worst part, it still tasted good. Okay, best part. Still, I spit it out, horrified, and I write this as I drink a smoothie for breakfast in hopes that I will be completely healed soon..but not risking anything getting caught in that gross mouth pocket again. I'm sorry, TMI I'm sure.
To the play on Saturday I wore:
Chambray Top-Forever 21 $20.00 Skirt- Tobi.com $21.00 (50% off) Booties-Cotton On $30.00 Tights-Target $10.00 Belt-H&M $6.00 |
Anyways, off to the library now. I have much catching up to do!