Said Bye Bye to my Wisdom Teeth

In case one wonders if I'm watching a tad too much TV, I am. But atleast I've got an excuse of sort. So no, I haven't abandoned my vocation for the TV junkie lifestyle.

I had my wisdom teeth, 3 total, pulled out yesterday. I've been dreading it for years, literally, but finally took the plunge. I could curse myself for not having done so in my college days, but agg, I live and learn. So after fearing nerve damage, dry sockets, pain and swelling, I'm amazingly symptom-free on the post-operative day #1. It's almost a letdown really. I witness a lot of pain in the hospital everyday, it's inevitable, of course. To combat it, we use Tylenol, Motrin, etc for mild pain, for moderate pain, Norco/Lortab come into play and for severe pain, the big guns are Morphine, Dilaudid, etc. In my relatively limited life, I've needed no more than Aleve for my occasional cramps. But yesterday, the oral surgeon gave me Lortab to take for my dental ordeal. Lortab! Good stuff, as some people would say. However, I've had no pain, zilch, nada. I have had just the tiniest bit of bleeding after the surgery, nothing to write home about. The worst part was the numbness in my lower lip and chin afterwards. I was worried it would never go away and I would have permanent mandibular nerve damage, but I woke up this AM happyily unaware of any numbness and heaviness of my lower lip. I was also relieved to not have to page the oral surgeon on a Saturday had my numbness persisted; he did look into my eyes and told me he was on-call 24-7 and that I was to page him with any problems. The second worst part of the whole thing was the pre-surgery fasting. My surgery was at 3:30pm on a Friday afternoon which meant I didn't eat or drink a thing since the last PM. I guess I had enough fat stored for my body to use as alternative fuel as I didn't faint or go into hypoglycemic shock. I've eaten some flan, pudding, and steamed eggs so far. I would like some mashed ptotatoes and split-pea-type soup today.

So back to the TV thing, I was told the Lortab might make me drowsy and dizzy, I was to take it easy and watch some TV. So that I did. Cable and TiVo are wonderful things, I've decided. I still remember actually clearly seeing the Adiddas logo on Carrie Hefernen's pants when I watched "King of Queens" on our big screen for the first time. Our last TV was a second-hand TV that Paul bought 15 years ago!

No more Lortab for me, 'cause I clearly don't need it, and only a drug addict would take pain meds that one doesn't need and I really don't care much for drug addicts. There are too many in my life as is via the ER. So back to the books, I'm studying for Step III for next month. Yikes!!