What's NOT fun about surgery

Yesterday I posted my first blog entry regarding the surgical procedure I had yesterday morning. As you can see from the comments section, after some speculation it was clear that I did indeed have oral surgery. I had 4 wisdom teeth pulled at an emergency appointment. My 2 right wisdom teeth were impacted, or not poking through the gums, while the 2 on the left had broken through and were not only cutting into the side of my face, but damaging the teeth next to them. In fact, the bottom tooth on the left side actually made a noticeable shift to my entire bottom row of teeth in just a few months, and 2 weeks ago, my gums/inner cheek started bleeding constantly as a result of the crowding. Eating became a chore, and brushing and flossing was somewhat a horror show because of the bleeding and the pain towards the back. Additionally, if any of you have had infected and impacted wisdom teeth before, you know that the pain from the infection also attacks your throat and ears, as well as giving you a pretty bad headache. Living on Orajel and Advil (8-12 a day? C'mon now...) gets a little old, very fast, I'll tell you that much. So, on Wednesday, after I called out from work AGAIN, I called the surgeon's office and told them that there was simply no way in hell that I could possibly wait until April 18, 2007 for them to see me and perform surgery. I don't know if it was luck, my tears (yes, all of us have wuss moments), or the dental Gods looking over me, but they were able to squeeze me in yesterday morning. Good times.

So, what's not fun about surgery...well, I can't read a book while on the heavy duty pain medication. I end up reading the same line 4 or 5 times and suddenly I realize I am looking for pictures. So, I'm kind of stuck with the computer and the TV. The computer doesn't really ever disappoint, but daytime TV is horrendous and I don't know how people can stand it. How many diet pills/products with infomercials are out there? I have seen some of the craziest contraptions and "plans" this morning to lose weight, and I really am in shock. Apparently, "eat less, move more" just doesn't cut it anymore for Americans. Too bad, because it's the only proven tried and true method. Daytime news is HORRIBLE. It's the same pretty blond girl all day, repeating "breaking news" stories. And don't even get me started on the rest of the crap that's out there, whether it's new or in syndication. It's a good thing I have a DVD player and a huge collection of movies. Right now, I am deciding between some episodes of The Office or Talladega Nights. I'll keep you posted...

Also NOT FUN is the fact that for the first 48 hours after surgery, I have to ice my face as much as possible. It definitely makes it feel better, but Thadd laughs at me every time he sees me and it took the dog about 4 hours to not be afraid of me. At the risk of this photo showing up on blogs to ridicule me, I am going to post it anyway because you all could probably use a good laugh.


This is me, a few nights before surgery. I was actually commenting on NLS when that photo was taken.









This me with my awesome ice contraption to make the swelling go down ASAP. It's a pair of tights cut at the thigh, with 2 zip lock bags full of crushed ice at the knee and then the ends tied to your head. Sexy, huh?






This is what I hope to be doing ASAP.
















So, there you go. I'm going to go have another exciting can of soup, which I get to eat while gauze is in my mouth. Jealous? I figured.