Recovering in More Ways Than One

Yesterday morning I had all four wisdom teeth removed along with another tooth. I've been battling a pretty bad toothache for awhile now so I'm hoping this will put an end to that. I like others I'm sure am not a big fan of the dentist or in my case oral surgeon. Monday morning I woke up depressed that Easter was behind me and the only plans for the week I had was ripping teeth out of my mouth and enduring pain. The procedure was actually so easy I can almost say I enjoyed it. As soon as I sat in the chair they had the laughing gas going to calm me for the IV insertion. I was so busy concentrating on the effects of the laughing gas which I've never had before that I didn't really feel the IV needle go in. They told me it would take 5-10 minutes for me to fall asleep and they would ask me to count when they thought I was close. I remember thinking I'm going to keep my eyes open as long as possible because I want to make sure I'M REALLY ASLEEP. I still doubted how I could be in a deep enough sleep to not feel doctors stabbing and drilling at my gums and yanking deep rooted teeth out of my mouth but I had to trust their judgement. Than they woke me up. I don't even remember counting. It was a beautiful thing. Apparently the surgery went much quicker than we thought because Rod barely had time to get through much of his book he brought for the waiting room. They helped me walk to the recovery room and gave me some instructions about food and pain killers and we were out of there.

I came home and my house was clean but there was a few things I wanted to pick up. I guess it's a habit. After walking around for awhile straightening things up Rod suggested maybe I should actually pretend like I just had oral surgery and get some rest. So I sat on the sofa with my two bloody gauzes in my mouth and puffy cheeks and watched two hours of food network. I'm not sure why I picked that channel since all of the suculent foods they were cooking I probably won't be able to eat for another week or so. Regardless I enjoyed myself and can't wait to make Rachel Ray's Croque Madame and Green Salad with Strawberry Vinaiqrette. I was feeling so well I thought maybe I would not even need the Vicodin. Than the numbing started to wear off. My big dilemma of the day was how to get food inside my mouth because you're supposed to take the medication after eating but I needed the medication already in me working so I could eat. Although the first few bites were painful I must of got the hang of it because I ended up eating an entire large size of frozen yogurt.

After food network I moved on to our DVD collection and ended up watching Down With Love. The Vicodin started kicking in and I took a short nap. After my nap I read a book and of coarse fit in my daily blog reading. The pain was back so I had to eat again to take more Vicodin. I had some leftover mashed potatoes and tilapia cut up into really small bites. Now I know how my daughter manages to eat. Rod and I watched Pursuit of Happiness. After that movie I did a lot of journaling and ended the night watching an episode of Battlestar Gallatica. I woke up this morning with even puffier cheeks probably from laying on them all night. After using an ice pack of frozen rasberries yesterday which turned my jaw red I'm going to try and skip the ice pack thing and see if I can get through the day without pain meds. but no pressure.

Looking back on the past twenty four hours I feel very rested. It's been the usual crazy household around here with two small children and Rod getting ready for Easter services and other work stuff. I was definitely starting to feel the effects of a burnt out mom on the verge of bitterness if not already there. Thanks to Ingvild for taking my kids most of the day and my mom for taking them in the late afternoon and ALL NIGHT I was able to reboot and restore myself. Funny it took some oral surgery to do so. That and two movies, cooking shows, a book, lots of journaling and quality time with my husband. Recovery is a good thing!