After the whole thing was stitched up, gauze was put into the mouth to stop the bleeding. Press on it... ok sounds simple enough. So I hold my jaw shut to keep the pressure on. After the anesthetic wears off, however, keeping the pressure on starts to become painful. And it's constant. Hey, after the anesthetic wears off, a lot more things start to hurt. I'm taking painkillers but they don't really deal with all the pain. Agony and pain. This is when you ask... when will it end! It's not the sharp pain but it's a dull radiating pain that doesn't stop. It goes on, hour after hour. You start to ask yourself, when will it end. When? When? WHEN????!!!
You try to take your mind of it. Think happy thoughts, surf the web, watch Tv or distract yourself and it works somewhat, but very little.
I haven't even talked about the swelling. Yes, imagine a golf ball growing slowly out of the side of our face. The jaw starts to swell and the pain and discomfort increases. No chewing, so it's just liquids. (You start to lose a bit of weight... which is a good thing, I guess).
Then fever too! Yup, got a fever.
So can you imagine, 5 days and nights of that? 5 days!!!
Only on the 6th day, things start to improve dramatically. Swelling starts to go down, fever goes down, pain gets less, jaw starts to be more mobile. Solids are easier to chew! (In my mind, for some reason, I'm thinking... KFC, KFC, KFC)
All I can say is... I'm grateful it's all over!!! No holiday. Some people said I'm lucky to be away from the office on medical leave. Right! Why don't you try it? A tooth can cause so much discomfort... so much to learn from this... but the lessons later. Wanna see my tooth? : )
Mountain Lilies never wither in the storm....
3 weeks ago