Posts tagged wisdom teeth

Okay, I may not have gone “under the knife” but I did have some minor surgery today. After nearly six years of putting it off, I finally got my four wisdom teeth extracted. It’s nothing special or uncommon, but it’s still no fun.

My appointment was for 7:45 this morning (HUGE thanks to @mikesessler for coming through for me today) and I’m actually happy it was that early. That way I didn’t spend all day thinking about it and I didn’t have to starve myself. I just didn’t eat after midnight and I was good to go.

I was pretty nervous going in for it and got tense when they had to put the I.V. in. I think it was within two or three minutes after getting stuck that I really started feeling tired. Almost like a felt drunk. Thought I have no idea what being drunk feels like….

The next thing I remember was the nurse waking me up and helping me walk to another chair where she gave me some post-op paperwork. It was really quite an experience and I must have been an interesting sight! My mouth and tongue were numb. I couldn’t hardly talk. I must have looked like David after the Dentist.

Once I got home and made it to my room I crashed on the bed. I think I slept for an hour or two (not really sure, I was still a little fuzzy). I know I got hungry and needed to change out the gauze. Luckily I had stopped bleeding so I no longer need the strips of gauze. But the pain killers were starting to wear off so I took another and went and got me some Jello.

Thank you to everyone who suggested different food items! Jello is amazing as well as the Ensure. I’m hopping to be able to do mashed taters and soup tomorrow. I’m having a hard time opening my jaw more than a half-inch so spoonfuls of food is out of the question right now.

Overall I’m feeling pretty good and I want to thank everyone for you prayers. Everything went well and I’m hoping to make a quick recovery. In the meantime though, I’m SUPER bored at home so if anyone has Xbox Live my gamertag is bigfranco03. I need the distraction!

-i

If anyone stumbles upon this and is about to have their wisdom teeth pulled, here’s what’s worked for me so far…
This is just a list of stuff I’ve compiled based on other people’s and my own experience.

Isaiah’s Top Tips for Wisdom Teeth Extraction:

• Start taking the antibiotics the night before.
• Take the prescribed pain-killers right before you go in for your appointment (I took mine while in the parking lot).
• Buy food, drinks and ice packs ahead of time.
• I bought two ice packs from Target. The kind that have a sleeve with velcro so I can wrap it around my neck and it stays in place. I should have picked up a third. They don’t get cold enough fast enough.

Food Selection:

• Jello
• Pudding
• Ensure
• Soup (I’m going with Ramen Noodels because there’s less stuff to have to chew/blend)
• Gatorade
• Ice cream
• Popsicles
• Stuff for smoothies (I went ahead and got the pre-packaged smoothie kits because I wanted something easy)
• Mashed potatoes
• Applesauce

Things to avoid:

• Soda
• Milk/dairy during the first six hours after surgery
• Food you have to chew
• Drinking anything through a straw

Things to have handy:

• A trashcan or bucket (in case you get sick)
• A book
• Internet access
• Movies / Netflix
• Music
• A laptop and/or iPad
• Your cell phone
• Friends who you can text if you need anything
• Xbox / Playstation / Wii