Operation: Wisdom Teeth Removal...

Coincidently, this is my 200th post.

I said I would write about my teeth removal on Tuesday, so here I am. I barely slept a wink on Monday night and I think poor Glen was starting to get a bit edgy too. I felt terrible for him, because I guess I had made my peace with the entire procedure, whereas he was left waiting for me.

I woke up at 6am on Tuesday morning, hopped into the shower and brushed my teeth. I could feel myself already dehydrating because I wasn't allowed to have any water or food from midnight the night before. We drove to the hospital and arrived too early, so sat in the car before heading inside. The foyer was completely empty, in fact, the receptionist hadn't even arrived for the day. We eventually signed in and wandered over to the day surgery rooms. The nurses were all very nice and Glen was made to leave (I nearly cried!) so that I could get changed and wait for the anaethesiologist. I sat out in the foyer in my blue gown, white robe and lovely blue slippers. I felt the picture of loveliness!!

I met the anaesthetist who was friendly, but abrupt and going through the motions. He informed me of the chances of a reaction etc, but in fact, there are no real threats to your body or person. I mean, not once did anyone say that there'd be cause for death or whatever. This was my fear. Anyway, I sat back in the waiting room before a nurse came in and asked me the same set of questions that everyone else had asked me! However, the kicker for me was that she had had her wisdom teeth out last year with the same surgeon I was seeing and she had nothing but good things to say about him. I felt more relieved. Again, I sat in the waiting room before she came to get me and we walked through to a very draughty, cold room where the surgeon, anaesthetist and a bunch of nurses were standing around joking. But the crux was, I wasn't expected! So, I was sent back to the waiting room to wait. AGAIN.

When they finally brought me in, I was nervous, but just keen to get it over with. I saw it as my opportunity to face something hard, something that I could have easily chickened out of and walked out on. But I am glad I faced that fear.

So, I jumped up onto the operating table and they fluffed around with the arm holds on the side of the table. Then I had the anaesthetist fluffing around with my bung in my left hand, trying to get a vein to pop. He was whinging about how difficult it was to get a vein and how odd it was to see veins going across the hand, rather than up and down. Hrm. Ok, so I have odd veins! Anyway, they got the bung in, they introduced me to the oxygen, which smelt funny and then he was administering the general and before I knew it, I was off to sleep.

The next thing I remember is waking up in recovery, numb mouth, itchy throat and I felt like my lips and tongue had been bashed til I was black and blue, though I couldn't see anything. The nurse came over and poured me a cup of apple juice and asked me how I was. I said I was fine because I was and drank some apple juice. Ten minutes later, she came over to pull out my bung, but I was trying to signal to her that I was feeling queasy and although she knew something was wrong, couldn't help me fast enough and I promptly threw up on the blankets and possibly her! *laugh* She gave me a vomit cup to continue the process and she changed my sheets and helped me get my shirt on. I was given a litre of fluids intravenously before I regained my colour and dignity! I was sent out into the main area again on the recliner chairs and before I sat down, Glen was coming in to get me.

Let me tell you, ice cream from hospital is awesome!! :)

It was good to get home and I spent most of yesterday sleeping and resting. I'm missing real food, basically living on Sustagen, jelly, ice cream and soup. The good thing is, there's no blood in my mouth, so that means that my gums are healing nicely and I've hardly felt any pain. I've taken some mersyndol forte for bed and a 1/4 of one today to take the edge off. But it's my neck and shoulder which feels like I've been ripped and reefed around on the table! I swear, they must have hurt me pretty good yesterday!

Anyway, for anyone who needs to have an operation to remove their teeth, or a general operation of any kind, I'm telling you, it's ok! It's a bit scary and I guess you can't stop that, but it's just so easy to get through. Maybe I'm an exception to the rule, but there's hardly any pain.

Soon, I shall post a couple of photos of me yesterday. Not a pretty picture, but it's me!