It’s Done…

I’d been putting off getting my wisdom teeth extracted for years. I decided to be impuslive and finally get it done by placing a phone call to get the ball rolling.

Friday morning Bobby drove me to Dr. Zulliger’s office, the same oral surgeon who extracted his wisdom teeth. The doctor was running a bit behind so Bobby found some YouTube clips on his phone to distract me while we waited. At about 10:50am they called me back.

They put me in the chair which had a left arm but no right arm. The surgical assistant gave me a blanket and apologized for how cold it was in the room. I was so nervous my feet were bouncing off the end of the chair and they thought it was because I was cold. I kept apologizing for being so worked up. My blood pressure was 130/80 (again, it’s usually around 110/70) so they gave me some nitrous oxide while they attempted to find a vein in my left arm. They couldn’t find one in the left arm so they had to use my right arm. I was hooked up to several monitors including some that looked like jumper cables that hooked to my wrists. Dr. Zulliger kept asking if my stomach was upset and if I felt floaty yet and I kept saying no. I begain to get nervous that the nitrous wouldn’t work to calm me down. Right after I denied feeling anything the third time my right hand unclenched and went limp. I decided to let them do the IV at that point. It stung and was quite uncomfortable because the vein rolled and it had to be reinserted. They strapped a board to my arm to keep it straight. Suddenly the heart monitor went off and I was told I needed to calm down because my heart rate was 140. The doctor told me that they were going to put the medicine in that would put me to sleep and that’s all I remember.

Bobby says that my heart rate steadily declined to a reasonable level and they asked me if I wanted to say goodbye to him. He said I weakly said "Goodbye. I love you…" and my head rolled back and I was out.

The next thing I remember I was in the recovery room and they were asking me if I wanted Bobby to come back. He said he had just walked in the door from going to Wal-Mart to get some food for me when they came to get him. For some reason I was crying and apologizing for it. They kept telling me that was normal but if it’s due to pain they could give me some more Novocaine. I said it wasn’t because I hurt and I had no idea why I was crying. Bobby walked me out the exit (it’s a good thing I didn’t go back through the lobby…I was shuffling like a zombie, had blood all over my teeth and drooling down my face and I was crying…I probably would have freaked the next patient out!) and into the car.

I spent most of the weekend on Bobby’s couch. He was so wonderful! He doted on me, keeping my drinks refreshed, getting me food, replacing my ice pack, and reminding me to take my penicillin and pain meds (Vicodin and Tylenol). He even went to pick up my medications and stopped by my apartment to get my ice pack and while he was there he shoveled my steps.

The top two teeth were normal extractions so now I have two nice holes in my top jaw. The bottom two had to be cut out so I have dissolvable stitches in my bottom jaw. I’m still not able to eat anything that needs to be chewed with my back teeth because of the pain and a tightening of my jaws. I desperately want a mushroom swiss burger and as soon as I can eat properly I’m going to devour one. My arm is swollen and sore from the IV, but I’ve been icing that so it’s feeling a bit better. Another side effect was a sore throat, so I’ve been feeling really crummy this weekend. I’m hoping that I’ll feel better tomorrow so I can go back to work and will be 100% better soon.

Even though I’m still in quite a bit of pain I’m proud of myself for doing this even though I was scared to death to do it. Plus it showed me once again just how blessed I am to have Bobby in my life.