I have been dreading writing about this post. So. Very. Much. But here it goes.
I went to the dentist at the end of May. I got a cleaning and had a small filling replaced (it had broken off and I didn't know it). About a week later I noticed that there was something poking through my gums. I knew that I had a wisdom tooth, but everyone always told me not to worry about it because it wasn't causing any problems. So I called the dentist to check my pano and sure enough, my wisdom tooth was right where I was feeling something poking through. Chris looked at it and yup. My wisdom tooth had partially erupted. I called some offices and they all needed 6-8 weeks to see me. It was a bit urgent now that it had erupted because the chance for infection goes up and I planned on being in Arizona for 2-1/2 weeks in June/July. My dentist gave me a script for antibiotics in case I needed them. I got online and asked for some recommendations from a blog/mom community that I'm a part of and got a few recommendations for a Dr. Nicklas in Yardley. I called him and he got me in pretty quickly for a consult. I was a bit shocked when the office looked like this:
Apparently there was a flood and it just never got put back in order. He was the only person in the office at the time and that day was a consult day. He seemed like a pretty gruff guy, but I am not normally bothered by that. We scheduled the surgery and I was on my way.
Chris was able to drive me to my surgery and I was awake the whole time. Chris even got to watch. I wasn't in the chair long at all and it was super simple. He told me that I should be good in a few days and that he was giving me steroids to take so that I wouldn't even feel a thing in the next few days. I also had a script for pain medication. This was on Friday, June 13th. Bad omen? In more ways then one.
I went home and was fine that night. The next day I had a maternity photo shoot that I managed to pull off with no fuss. The oral surgeon said it shouldn't be an issue and that I should be fine. After that I took the boys to see Lazytown at Sesame Place. Still wasn't a huge deal. I wasn't in a ton of pain.
I taught my lesson on Sunday and went to church. It wasn't easy but it was manageable. I laid down a lot and watched a lot of Chuck. Hence the Chuck & Sarah selfie that I sent to my Chuck loving friends.
I was even bragging at how I wasn't even swollen! You can barely tell!
Fast forward to 4 days later... I started feeling this horrible, excruciating pain on and off. Because I didn't journal, I'm pulling some posts off of my Facebook wall to help put the story back together. On June 17th I wrote "I cannot comprehend why sometimes the medication I am taking for pain works perfectly and other times (like right now) I am wide awake in excruciating pain. It's the same dosage... Same intervals... Nothing has changed. So why I am reduced to tears with throbbing pain in my mouth unable to sleep?! What is going on with my body that sometimes it's affected and others it's not?!"
Many of my friends on Facebook clued me in to what dry socket is. My oral surgeon never even mentioned that word to me. I knew I wasn't to drink from straws and that's really about it. I looked it up and realized that it could easily be that. I called the dentist that night and the next morning and didn't hear back from him until very late on 6/18. He said that my steroids probably just wore off and now my bone is "angry" at me. It's probably not a dry socket and if he were to see me in the office he would have to cut the sutures open in order to check. He assured me that it was such a simple extraction that he was sure it wasn't dry socket. The thought of needing more sutures and having it cut open was abhorrent at the time, so I trusted him and moved on. I thought I needed stronger meds, but apparently he didn't think so. He said to just take more - take it every 2-3 hours instead of every 4-6. So I just kept popping the Vicodin and Ibuprofen hoping it would work. He also made me feel like a total wuss!
From Facebook 6/18...
Weekly scores:
Kids-3
Oral Surgeon-1,298
Nichole-0
Chris-0.5
Let's recap... Kids are going crazy. Oral surgeon is a total jerk and I hope no one else ever has to deal with an oral surgeon like that. While I am no longer hysterically crying, I am still nauseous, bedridden, and in so much pain. Pathetic! And Chris? Well he is just a superhero. He might have to remediate his summer courses because of me, but he is amazing. He gets kicked when he's down and he just keep going. Can I be more like him? Chris Christensen, you are a rock star!
While all of this was going on, Chris was in the middle of his summer courses and trying to prepare for finals. Matthew had just started summer break and both kids were a handful. I was in so much pain on and off that I couldn't really do much besides sit on the couch, lay on the couch, and ice my face.
The days went on and I called the oral surgeon again. It didn't do much good. He still didn't think he needed to see me. I had so much medication in my body that a few days after the pain got really bad I started vomiting. Thankfully some friends brought me some crackers and ginger ale. Shaunté took my boys for a few hours while I rested/praised the porcelain throne.
It was a pretty miserable 10 days. My follow-up appointment was a day before our flight to Arizona.
From Facebook, 6/23:
To add to how much I just LOVE my oral surgeon, I had an appointment at 11:30 to get my stitches out and the guy isn't here. His office is locked. Seriously? This guy is really challenging my ability to be nice.
One more rant: I did, in fact, have dry socket. He showed up late, took out my stitches, and I went to my car. I looked in the mirror and saw a piece of black, so I assumed it was a forgotten stitch. I went back in and he said it was a hole and that I did lose some of my clot. He packed it with medicated stuff and said my husband was "sort of right" about dry socket. I feel so validated now, knowing that there was a legitimate reason for all that pain. Let's just hope this doesn't cause me any more problems.
I am so glad that the whole ordeal is OVER. I am fine now. I even saw an oral surgeon in Arizona to follow-up and make sure that everything was good. I didn't get any instructions from my oral surgeon about how to take care of all the stuff packed in my mouth and I didn't know if it was supposed to fall out or if I needed to rinse it. Thankfully the oral surgeon in Arizona got me all set-up with a syringe to rinse and instructions on how to take care of it.
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