Monday, January 5, 2009

All out of Wisdom

Teeth that is.

I have a great fear of pain. Recently I had my first cavity filled, and the dentist was more than happy to give me Nitrous Oxide to ease my worries. It worked so well I decided that I could have my teeth taken out and the NO2 would be better than being put to sleep.

My husband also had his WTs out, but with only a local anesthetic..... but he is super man so I can't be expected to be that tough.

I went in for my consultation on December 1st, all the talk of the procedure and risks made me very nervous, so the surgeon wrote me an Rx for a Valium to help keep me calm the day of surgery.

Last night I stayed up until 2 am happily knitting away and downing peppermint tea thinking that i would get my socks done, and I would also do a little cleansing so the Valium would work really well!

I got up this morning, took a shower. DH took great care of me, made me coffee, fetched this and that, fed the animals. He was really on task, wanting to make my day go as smoothly as possible. I took my pill at 8:30 because I was supposed to be at the office at 9:45.

I started to feel it on the way to the office, which is a good 30 minutes away. For those of you that are curious about what Valium "feels like" (i was) it really didn't feel like anything. I felt numb. My brain was working fine, I was thinking in my normal (?) hearing my self think way, but I wasn't nervous. It really did help. For the car ride. ack. well because of all the tea the night before I had to pee. (If my dad ever reads this he will be furious that I have talked about peeing on the internet) I peed a ton. Three times. I metabolized the magic pill pretty quickly.

By 10:45 when I hadn't been called back yet the foot started tapping and my palms started sweating, and then I started crying. Soon after the waterworks started we went into the room.
The room was only about 20 x 20 and resembled a small torture chamber as most dental rooms do. There was an IV bag hanging, a heart monitor box (that looked like it was from the 80s) and a chair in the corner. I sat in the obvious big torture chair, and Ben (dh) sat in the corner. An assistant came in and hooked me up to the monitor, she could have been an intern on gray's because she was beautiful, and i'm sure smart, but I wasn't too sure she was very confidant. She ended up taking really good care of me during the surgery.

The Surgeon started the NO2, put some gel on my gums to numb them (hurricaine gel rocks you can order it from your pharmacy or online. its really expensive, but worth it for dental problems NDC 0283-0871-31) and then started numbing my gums with injections. For those who are squeamish about shots as I am. With NO2 you can feel everything you would as if you were not.... you just don't care. He started on my right side, and then moved to the left. He then started the extractions. My top teeth were still under my gums, but i never felt him cut. My surgeon was really good about telling me what he was doing. I also had my ipod which was a great help, because if i need to I can concentrate on the music. It was also not loud enough that I couldn't hear him in case I really needed to. I was listening to Mozart's Horn Concertos. The top teeth really weren't bad. It wasn't fun mind you, but it wasn't horrible. I got more nervous with the bottom teeth and my legs started to quiver, so Ben moved up beside me and held my hand, I could talk to him that way and that was the best part. My ipod ran out of songs and he started it up again for me, he squeezed back when I squeezed his hand, he also knew not to worry when I started doing my horn fingerings on his hand when I got really nervous.

I was out of the operating room about an hour and 15 minutes after we got started. Walking around wasn't easy for me, mostly from being in one place too long.

We went home, ben got me settled and he went off to get my Rx filled. Ben changed my gauze what seemed like a million times. Ate some apple sauce, took some advil, cried because i couldn't feed myself, and then went to bed. I'm still in bed, I haven't been to sleep yet, but I will soon. I guess I just want to brag on my husband today. He has taken such good care of me, he really is amazing. He chopped up a banana for me, took me to the bathroom, scrambled me some eggs because I needed protein. I feel decent right now because he is so wonderful. I just can't say enough about him. He is my hero. I am so blessed..........

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2 comments:

  1. Oh, dear. I'm afraid I would have fallen compleeeeetely apart. They would have to put me OUT in order to pull ANY of my teeth.So great that your husband took care of you! Hope your gums heal up soon!

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  2. Paige, I took 16 shots (4 for each tooth) when I had my wisdom teeth removed. I was too chicken to be put to sleep! And I'm so wimpy when it comes to meds, that the Darviset (spelling???) they gave me made the room spin. I just can't take those hard core meds!! You'll be eating steak in no time, and you won't even remember the pain!! Now, the pain of having a kid...well let's just say, I still remember that pain. I don't care how darn cute he was when he got here!!

    Lori Lindler

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