Off-line Update [1] - Plus 1 Year, Minus 4 Teeth

Off-line Update is my new feature where I can give you quirks a little heads up into what is going on in my life when it is not involving reading, writing, or YA.

Back in early October, one of my wisdom teeth broke. Despite having things wrong with my teeth, I had no trouble with them outside of some sensitivity now and then. But after just a little piece of this wisdom tooth flew the coop, the pain started. It wasn't so bad at first, some aching, more sensitivity, but nothing major.

Then my teeth, gums, mouth, what-have-you, became infected on that side. I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. That helped tremendously until the very last day of my treatment when that night, I went from having 90% of that tooth to 50%. It hurt, to say the least.

The pain continued to grow and two more rounds of antibiotics came and went without much relief. Due to the nature of dentistry, I had to pay in advance for my procedure to have all four of my wisdom teeth removed. I didn't have the money, so I had to wait until the beginning of the year when I got a card through my insurance program at work that would allow me to pay the upfront costs.

So that was more than a month of downing every ibuprofen pill I could find, plus some acetaminophen to keep things interesting. If you don't already know, taking too much ibuprofen can give you stomach problems, including ulcers, and taking too much acetaminophen can damage your liver, so I was trying to not hurt my body while at the same time trying to knock out severe pain. That is not an easy juggling act.

Through December and into January, I woke up every night from the pain, had to take more medicine, and then sit and wait for it to kick in before I could lay back down (as laying down before the medicine started helping meant the pain didn't go away). Then one of my other wisdom teeth broke, only adding to the already unfortunate experience. By the second week in January, I was exhausted.

My 27th birthday arrived and I overslept and was late to work thanks to this cycle of pain and unrest. That was this past Thursday. That same day, my special insurance card came in the mail. I don't know if there is a limit to how much one should "raise the roof" but let's just say I went over it. I drove to my dentist, paid for my procedure, and scheduled it for Friday (a.k.a. yesterday).

I think I am one of the few people out there who was super glad to be going to the dentist to have surgery. The only unexpected part of my procedure was that they had to remove a bit of my jaw bone when they cut out one of my teeth, but other than that, it went swimmingly. Everyone I had talked to said I would sleep the rest of the day, but I didn't. I slept on and off for about six hours, woke up feeling ill, threw up, drank a bunch of blue Gatorade, and then threw up again. After that I did dishes, cooked, and played cards with my mom before going back to bed.

Today I feel great. I'm a little sore and a little swollen, but mostly you can't even tell I had my wisdom teeth removed. There are stitches in a couple of my sockets and they are annoying because it feels like I've got food in my teeth, but that is the worst part about it. All of my medicine is wonderful and I feel better than I have in months.

These last couple of weeks being the worst is why I have been absent from the blog and the internet in general, so now that I feel like a human being again and not a giant mouth of pain, hopefully postings and things will become more regular as I had intended before this whole mess.

So that's what I've been dealing with off-line! Let me know if you have any toothy horror stories or what the experience of having your wisdom teeth removed was like for you.