Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Recovering

On Thursday I finally took the plunge and had my wisdom teeth pulled. At 38 years old you'd think it would be too late for this but not for me. My 3rd molars came in when I was 18 (I remember that week very clearly...I couldn't eat and lost 10 pounds while suffering from some really nasty virus) but never really gave me much trouble. Every now and again I would feel them scrape my inner cheek but that was it. I never saw a dentist because I didn't have dental insurance and I wasn't going to mess with soemthing that didn't seem to be a problem. When I went to the dentist last year to have a cap replaced, he mentioned that I should have them removed because they were close enough to my second molars to cause decay problems. It was the middle of race season and I used up my benefits with the cap so I decided to put it off a year. After race season ended, this was the year. Prior to the end of the season though, one of my second molars fell apart, just as the dentist said it would. That was fun. Four ibprofen every four or five hours to deal with the pain of the nearly exposed nerve and get through race season.

Right now I'm recovering from the procedure. My jaw is sore. They had to cut a good deal of the second molar out I think because it probably disintegrated on the surgeon. He had to leave a piece in because it was too close to the nerve that runs through the jawbone so I'll deal with that several years down the road. Right now I have a dull ache and pain thing going on. I was taking Vicodin (not Rush jokes please) but I hated the slightly "off" feeling it gave me so I've switched to extra-strength acetomeniphin (Tylenol). The only problem with that is that is coats my mouth with this weird feeling and slight taste. The only real cure for the pain, as always, is time and rest. That's what I'll try to do, but I feel antsy to get out and see people and mingle and have a beer or two and what not. I'm guessing that I'll work to get some chores done instead and get some much needed rest by taking naps went I can. It's hard because I have to sleep upright which always makes my sinuses grumpy but maybe if I take short naps it won't be so bad.

Thanks for reading.

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