Sedation is a Beautiful Thing

The surgery is over, and there are now five holes in my mouth. It's taking some getting used to. Fortunately, I've had little pain, though one side of my mouth has been a little sore. And I've been popping drugs here and there, which has probably helped keep things in check.

For the veterans who have been through multiple surgeries, it's probably not a big deal to get hooked up to all kinds of monitors and drugged to sleep. For me, it was a new experience. They put a monitor on a wrist and an ankle, and another on a finger before the surgery. I could then see my heart beating and the beats per minute registering on the little monitor. Pretty cool. Then the surgeon came in and after a few preliminaries told me they would give me some laughing gas to help me relax. They put a mask thing over my nose, but I didn't feel much different from it. They also hooked up another monitor for my breathing. Then they found a vein to plug the IV into, and started that.

It's amazing what that sedation did to me. I have no memory of falling asleep. The next thing I knew I felt something going on in my mouth, and I opened my eyes a little. I think the surgeon may have said to give me more, and I went back to sleep, or maybe they were just finishing up. I don't remember. But then my Mom was coming into the room and they were explaining things about post-surgery care and such. It's a good thing she was there to listen because I don't think much was registering in my brain, though I was conscious. Then I walked out, and it was all over but the recovery part. Some forty-five minutes of time were a complete blank on my memory.

We drove to the drugstore and got a prescription for Vicodin, which I started taking to keep the pain down. I think because I started it soon, the pain never really started. Some discomfort on one side of the mouth, where apparently the surgeon had to do a little more digging to get the teeth out. Other than that it was quite tolerable. I kept putting ice on and off at various times throughout the day to keep the swelling down.

I stopped taking Vicodin after only three doses, and have dialed back to less addictive drugs such as tylenol and excedrin. Apparently Vicodin is a pretty potent painkiller, but also potentially addictive. Coincidentally, I saw part of a Law and Order episode on Monday evening that talked about Hydrocodone as a pain killing drug that gives a high something akin to heroine. What do you suppose are the two ingredients in Vicodin? That's right, hydrocodone and acetaminophen. But I never felt high from taking the drug, so I don't know if Law and Order is off again, whether there's not enough of it in the dosage to get high, or whether the acetaminophen keeps things tame. Oh well. So much for feeling like a druggie.

Now I'm starting to crave more solid foods, as I haven't had any of that variety since before the surgery. Still taking things slowly. What compounds the difficulty in the return to normal eating is the stitch, or suture, that I have on the roof of my palate at the front and middle part of my mouth. This is practically in the exact spot your tongue tends to touch on the roof of your mouth when you talk and form certain letters. I'm sure those of you who have had your wisdom teeth out cannot relate to this, as it is where a lesion I had was removed and is unrelated to the wisdom teeth. This additional wound makes it very tricky to try and take solid nourishment when such nourishment tends to be rubbed right up against this spot. I'm leery of ripping the stitch out accidentally by too violent chewing, or whatever. So for now I've survived on things like pudding, yogurt, ice cream, shakes, soup, juice, a smoothie, and soggy crackers. I think it'll be awhile before I tackle the fried chicken...