“I’m not excited about it either way.”
That is what my oral surgeon said when I went in for my initial consultation. The dental professional consensus was basically my wisdom teeth would eventually have to come out and it was up to me if I just wanted to wait for an issue to arise (if ever).
I decided to try and stay ahead of any future pain by getting them out as young as I’ll ever be. There was also the financial motivation that my accidentally still active dental insurance might provide some payment. A potential $1000 savings! Fingers crossed.
It seems like it has been longer, but I am 3 days post-op. Overall, it has gone extremely well. I don’t want to jinx it, but pain never really reached even a 5 on the 10-point pain scale. Some minor throbbing, but no bruising or major swelling.
The worst part was simply trying to sleep keeping my head elevated and not laying on my side. My watch said I slept less than 2 hours the first night. The other worst part was watching blood pour out of my mouth for the first half of the day. It’s a bit disturbing wondering if it is ever going to stop and thinking how much blood can I lose?
Megan took wonderful care of me blending my oatmeal breakfast, making smoothies, mashed potatoes, mousse. It was like a 5-star food gumming experience. I could see her doing a pop-up food event offering a no solids experience for post-ops and elders alike.
Fortunately or unfortunately, she did not exploit my post-surgery loopiness with too many photos or videos.
Overall, I think I am glad I got it out of the way. It looks crazy inside my mouth. I can’t believe how empty it looks in there, like I barely have any teeth now. How am I going to chew food going forward?
It has been a nice break from the daily workout expectation. It took a day to turn off the feeling that I needed to be doing something, but yesterday I burned through all 8 episodes of the first season of Twin Peaks and enjoyed the downtime. Today I am sitting at the coffee shop located inside of the Y and I slightly have the urge to workout because I don’t want to lose the muscle gained over the last year.
Watching a few workout machines from my current position, there are so many different ways of working the same muscles and they all seem to be effective based on the muscles I’m seeing.
—- Now it has been two weeks, the whole experience went as good as I could have hoped. Minimal pain and I think I’ve made it through the dry socket risks and hopefully can get to eating anything without a second thought soon enough. I’m only still hesitant around eating popcorn, almonds, or chips, but I think it’s probably fine.