My poor, wonderful husband had all 4 of his wisdom teeth extracted on Friday. He's known for a while that he needed to have them taken out, as 3 were impacted and one was crumbling with a cavity. We didn't know, though, how tough it would be!
I went with him, and was able to go into the room with the doctor for the pre-surgery consultation. During the consult, the doctor showed us Jeremy's x-ray and explained that, because he should have had the teeth removed 20 years ago, the impacted teeth now had nerves running either right up next to them or actually through them. Dr. then said that if one of the nerves was cut during surgery Jeremy could have permanent nerve damage and his bottom lip could be numb. Whoa. We were unprepared for this information, but the doctor was about to begin the surgery, so Jeremy did not back out.
The surgery was pretty quick; I only waited about half an hour, I think. It was pretty scary when I was called back to see Jeremy who was just barely beginning to open his eyes and come out of the anesthesia. He was mouthing things to me, but I am terrible at reading lips. The nurse told him he could use his voice and talk to me, and the first thing he told me was that it was scary.
As he talked (clearly not really knowing what he was saying), I gathered that he was pretty upset/annoyed that the nurse had trouble getting his I.V. put in and poked him several times, he wasn't sure if the surgery was over yet, the nurses attending the surgery were talking about someone named Kyle (an intern) and Jeremy thought they wanted to ask Kyle out, and that Jeremy saw an orangutan walking around in the office. Jeremy had never gone under anesthesia before, and had been worried about it, so even though it was a bit frightening seeing him under the influence of it, I was very glad he had come through the surgery okay.
When we got in the car, he wanted his phone to text Collin, the guy he works out with. I made sure his text was coherent, and saw that he told Collin he'd see him Monday at the gym. At that point I thought he would probably be up for working out by then, after 3 days of resting.
We stopped at Meijer to fill painkiller and antibiotic prescriptions, and I bought a blender, knowing I'd be pureeing whatever Jeremy was going to attempt eating. I was nervous leaving him in the car while going in the store, but he put the seat back and rested. His stomach was upset (from the anesthesia), so I got him a water too.
I stopped at Family Video, per request, and picked up 4 dvd's for him. When we got home, he was supposed to eat and start meds, but all he got down was a couple pre-made protein drinks. The headband with changeable icepacks was the best thing in helping, I think, and I did force him to start the painkiller prescription.
Over the past few days, the pain has increased in his jaw, and his bottom lip is definitely numb. He is afraid to eat anything he has to chew, as he doesn't want pieces of food to get stuck in the holes where the teeth came out. It is very difficult for him to open his jaw because the pain is so bad. Fortunately, there is so far no sign of infection or dry sockets, but he definitely feels a LOT worse than he would have expected--and for a lot longer.
Yesterday, he did go to work, but fell asleep in a meeting in the early afternoon and they sent him home. He said that last night he was awake all night with horrible pain. He could tell it was a healing pain, but it was so immense he wanted to scream and couldn't sleep at all.
We are praying he will soon hit a point where the pain recedes and he feels like he can at least chew enough to have some foods more solid than jello, pureed potato soup, applesauce and ice cream.
He is joking that he "had all his wisdom removed" and has no wisdom now.
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise."
- Psalm 111:9
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