Lunchtime ponderings

In stark contrast to the last post, I shall pose a question, what did you do today in your lunch hour?

Me, I sat at the dentist. Well, more accurately I sat at my endodontic surgeon’s office waiting for him to get back from lunch. I didn’t mind too much, after all the sun was shining, the sky was blue, I was lounging back in a reclining dental chair listening to my mp3 player, and I wasn’t sat in the office at work!

On days like that it is the little things that catch my eye, and the following details came to my attention on the walk back to my car…

An Audi with a firm grasp on self-identity…

A Mercedes with an attitude…

and no matter where I may park, another Lotus will arrive to keep me company…

There must be dark forces at work.

Yuck – the saga continues

I’m feeling much better as my recovery continues, and more than 24 hours without Percocet seems to have done me the world of good. Pain is not a big concern, and it just feels like I’ve been clenching my teeth for a while. Actually, come to think about it, it feels like I had four teeth removed last Thursday, strange that…

However, we are reaching a new stage of the recovery process, described on Wikipedia thus:

Due to the blood clots that form in the exposed sockets as well as the abundant bacterial flora in the mouth, an offensive smell may be noticeable a short time after surgery. This is to be expected and will diminish over an indefinite amount of time, although one to two weeks is normal. However, a persistent bad smell may be accompanied by an equally rancid-tasting fluid seeping from the wounds. [Full article here]

and I would like to confirm that when they say rancid, they aren’t kidding. The disgusting scent is bad enough for others you may come into contact with, but trust me it is even worse if it is coming from your own mouth. I am hoping the “idefinite amount of time” is less than two weeks, else I may be sleeping outside, and banned from the office!

Recovery Part 2

Some days are stranger than others. Maybe it is the Oxycodone, which is doing a pretty good job of keeping my post wisdom teeth extraction pain down to just an annoying throb, and is making me feel a bit like a kitten (all questions, confusion and more chaos than normal), or maybe it is the fact that there is a small sound booth built from heavy blankets in the room next door.

There is a session in effect and we have a talented vocalist, my brilliant composer wife, and our good friend the exceptionally brilliant sound engineer all working away in what in most town homes would be the small front bedroom. The only downside is that my study is next door, and my typing too loud, so I’m back down in the basement (lovingly nicknamed ‘the pub’ due to its beams, fireplace, and large collection of British beer cans and bottles) blogging on the laptop.

On the recovery front things are going well, although the tenderness, and inability to eat solid food is starting to be a bit boring.

A brilliant explanation of wisdom teeth and problems you can have with them, can be found here animated-teeth.com/wisdm_teeth.

Recovery Part 1

[Typed one handed with an ice pack held to my jaw]

Feeling generally okay this morning, although this is a definite painkiller moment. The surgery was over in a flash, or so it seemed from my perspective under the general anesthetic. Aside from a little bleeding (dark blood) all seems to be going well, touch wood. More later…

The big dental experiment!

The day is finally here. The day that my wisdom teeth leave the rest of
me behind.

This is something I’ve been avoiding, one way or another, since I was
about 15. My amazing fear of dentists, and a simple explanation of the
pain involved, has kept me away from having this procedure done until I
am well beyond the “ideal window”. 31 isn’t that old, but apparently my
jawbone is now solid, the impacted teeth are now a danger to the rest of
my small mouth, and my very good dentist here in America has said it is
time to bite the bullet.

Actually, I’m taking the easy route, a general anesthetic. I know
taking all four teeth in one go will leave me looking like a hamster for
much of the next week, but right now I am more afraid of the needle
they’ll be knocking me out with than with the pain afterwards. I can
get good painkillers for that stage… I hope!

Anyway, if the posts get more erratic than usual, or suddenly start
making sense, you now know why!