Yanking Wisdom Teeth

On Monday (13 DEC), I had all four of my wisdom teeth taken out, hence the lack of postings. If, by chance, you are considering having your wisdom teeth taken out or will have them taken out shortly, read on.

Items you must have on-hand:
1) Apple sauce
2) Lots of gauze pads
3) Ice packs
4) Gel packs that can be heated
5) Yogurt
6) Pudding
7) Ice cream/milk shakes
8) Some good pain killers or a plentiful supply of your preferred medication
9) Antibiotics
10) Something for the fever you will soon develop

I was told the procedure was going to take about an hour. As it turns out, it only took about 30 minutes. I must say, after waking up from the surgery, it was a beautiful day! I was on Cloud 9, thanks to the anesthesia. Once I got home, I spent the rest of the day with ice packs on either side of my mouth while I changed out the gauze pads that I was, more or less, biting and gumming to death. Towards the early to mid-afternoon, I developed a fever which during the subsequent days seems to come back at night and disappear during the day. The next morning I awoke to a throbbing jaw. Day #2 was quite a bit better, though. I was finally off the ice packs and was instructed to apply heat compresses to help with the circulation. Since the instructions didn't say the heat compresses were mandatory, I only did that a few times. This day also called for me to begin gently rinsing my mouth with warm salt water. At first I thought this was suicide and would only end in more bleeding, but it did help to close the incisions a lot. That night I decided to give pasta a shot. The pasta elbows with butter were terrific. I would recommend that to just about anyone after the second day. The morning of Day #3 (today) and my jaw was once again throbbing. It's good to be alive. I've yet to take any more Hydrocodine pills (the painkillers). Three Ibuprofen have been doing the job just fine. Around 3 this afternoon I decided I was going to eat some Wendy's. Man, it was great to eat some real food again... In very small careful bites. But, it was real food, nonetheless.

I will keep you abreast of any worthwhile discoveries I may uncover.

Crispy