Dry Socket and Parasthesia

Before I embarked on this whole wisdom tooth extraction business, I'd never really given the process much thought. And to be honest, I treally tried not to think about it much beforehand as it freaked me out a little. Mind you I don't know anyone in their right mind who would want to dwell on the thought of the mouth/teeth pain, stitches and swelling that was to come.

Now I have two new phrases to add to my life experiences. Dry socket and parasthesia. I was really hoping to escape the first and hadn't given the second a second thought. All was going well in the business of recovery until day 4 when within a couple of hours my jaw suddenly swelled up and started throbbing, my glands in my neck became enlarged and painful, and it became difficult to open my mouth, or even swallow. At this point, I was close to finishing the 30 Panadeine I'd been prescribed, so had to send Mark out to after hours to get some more. My trusty icepack which hadn't seen much use for a day or so, suddenly became a necessity again. And an emergency dash back to Mr. Oral Surgeon was required first thing Monday morning to put a dressing in the troublesome hole. Tasted like cloves, not very appetising. At it's worst, dry socket has been compared to the pain of childbirth, and whilst I definitely didn't have it that bad, it wasn't the most fun 24 hours I've ever had either. For those not in the know, it's where the blood clot in the hole where the teeth was gets dislodged and the bone is exposed. Doesn't sound like it should be a big deal really but anyone who has had it (and I'm surprised the number of people I've had commiserating with their experiences!) will tell you otherwise!

So yesterday was a pretty tough day even though it was just me and Mylo at home, I struggled just doing the bare essentials, and really welcomed the sight of Mark and Noah home early at 4pm. After dragging myself upstairs for some horizontal time (and surprise to me I think I even dozed off at one point), I started to slowly feel better last night, and much better this morning. I can gauge this because I haven't had to take any Panadeine since 6pm last night, whereas before that I was on a 6-8 hourly diet of pills.

Anyway, onto the other cool word. Parasthesia. Even once the local anaesthetic wore off 12 or so hours after the operation, I still have a very numb patch in half my lower lip and chin on the same side that I've had all the dry socket trouble. I'm really hoping that any damage to the nerves will repair itself over the course of the next few weeks, as it feels decidedly odd at the moment.

My diet has been totally liquid to date, and think I will maintain it for a few more days to give my troubled tooth time to catch up a bit on the healing process. I've got a good daily menu going though:

Breakfast
UP & GO Breakfast drink

Morning tea
Warm coffee (I so wasn't going to give up my coffee!)

Lunch
Yoghurt/Pureed fruit

Afternoon tea
Banana/UP & GO smoothie

Dinner
Packet soup
Icecream/pureed fruit

And to add to that there's the cocktail of Panadeine/anti-inflammatories/salt & antibacterial mouthwashes/arnica creams/homeopathic remedies/icepack.

I haven't ventured out in public yet as the bruises on either side of my face are still pretty obvious, and I thought I'd spare Mark potentially getting labelled a wife basher!

All in all, not a journey for the faint of heart. But I'm very hopeful that I'm on the up now though! Thank you to everyone for their prayers, I know there has been many sent heavenward for me over the past week, and I really appreciate it!