I got two of my wisdom teeth taken out last Thursday.
Oh wow. That was a pretty concise story.
So the assistant gave me some laughing gas to begin with, and that was totally disappointing. Maybe it’s only because it was only for a minute or so, but the gas had practically no effect on me at all. It did have an interesting odor though…
Then comes the IV. I was totally prepared for her to ask me to count backwards from 10 or something equally cliché. Within ten seconds of her putting the needle in, I lost all awareness. The whole time I was purposely trying to record my thoughts and remember things, but I just plain couldn’t do it. I was unsure whether I’d be conscious of time passing while I was asleep, and I’m still not really sure how it happened. I feel like maybe five or ten minutes passed, but the operation itself was about twenty-five minutes.
When I did begin to come back to my senses, I was on one of those stretcher/wheelchair combos with a thick wool blanket draped over me. I remember seeing a few people in the room totally oblivious of me. I was totally aware of where I was and that the surgery was already over so no confusion there. I raised my left arm to check my watch for the time, and I could not for the life of me hold my arm still. It kept wobbling in circles and to make things less clear, I was seeing double.
At this point, the picture of my vacillating arm along with the realization that I had been unconscious for some period of time struck me as absolutely hilarious. I began giggling for a few seconds, and then I think I feel asleep again. I then remember the doctor coming into the recovery room as they are required to make sure you wake up from anesthesia. My dad was in the room next to me, but he was on the phone and not speaking anything that I was able to understand at the time.
A nurse had to help put me in the car, and somewhere along the way I guess I scared her into thinking I was going to throw up. I again fell asleep in the car, waking up only for moments at a time. During one of those hiatuses into reality, I saw my reflection in the side mirror of my dad’s car and started giggling about the bandages around my head and on my arm. And I’m sure I probably fell asleep again after that.
I’ve been taking strong pain killers intermittently since then, and that experience is quite interesting. Once the oxycodone kicks in, you start to feel warm in a very pleasant way. The feeling is almost fuzzy and sort of comforting. But a word of advice: don’t take oxycodone unless your stomach is full, try not to walk unless you absolutely have to, and it’s probably best not to stare at a computer screen. I’m pretty words were moving around the screen on their own, and my spelling was definitely less than stellar.
Now, some 108 hours post operation, I’m feeling pretty much normal with minimal pain. My jaw is still stiff, but I’m glad to be chewing food (and meat!) instead of bananas and yogurt.