Owie

[dr_kromm]

Achtung! This is a TMI post.

Here I am, about one hour after getting two free gingival grafts. That what it's called when they excise a strip from your palate, open up your gum, and stitch the strip in place around your teeth. For those of us who brushed too hard as a kid – like me – it's good for preventing tooth loss when you're, say, 60 . . . if you do it when you're around 40, also like me.

Needless to say, I wouldn't recommend this procedure for fun. It hurts – a lot. I will be getting reacquainted with my old friend, the 600mg ibuprofen tablet. I also have stronger stuff (Empracet), which I plan to avoid if possible, as it managed to do little but make me feel quite ill when I took it after abdominal surgery.

For the next 7-10 days, then, I get to eat cold, soft, flavorless food. Oh, yay. And I have a face like a chipmunk, stuffed with some sort of weird, chewing-gum-like dressing that in fact tastes like really bad chewing gum. Ever had that cool-sounding but awful-tasting "Kung Fu" brand chewing gum from Chinatown? Like that. (Erk, exactly like that, which makes me wonder what that chewing gum is made from.)

So I apologize in advance to all of you who deal with me professionally and IRL. In all likelihood, I will be wolverine-like in temperament due to being in pain, underfed, and quite possibly on drugs. The good news is that I'll be able to chew us both free of bonds should we end up tied together by kung fu-movie villains when we're 60. Or maybe I'll take up bando and just bite them to death.

The PS to this is that I have to undergo the same exact procedure again, on the other side of my mouth, once this mess heals. Whee! It'll give me time to save up another thousand bucks.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's good that you get to keep half your mouth each time.

[doccross.livejournal.com]

Damn...you get to have all the fun:)

Heal up fast.

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

Damn...you get to have all the fun:)

I seem to attract surgery as if by magic, yeah. I am thankful that I live in a place where it's possible and such, though. I just wish I didn't have a pound of cheap Chinese chewing gum attached to my mouth.

Heal up fast.

Cheers!

[morningapproach.livejournal.com]

ouch :( My sympathies are with you!

[jerril]

Yig. Dental surgery is pain and suffering. Good luck, heal quickly!

For the nausia, try eating a piece of bread or something equally carbohydratie right before taking the Empracet (no more than about 5 minutes).

Normally I'd suggest 3-4 soda crackers but obviously that's basically the exact opposite of what you want to eat right now.

Taking it on food will help buffer your stomach and will reduce the intensity and duration of any stomach upset (potentially to zero). If you can get yourself to take it regularly for two or three days, your body should start adjusting and you'll need less food to go with it, but I'd say never take it on an empty stomach if it makes you queazy.

[jerril]

Codeine Phosphate doesn't upset my stomach, but the harsher members of that family do; the advice extends to all the opiates, really. Best advice my doctor ever gave me after I had my surgery.

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

In the end*, I didn't take the Empracet anyway. There's a family history of bad reactions to opiates, and in fact when I was in recovery from my abdominal surgery back in 2007, the docs avoided them altogether and just went with ketorolac (Toradol): a non-opiate, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic. After my dental surgery in 2007, I stuck to big doses of ibuprofen, which worked well and had no side effects at all. So this time, I'm taking the ibuprofen again. I seem to have great success with NSAIDs reducing pain and swelling all on their own, and I don't appear to suffer the common side effects. So it's all good.

—

* Meaning, "Now that the worst of the pain and swelling have passed anyway." I do, of course, have another 10+ days of gunky mouth before I'm healed enough to function normally.

[jerril]

Probably for the best, then - provoking an allergic reaction or some other big dramatic event would suck. I'm glad to hear things have improved already! The initial trauma from the surgery is usually the worst part of any surgery.