I'm a Chipmunk

Well... I finally caved and got my wisdom teeth out.

A little back story first. All growing up and going the the dentist I was always told that I was just lucky and didn't seem to have wisdom teeth at tall after each x-ray. My teeth were nice and straight. Straight enough that my parents gave me the choice if I wanted braces or not in Jr. High. Of course I declined.

About 10 years ago one of my lateral incisors started to turn out giving me a very annoying snaggle tooth. I was also starting to notice pain in my jaw every now an then. I went to the dentist about 8 years ago (I know, I'm SO bad. Making up for that now) and had and x-ray. Low and behold my wisdom teeth were just starting to appear! I wasn't too happy.

Not many people have really noticed, but it really bugs me.

Over the next 8 years my snaggle tooth got worse but the pain in my jaw was bearable. It wasn't until I actually complained about it to Kollin a few months ago when we finally went to the dentist. After the x-ray we could see that all 4 of my wisdom teeth were all the way in and my bottom ones were impacted. They were pushing on my back molars and could have been causing damage but weren't sure yet.

Don't you love my tongue ring?

I want braces and to get all of the dental work that needs to be done DONE. So first, these buggers needed to come out to start the entire process.

We made the appointment to have my wisdom teeth removed at the beginning of the year once our flex spending account kicked in.

By day 6 the selling had gone down a lot. But still not completely. I was a little bummed, but was expecting it to take a while.

Almost 2 weeks after surgery I noticed one side (the side that was always bigger in the pictures) was starting to swell again. The day after that I was woken up at about 5:30am from the amount of pain I was in and the swelling was back to the size of day 2. Which was weird, since I was hardly in any pain the entire recovery time. Sure, I was uncomfortable. But I was not in unbearable pain. I don't know if I'm just stubborn, have a high pain tolerance or what, but I did not take any of the prescribed pain killers I was given and only took Ibuprofen the entire time.

I called my oral surgeon and explained what was going on and they wanted me to come in. And of course, this was the one day that Kollin took the Traverse to work since the Honda is acting up a little bit. I called him to see if he could come home early so I could go in, and since he is just amazing he was able to get home in time for me to go to my appointment.

Once there my Dr. started to dig around in my mouth and caused a lot of pain. So we decided to numb me up. Even after numbing me up it was still SO painful! I was a big girl though and didn't cry... at least at this point. Once he was done I sure felt like passing out though. He said there was a lot of food that somehow got stuck in there causing an infection. He dug it out and also got a lot of the puss out.

On the way home I broke down from the pain I was still in and cried the entire drive home. When I walked back in the house and Kollin saw me he got this look of pain on his face just seeing how much pain I was in and my tear stained face.

I wanted him to call my dad to see if I could take one of my prescribed pain killers since I had taken Ibuprofen a couple hours before. When I said that, both Kollin and my dad knew I was in an enormous amount of pain. I was given the ok to take it so I downed one pill as fast as I could and went to bed. 

Kollin took Tanner (bless him) to the grocery store to go grocery shopping and to fill my prescription for antibiotics so I could sleep. But wow. I couldn't fall asleep before that pill kicked in and I can see why people get addicted to these things! But I wasn't a fan so I was happy that this was the first time I had ever taken a prescribed pain killer, and I don't plan to again if I can help it.

I was in pain for the rest of that day but was able to manage it well with Ibuprofen. Now I am 18 days post op, and 5 days post being in more pain than labor! My face is looking better than it did on day 6 and I am in hardly any pain anymore (I only took 1 dose of Ibuprofen today opposed to every 6 hours!).

Hopefully this is the last of it and I can finally make a complete recovery.