4 teeth lighter and a whole lotta pain later

Day 2: Very Swollen 

I got all four of my wisdom teeth extracted this Tuesday. My cocky surgeon kept reiterating, "oh you'll thank me for this in the long run" and "It'll be painful in the next few days, but in the long run, you'll appreciate this advice." Then he'd flash his Mr. Know-it-all smirk. Can you tell I'm not a big fan of him? But I hope his confident self is right.

Honestly, I was experiencing no pain from my wisdom teeth. My original dentist suggested that I get them extracted because they were growing in (I didn't even feel any pain but 3 of them had already been impacted and I only had the upper right wisdom tooth to grow out). The next thing I know, I'm laying down with this surgeon's hands in my mouth, plucking out my wisdom teeth and sewing in stitches that will dissolve in approximately a month . I really only needed to get 2 extracted (they were growing in sideways), but according to the oral surgeon, I should just get it over with now and extract them all. So I did. And now I'm in the land of the pain and hungry. Last night, I sneezed, very unexpectedly (I mean, all sneezing happens spontaneously, but I hadn't sneezed in like 2 days) and experienced the worst and most painful sneeze of my life. My salvia flew everywhere and my mouth was throbbing. Things we take for granted. So in that breath, I'd like to write a short list of things I've taken for granted when I experienced no oral pains and lessons I've learned since my surgery.

1) As I mentioned earlier, sneezing. Sneezing is such a natural and uncontrollable action that I had never thought twice about. It sure is mighty painful when you are recovering from oral surgery. So try to avoid sneezing.

2) You feel tension in your jaws. I find myself wiggling my jaws around to loosen the tension but it's pretty tight in that area.

3) Drool with a hint of blood. The first two days, I had a hard time keeping my mouth closed so when I woke up, I had drool mixed in with blood smeared on my face--yes very unpleasant, especially when you look in the mirror first thing in the morning. I looked like a vampire.

4) I was eating congee one night and couldn't chew this fleshy thing in my mouth so I took it out--I thought it was a piece of meat my mom put in the congee...but it wasn't. It was my gum flesh. I definitely freaked out.

5) I am so hungry. All the time. Randy talks about food. Constantly. How he's eating Korean food tomorrow, all the snacks he's had between lunch and dinner...then his post-dinner meals. Then he proceeds to talk about the next 15 meals he'll have over the weekend. It makes me so hungry. When I see people chewing and eating...my mouth is salivating. I have taken my lovely teeth for granted for so long. Which brings me to...

6) I miss chewing, biting, crunching--anything that works that grinding sensation in your mouth. My teeth are itching to chew and bite. It could be from the pain or general numbness of my mouth, but they're really itching to bite. And every time I try to bite into something--bananas, dragon fruits or any fruit, my teeth cannot sustain that pressure. So I've given up trying to chew. Plus, the front teeth are not good grinders! Also, since my cheeks are swollen, I can only open my mouth half the original size, which is frustrating since I'm not used to eating like a goldfish.


Because of these new (temporary) restrictions, I have such a newfound respect and gratitude for what my mouth and teeth can do.

I'm so excited to be able to eat solid foods again. I've been eating yogurt for breakfast, smoothies, congee and soup. I feel like an infant with no teeth...wait, we're pretty much on par.