Stitch-Free!

 Yesterday I got the stitches out from my gum graft! Of course I wanted to see them when they were out, and of course I took a pic. 

They look so small, but they felt like a lot haha they definitely dug into my mouth and gave me canker sores! And I was so happy to get them out, hopefully now I can eat on that side of my mouth! 

Emergency!

Today, my sister was at the dentist, getting a root canal done. Whilst she was doing that, I was at my home, of course, working. My phone rang suddenly, and there was the receptionist at the dentists office, telling me that she had a negative reaction to something, and they can't get a hold of her husband. I needed to come get her right now and bring her the hospital.

Uh...what?

So I immediately sprinted to my car and definitely did like 90 miles an hour, getting from Orem to Springville, where the dentist is. I got there and sprinted in and they immediately take me back to her and I see:

Oh boy, that's a reaction, all right. I took her to the nearest ER, in Provo. Her husband met her there, so I took the kiddos home, so that they wouldn't have to worry about it. By the time they discharged her, several hours later, this is what it looked like:

So basically, she had the reaction to the cleaning stuff in her tooth, and now her face is full of air, and it just needs to come down. Man, I thought I had bad reactions at the dentist, until this happened. Hopefully she's better soon!

Toothache Gone Rogue

Today, my toothache has reached the worst. It got really bad last night, and then this morning, I was in so much pain, and my face had swollen up so much that I almost couldn’t take life. I called the dentist, and got in, and had to miss school to do so. I went in and found out that I had a root canal, done many years ago, that’s decided to go rogue and get an infection. I went to see a root canal specialist a few hours later, and he decided it was prudent to quickly get me in the chair and get it taken care of.

Unfortunately, with all the swelling and infection, we couldn’t really get my mouth that numb, so I felt basically everything that happened, and it was AWFUL. I have never had a worse experience in my life. When I got home, with all that had happened to my mouth and face, it looked like I had been beaten up.

I’ll take it easy, now, and hopefully, this will heal quickly.

Open Wide

Today I had yet another mouth surgery. Today’s was 2 implants, and 2 healing caps on the previous implants. Even after googling it, I’m not entirely sure what a healing cap is, so I’ll just leave it at that. I got the doctor, was immediately brought back for all the hook ups. The heart monitor, pulse monitor, blood pressure machine, oxygen mask, an IV that was first antibiotics and secondly the sleeping stuff, and then I was good to go.
I feel asleep shortly after putting the stuff in, and mostly slept through it. I woke up at the end, and I was so angry about it. I’m sure they wanted me to wake up then, but to me, I feel like I shouldn’t have to wake up until everything is done, they’re out of my mouth, but oh well. After they gave me my “black box” (a small black plastic box that contains gauze, the prescriptions they want me to fill, and some papers of general questions I could have) they sent me on my way. The doctor did tell me that they implants are put in pretty close to my nerve, so I may have some numbness a little longer than usual, but if it lasts until tomorrow night, I should give them a call. He was not kidding – I’ve been out of surgery for about 6 hours now, and I still have numbness and tingling. The plus side is, I’m not actually in that much pain, probably because it’s numb. I’ve only taken 1 Loratab, and that was like, 5 hours ago.
I came home, and I thought I was pretty awake enough to watch TV. So, I’ve watched about half of a few shows, but I feel like I caught enough of them that I don’t want to rewatch them. I slept a lot more than I thought I would. Mostly, I’m trying to get a little caught up on my DVR. I am weeks behind on it, I’d like to not be, but that’s a struggle as old as the DVR itself. I’m hoping the numbness in my face goes away by tomorrow, I’d really not like for this to end up being a problem. I have my fingers crossed here. I just have to still rest for the rest of tonight and tomorrow, and of course, this time will be spent doing crafts!

Today, I am thankful for modern medicine, that makes it possible for my teeth to be fixed.

Say Aaaaah

Well guys, I had another surgery. We all remember (well, I do) my bone graft that I got done back in March. So now, it’s 4 months later, and I finally get to have my implants put in. I was getting four – one on my right side, and 3 on the left. (jealous, everyone?) So I get to the dentist yesterday, and had 2 x-rays done. One of my whole mouth, and one specifically for my lower jaw, so they can make sure everything down there is good for all these implants. They brought me into a room, and shortly, I was joined by the dentist. He let me know that it wasn’t going to be as easy as originally thought. Apparently, I have 2 really big nerves that run along both sides of my jaw, so if we used too big of an implant there, it would take away the feeling in my mouth/jaw. Oh goodie. So he says we can possibly use a shorter, wider screw, and give that a try. So they put me under, and asleep I went.

I WOKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF IT GUYS! I don’t know if they didn’t give me enough stuff, or if something happened, but I woke up right in the middle, wondering what the heck was going on. I think they put in another IV or something, because when I awoke completely, I had a bandage on my hand, and I didn’t know where it came from. So then they explained to me that even though I had the bone graft all those months ago, and they made my bone wide enough, the bone isn’t deep enough. So I got one implant on my right, and one on my left, and they did yet another bone graft. So now, my face and mouth are all swollen, and I still have no teeth to eat from. I haven’t been able to open my mouth wide enough to look in there, though, which may be a good thing.

As soon as I came home from the dentist, I laid on the couch and went to sleep. I put Father of the Bride on, and watched maybe 10 minutes, and fell asleep. I woke up about an hour in, rewound it to where I was, and watched again. About 20 minutes later, I fell asleep again, and woke up when the movie was ending. I figured that was good enough, and started another movie, It Takes Two. I mostly stayed awake during this one. After it ended, I was awake for good, which was a good thing, since it was like, 3 in the afternoon at this time. Husband came home from work several hours later, and told me that Target wouldn’t let him pick up my prescriptions, so, I then had to go to Target. It wasn’t until we got there that I looked down and realized I had blood all over my shirt. How awesome I must have looked to other people. But I picked them up, and came home to rest yet again.

I get to go back in in 2 months and see how this bone graft is taking and possibly get the implants put in then. The implant put in on the right side is actually not hurting me at all, which is so great. So now, I have a few days off to recover, and I hope I recover quickly!

Someday, I'll eat again

I hate the dentist. Hate, hate, hate. I try not to. Growing up, I always had bad dentists that were total douches, and were mean, and I was always in pain. So I never went to the dentist, and my parents never made me, so I successfully avoided the dentist for a number of years. Of course, now I’m paying for it with all of my dental work that I have to get done. But, the end is in sight. I’m nearing the end…is what I thought. I spoke before of the bone graft I had done back in March, which was painful enough. But now, I’ve mostly healed, and my implant surgery is now on the calendar (July 11, in case anyone wondered) and I figured that I would be totally finished.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a minor toothache in a tooth on the opposite side of my mouth than the bone graft. I figured I had just been overworking it, since I can only chew on that side. So I let it go and go until finally, I called my dentist and went in. On a side note, I love my dentist. I hate going, but this guy is a good guy who really helps me out, so that’s a plus side at least. Anyway, so when I went in, I had a checkup/cleaning, and they found the culprit, I have a fracture in my tooth. So, my dentist suggested this experimental procedure (that he’s only done on 1 person before!) and I said ok. I mean, it was either that or lose the tooth, and I’ll not do that. So I had this done, and was told not to eat on that side of my mouth, lest I mess up any of the work that they just did. So…now I can’t eat on that side, and I can’t eat on the other side, (having had the bone graft/I have no teeth over there right now) so…eating is a problem. Now that it’s about a week later, I am sick of eating things that have no substance. I am hungry all the time, because when all you eat is applesauce, soup, pudding, and yogurt (with the occasional ice cream/shake, froyo), it doesn’t really fill you up and you’re hungry again about an hour later. I’ve not had any meat since the Wednesday before my surgery, and I miss it. Yesterday, Husband came home from Tucano’s, and I could smell the barbecue-ness on him, and I thought, holy cow. I must be so crazy wanting meat that I can smell a little bit of meat on someone else’s clothes.

But it gets better. My stitches came out on Monday, and even though there is still a hole in my mouth (it didn’t really stitch up before they fell out, sheesh), I feel good about it healing. They told me I can start eating on that side once it stops hurting, yay! But sadly, there is still pain. It’s not as constant as it was, but when I touch the tooth, there is pain. I am definitely feeling confident that in less than a week, I will be eating solid foods again. And when I can, I’m eating nachos. And a burger. Some ribs. BREAD, I miss bread. Cookies. Basically anything. I can’t wait for this to happen.

Why, oh why?!

Today I was at work, hanging out, when my phone rang. That’s normal, since I answer phones quite a bit. I answer, and who’s on the other end but the receptionist of my dentist? How exciting! She was calling to remind me of my appointment that I have tomorrow morning, a cleaning, at 7:00.

The first thing that popped into my head was, why oh why did I make myself an appointment so bloody early in the morning? 7:00 AM?! Who does that? I must have gotten far more sleep back then, to think that getting going an hour earlier was no big deal. I know I can make it there that early, but still, that sucks. And then I still have to go about my day like normal, albeit with a cleaner mouth.

The second thing that I thought of was, why me? It seems like only yesterday that I was at the dentist getting worked on. Surely that should buy me a free pass, right? Man these people sure like to schedule you in for these appointments.

I know that it’ll be better once its done, and I only have to do this every six months, but holy cow do I dread the dentist. I can seriously think of about 100 other things I would rather do than go. I’m just hoping it’ll be quick, and I’ll get a clean bill of health and be sent on my merry way. With a free toothbrush!

Vieve's Video

Ok, ya'll, here it is, week 2 of our new segment, Vieve's Videos. I'm gonna post the video first, in the hope that you'll watch before reading.

Video of the week

I love this video. This kid just makes me laugh so hard! And the reason I'm showing it this week is because I myself will be visiting the dentist, and I will be very much like him tomorrow, drifting in and out of sleep, confused by my surroundings. Before the procedure, I take my trusty Valium, which just makes me feel nice and warm. Then at the dentist, they pump me full of that laughing gas, which just makes me feel sleepy, and then I just sleep during the whole thing, which is nice. I know most people hate the dentist, and believe me, I'm one of them. It's just that with my cocktail of pill and gas, I love the dentist, mostly because I barely have any memory of the event, and I remember no pain, so I assume I love it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video, and wish me luck for tomorrow. While I'm sure it will be all good, I do always get nervous still!