So, the nurse gave me laughing gas about 15 minutes before the doctor came in to induce anesthesia. Absolutely no effect. I think I have conscious control of my blood pressure or something. The doctor came in and stuck me with a needle and I closed my eyes, excepting to drop off to sleep: um... no. I was very surprised when I felt them yanking on my mouth - it didn't hurt, really, but I felt it. I figured I would be out soon and kept my eyes closed. I was a little delirious from the meds, but I was awake the entire time. It was super weird. I don't know if they just didn't give me enough anesthesia or what. Don't worry - I was completely numb. Still am, in fact. But when I signed up for the surgery, I put a big fat check mark in the "I DO NOT want to be conscious for the procedure" box. Instead, I sat there in a daze with my mouth pried open for 20 minutes while some guy dug 4 teeth out of the back of my head. Bizarre.
When it was all over and the nurse told me I could get up, I was completely coherent - I just felt sleepy. I didn't have any problems finding my balance or answering questions or anything. I expected this, because that's exactly how it was with my eye surgery. No amusing side effects whatsoever. The only thing that happened was that I felt a strange urge to cry - I almost did when I was telling my mom I couldn't feel my face. My voice got all quavery and stuff. And then I was like "why the heck am I crying?" and started to laugh.
The worst part so far was having to have gauze in my mouth for like 4 hours afterward. SO inconvenient. How are you supposed to talk to anybody like that?? The best part was when I finally got to eat some yogurt after going without food for 24 hours. (I only had to do 8 hours without food, but I wasn't really thinking. I had dinner last night at 6 and the surgery was at 1 pm. The last time I could have eaten was 5 am... needless to say, I was asleep at the time.) I spent most of today napping with bags of frozen peas on my face, some on the computer, some watching August Rush with my mom with frozen peas on my face, and THEN Heidi B. and Kaitlin Pallas came to visit me! What sweethearts. I was at Ben's with Heidi yesterday, so she was aware of today's event. They brought me a cupcake that I can't eat yet. haha.
And that is the saga of my surgery. I'm hoping that the current trend continues and that my face will stay relatively unswollen and the pain will remain at a minimum, but I'm told that days 2 and 3 are usually the worst. Eep!This is me on day one. No shower, no makeup, no attempt to tame my hair in any way, and no resemblance to a chipmunk yet! It could be much worse!
wow, that is so different from my experience! I had no laughing gas (sadly, because I had it once before and it was a trip and a half!) but they gave me the anesthesia, which didn't work for me either. So they gave me a double does and I was still wide awake...but with the third does I was out like a rock! I too cried when I woke up, and I also hated the gauze in my mouth. My sockets wouldn't clot though and they just kept bleeding and bleeding, to the point of worry. So the doctors told us to place black tea bags on them (we went to the grocery store to buy some, since you know, we don't drink black tea...) and it was so gross! I had black tea mixed with blood dripping down my throat. Blech.
ReplyDeleteWell, they eventually clotted overnight, but of course I couldn't be done yet! I had to go and start throwing up from too much blood being in my stomach. So the next day I was throwing up quite a bit, and the force made my clots come undone! So more black tea and gauze for me! Luckily I didn't get any bad dry sockets, and everything eventually healed. But too this day I still have a cavitated hole where one of my teeth was removed.
And I ballooned up like a chipmunk. Hip ho-friggin'-ray. BUT, I'm really glad that you're surviving, it went well, and had a somewhat awesome experience of being semi-conscious! I would've said something to them to put me out more, but at the same time it would've been fascinating...
wow! You are lucky. And, your experience was extremely different from mine. I think you might remember my swollen chipmunk cheeks. Ben and I were twinners for a while actually. I'm glad that you are doing well! That makes me happy. I wish I was in Utah so I could bring you some awesome ice cream and then we could laugh together about life. :)
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