Matthew's Journal

I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed yesterday. While it's not the way I wanted to spend a boat load of my money, it was necessary. So far the recovery has been fairly easy. In fact, I'm typing this from my office and not my bed.

I arrived at the oral surgeon's office yesterday a little before 8:00 am. The first thing I did was sign a consent form and hand over a check very close to the four-figure mark. Then I was taken back to the operating room and seated in a typical dental chair. They hooked me up to a heart monitor and checked my blood pressure. Next the doctor started my IV and started up the general anesthetic. The sensation of feeling the general anesthetic spread across my body was neat. From there I don't remember much. I have a vague recollection of the doctor injecting the local anesthetic in my mouth and my next real memory is my wife, Christina, standing next to me in the operating room asking me how I felt and if I was ready to leave. They brought me out to the car in a wheel chair and I was in pretty good spirits considering that I was still full of local anesthetic.

Once I got home, I sat in bed, drifted in and out of sleep, and held ice to my face for 15 minute intervals twice an hour. The worst pain I experienced yesterday wasn't all that bad and was quickly chased away with some Percocet. I managed the pain yesterday with a combination of Percocet and Motrin. Towards the evening I tried eating. I ate a bit of thin soup. Later in the evening I got really hungry and had some ice cream and then some french onion soup. Today I feel rather well. My mount aches a bit and it's sore and stiff, but overall it isn't bad and feels far better than I expected. I haven't taken any Percocet today, just some Motrin. Going by how I feel now, I'll probably try to work a full day at the office tomorrow. Now, I'm just counting the time until I can start to eat real food again.