Jose got all four of his (very impacted) wisdom teeth removed this morning. I took him to the office, waited for the 45 minutes it took to remove the teeth and the 30 minutes it took for the IV sedation to begin to wear off, and drove him home. I definitely understand why they require that you bring someone to take care of you — the whole way home he looked woozy and a little out of it. Every time we stopped at a light, he nodded off. I wonder if he’ll even remember the drive home.
Now I’m sitting here and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh, of course, because the process of getting ice packs on both sides of your jaw just makes you look like a cartoon character — it’s hard not to smile. But on the other hand, he just looks so tired, sad and injured. I’ve had very little experience with sick and injured people (certainly a good thing; my family and friends are a healthy bunch) and all I want to do is make it better, but I don’t know how! Hopefully that’s what the Vicodin is for.
He was in good spirits when we left the oral surgeon’s office, and even drew this little self-portrait upon seeing himself in the mirror. But it took the pharmacy a half hour to fill the prescription, so the pain was starting before we were able to get home and get some painkiller in his system. He finally fell asleep so I’m hopeful that when he wakes up, the pain will have subsided. The oral surgeon said he’d probably have slightly above average pain, and “should swell up real good.” Apparently maximum swelling doesn’t happen until three days later, so the ice packs will have to stay on for a while. My poor boy!
When I had mine out about two years ago, I ate vicodin continuously for about three days until the pain finally subsided enough to switch to 800 mg ibuprofen. Between the pain, the swelling and the oozing, all I wanted to do was sleep on the couch (which the narcotics greatly facilitated). It was three weeks to the day after my surgery that the pain finally went away altogether. And I had no complications. Good luck!
I also had 4 very impacted wisdom teeth out. I remember it well. It was at Christmas vacation, naturally, and I was playing with my church choir (flute). That was challenging.
Sarah- when my mom took me (I was 22 I think), she could barely get me into the car afterwards. I was so out of it that I kept sitting down on the floor, stairs, parking lot etc. all the way from the dr. office into the house. It took her forever to get me in the car because I was sitting on the parking lot floor and trying to go to sleep.