Surgery successful, initial recovery less so...

Long story short: surgery on Wednesday was successful and the problematic wisdom teeth are now gone. The oral surgeon said they came out "exceedingly easily" and that I was only under the anesthesia for about 30 min, including prep time and clean up--which is very fast for removing three wisdom teeth. He also said the sockets were "not messy at all" and should heal up nicely with few problems. However, I've been out of commission ever since due to minor complications, ironically having nothing to do with my teeth, and it will still be awhile before I'm back online. Gory details after the cut for those interested: 

So apparently, I am part of that lucky small percentage of people who gets severe post-operative nausea from anesthesia. However, because I only got minorly sick immediately after waking up, we didn’t realize this until six hours later and because of the delay we then misattributed it to the Vicodin, thinking that if I just stopped taking the pain meds, I would also be able to stop regurgitating ice chips. Sitting in the ER at 10pm, by then in severe pain from not having had pain meds all day, and dry heaving my way through the poor nurse’s list of questions, I was seriously questioning the wisdom of my recent medical decisions.

A few minutes later however, the incredibly kind ER doctor gave me a magic pill which dissolved under my tongue and stopped my nausea almost instantly. He sent me home with another of said pills and an Ambien so I could just knock myself out until the anesthesia had worked out of my system and I could start taking pain meds again. The next day, I was feeling much better and my pain was pretty well controlled by OTC meds so I skipped the prescription meds all together. I could also eat and drink again--to my immense relief.

That said, going more than 24 hours without any real consumption of food or water left me pretty weak and I’m still recovering from that in addition to being just out of it in general because recovery periods are fatiguing anyhow. But on the upside, my new watercolor paints came in the mail today, so at least the weekend won’t be a total loss. I plan on painting, reading, and playing video games until I feel better.

[On a related note-- with the wisdom teeth gone, I do not feel less wise as my coworkers had taken to joking, but there is a curious side effect: I have had my wisdom teeth for almost a decade and suddenly not having them as well as being under strict instructions not to poke at the wounds with my tongue makes my mouth feel…oddly shorter. Which is a strange sensation. I have taken to telling people that when they ask me how I’m doing simply because of the novelty of getting to say it.

“How do you feel today?”

 “My mouth feels shorter but otherwise I'm okay.”

 It produces a satisfyingly confused expression from friends and family.]