The only thing I’m grateful for is that I’m pain-free and I was 99% pain-free from day 1. All the rest is just awful…
Day 8: I went back to the doctors’ office for my first check-up. I asked about this pain I was feeling along my jaw going straight up to my ear but they said it’s because I iced my face too well and I didn’t chew on my left side. I was advised to start chewing normally on both sides and massage my face in order for the face muscles to start working again (they were actually right because after one day of massage and chewing normally the pain completely went away). Finally the stitches were removed and I was sent home with the reassurance that everything looked great.
I wanted so badly to finally go out and have a normal dinner, instead of having soft food all day every day, that we had a celebratory dinner at an Indian restaurant that evening. The chicken curry was absolutely fantastic, I was chewing normally and I was feeling great… until I felt like something was stuck there where the upper right tooth used to be. I went to the bathroom to rinse and noticed a piece of rice fell out. I looked into my mouth to see how could it get stuck up there at all but it was too far behind so I couldn’t see the upper part where my teeth were removed. I did catch a short glimpse of the lower area: instead of a nice smooth surface, I saw a big cut and inside it a big hole with a black bottom. I literally freaked out at that point! I thought the whole point of the stitches were to help the hole close! I thought the stitches are removed only when the hole healed and it’s closed!
Day 9: I called the doctors’ office the next morning and they reassured me that this is absolutely normal and I should clean the area and the hole properly after every meal. If there’s something stuck which I can’t rinse out, I should call them. I followed their instructions but with a hole that big it didn’t take that long and on the same day in the evening I noticed something white-ish which didn’t go out with rinsing only.
Day 10: I called them the next morning and rushed right over. They took it out (no idea what it was but apparently it’s normal if some white stuff appears in the hole, it’s all part of the healing process) and they disinfected it. When I rinsed after the disinfectant I saw some blood too, which was kinda scary.
As I was brushing my teeth after lunch I noticed more blood. I’m not sure if I touched the wounds with the toothbrush but now in the evening it seems that the bleeding stopped.
I hope the blood clots are ok, otherwise there’s a big chance I’ll develop dry socket, which, based on what I heard, is not pleasant.
They also gave me a syringe to use to clean the hole easier. I should spray water in the hole and that should take out the food particles. I’m not sure how much that’s going to help but it’s only day 10 and it might take months till the hole closes so I’ll have to do this for months?!?! I want this to be over already!
Day 12: the syringe is not helping at all. I decided to invest in proper equipment to clean the wounds so I bought a mouth shower.
I felt the difference from the first usage. What brushing, rinsing and cleaning with the syringe couldn’t do, does the mouth shower right. I’m very happy, even though it costed a fortune and I’ll probably not use it so often after the wounds are healed. But if it does a proper job now, I’ll consider it a well-made investment!
Update: Week 3 starts with another visit to the doctors’ office to clean the wounds. The nurse and the doc said that there was nothing in the wound, although I was sure I saw something in there. I don’t know if my mind is playing tricks on me or what but I’m definitely worrying too much about this. It’s just so frustrating and I feel like this will never end…
FitGeekGirl 