Hello!
So I got all of my wisdom teeth out on February 17th. I know many have had this done, but most people that I know only get two out at a time, while I got all four to just get it over and done with.
I was instructed to not eat past midnight the night before as my surgery was scheduled for 10 am. That morning I was starving, but I didn't eat anything because I didn't want to risk throwing up as I was put under for the procedure.
Day 1 (Surgery):
The total amount of time that the surgery took was about 30 minutes not including the 10 minutes that it took for the dentist to hook me up to everything and put me to sleep. Steven said that he could hear drilling from the waiting room as they had to cut my bottom teeth in half to remove them (yikes!). When I woke up I was shivering, but Steven was allowed in and covered me with a jacket until I was allowed to go home.
Unfortunately I wasn't acting high on the pain meds whatsoever. The one thing I did that was strange was due to being exhaustion as I've done something similar before. On the car ride home I was seeing double and decided to film the cars so Steven could see what I was seeing. Might sound like I was high there, but a few years ago I spilled cinnamon on my phone and took a screenshot to show my failure and when I looked at the photo I couldn't understand why the cinnamon wasn't showing up (face-palm).
I proceeded to stay in bed for the rest of the day (couldn't sleep) and took my medicine every three hours up until the max amount (7 codeine and three tylenol tablets they prescribed to prevent infections).
The only pain I felt was my throat because they put in a throat pack (not too sure what that is) to prevent food from going down the wrong hole while my mouth was numb. The only food I ate this day was lots of italian wedding soup (chewing the soft beef chunks with my front teeth), ice cream, and lukewarm hot chocolate.
Day 2:
My face was definitely swollen- especially on the left side because I fell asleep with my ice pack on my right side hehe. Here's a picture:
The only pain other than my throat (which is still the worst as it takes a few days for the throat pack to dissolve) is the stitches poking my cheeks strangely enough. My mouth is swollen on the inside near the stitches so I can't close my teeth together without puffing my cheeks out so I mainly look like I'm drugged out because my mouth is opened for a majority of the day.
I was still eating the same foods as day 1 because of the swelling and I'm afraid to pull the stitches out. I was able to finally rinse (they told me not to for the first 24 hours) so I did that with salt water to not feel as disgusting and help with the wounds. It didn't hurt at all to do the rinse, but I do have to do it at least three times a day to make sure my mouth stays somewhat clean.
One weird thing did happen today (twice): I was having chicken noodles for lunch and this was the warmest thing that I've eaten since the day before surgery (and I had ice cubes in it) and after I finished eating my stomach started to hurt, which turned into really bad nausea, that then turned into me getting really sweaty and dizzy (hot flash?). I sat outside for a few minutes and tried to catch my breath until I started feeling cold and was able to stand up again as my legs stopped shaking. I have a feeling that it's because I ate something warm and I just overheated from it (it's winter here in Canada so I've become accustomed to the colder climate at the moment). I then went downstairs and the only thing that is staying constant is a mild headache, but thankfully the weird hot flash situation only lasted 5 minutes in total.
The second time was similar and it happened right after rinsing with salt (I'm starting to think it has to do with the salt or when the pain meds wear off) and I once again had to step outside to get some fresh air. Unfortunately I felt nauseous for the rest of the night and because I'm trying to ween myself off of the pain meds it was really difficult to fall asleep comfortably.
Day 3 (Hell Day?):
My mouth really hurts. Where the stitches/wounds are is a bit sore, but my cheeks are extremely swollen on the inside from the stitches constantly poking at them and that's what hurts the most. I had warm chocolate for breakfast and since it's the third day I brushed my front teeth with a wet toothbrush with no paste on it. I'm down to one pain med every three hours (instead of two) so that'll be interesting. My face looks giant from the swelling. I'd say that today is the worst for the swelling inside and out of my mouth. I just want the stitches to stop poking at me. I wish I could stick gauze between my cheeks so they wouldn't poke at them and leave them so tender.
I ended up falling asleep for two hours and woke up starving. I ate pasta and tuna (overcooked so it was easy to swallow) and I feel so much better. It seems that my nausea only happens when I don't eat enough or drink enough. I think it's also the gross taste of my own breath considering I haven't ever gone this long without brushing my teeth (yuck).
I fell asleep for another three and a half hours until 6:30 when my birth control alarm went off. My face was on an ice pack so the right side is a bit less swollen than the left, but I'm once again starving. I'm two hours overdue for my pain meds so I need to get on that eating thing so my pain doesn't get worse.
Gross update: I threw up! I was feeling extremely nauseous once again because of how bad my own mouth tasted. Usually drinking water helps a bit, but this time I guess I swallowed the bad taste with the water and I threw up a bunch after running to the toilet. The surgeon said not to use mouth wash (I can start using non-alcoholic 4+ days after surgery) but I couldn't anymore so Steven mixed a 4-1 water to mouthwash mixture and I feel so much cleaner! Not recommending to do this, but I would honestly keep throwing up if I had to deal with the taste any longer.
Now I have to take my pain meds to go to sleep (two of them instead of one because one last night wouldn't let me sleep at all) and hopefully tomorrow will be much better than today.
Day 4:
I woke up feeling fine. The back bottom right tooth is still the most sore, but no new pain. The swelling has gone down a bit, which is nice. I've been up and about for close to an hour and have yet to feel nauseous. Steven is going to make me hot chocolate now and hopefully I still feel fine afterwards. Today I'm going to try one pain med every four hours and possibly even one at night, but I might still take two if my day doesn't continue as smoothly as it has in the last hour.
Right after eating breakfast (warm hot chocolate) I felt super nauseous again and almost threw up. I think my stomach is so sensitive at this point that everything makes me throw up. This time it was the sugar I'm pretty sure. Steven got me to do a salt water rinse, which helped a little bit and I drank a bunch of water.
It's now 2:10 and I feel better. I ate chicken noodles and didn't feel sick afterwards so that's great! I'm just spending my day on the internet because we can't find my law book for me to do my readings on. But I must say that sitting on the internet all day is dangerous because I just bought a setting powder (though I have been waiting for months for it to come back in stock). But yes. That is all from now. I like how the tenses in this blog post are all over the place. Basically I'm writing this as time goes on each day so it should all be in present tense, but the first few days are in past tense for no reason at all.
I slept a little bit throughout the day, but nothing much changed. My face still continues to be swollen, but I've stopped with the ice packs because they give me a bit of brain freeze. I need to eat really slowly or I'll get very nauseous, but I have Dairy Queen waiting for me in the freezer for tomorrow so I'm stoked about that.
Pain is ok. I was bleeding earlier and my right side is still sore, but I'm pretty sure I was bleeding from the left side. Weird.
Day 5:
It's 2:44 PM and I felt no nausea today. I had pancakes for breakfast, lasagna and ice cream for lunch and I only had one pain pill so far (and that was at 9:30 this morning). I still feel very drowsy and my face is swollen, but I did attempt to contour. Unfortunately I don't look like my normal self, but it's better than looking sickly.
Steven and I have packed up to head back to the apartment later this afternoon. Tomorrow I will be going to my last two classes, but I will also let my boss know that I won't be in this week due to how easily I become nauseous and I can't do anything that would make my head feel pressure as it makes my mouth bleed easily. But this week will hopefully go by quickly as we'll be moving the rest of whatever we have at the apartment back to Steven's mom's house. Chewy (my dog) loves this place and he will definitely be relieved to never have to see the apartment again (even though I will dearly miss it ((except for the crying baby underneath us and hard to control water temperature))).
Day 6:
Last night was decent. The pain on the top right side has gone down a little bit. I can how yawn and inhale deeply without a sharp shooting pain in that corner. It's currently 8:40 AM and I threw some rice on to mix with Tuna for my breakfast and lunch. There's no milk in the fridge so I couldn't even attempt a warm chocolate or a soggy cereal. I'm hoping that the rice will tide me over until dinner, but I may end up having to make scrambled eggs or something.
Side note: a few stitches fell out last night from the lower left side. I didn't feel any pain, but now I can close my mouth on that side without feeling that something large is in the way.
It's now 12:44 and when I yawn it hurts again. Not as bad as last night though. I also attempted to brush my teeth with just water a little bit, but my back teeth (not touching the stitches) have become so sensitive from not being touched for various days that they bled a bunch. I rinsed my mouth out with water, but I can still taste blood. I just can't wait until my mouth heals so I can go back to brushing my teeth properly and eating real food without the fear of things opening up my wounds.
Day 7:
Brushing surprisingly did not hurt today and I continued doing the same sort of things as yesterday so there's no real update.
Days 8-9
No difference, but I did accidentally cut out stitches from the top left of my mouth. I did feel a bit of sensitivity for the second day (day 9), but no real pain and no bleeding.
Day 10-15
I have started brushing my teeth a bit more while being careful to not touch the wisdom tooth areas. I'm also using my non-alcohol mouthwash because I can't handle the bad breath. I'm also eating less stressfully (not being super careful) and all has been good. The pain is gone and the swelling has mainly gone down, but I find that I still bite the inside of my mouth a few times.
Day 16+
Everything is completely back to normal now other than food getting easily stuck in the new crevices. No new pain, but it is annoying and I'm sure I'll get used to it. I still have one pain med left, which I'm saving just incase I bite down on something and it injures me, but I do not see that happening as I am eating pretty much everything now except for chewing gum.
I hope this was helpful/will be helpful! Let me know if you've read this and have had your wisdom teeth now or if you need them out. Don't be afraid to ask questions if I forgot to mention something :)
