Diary of a Wimpy Man

I am starving right now!  That’s usually what happens a few hours after oral surgery, which I had earlier this morning.  Right now I’ve got a mouthful of gauze and not only do I have to keep it pressed in there until bedtime, but I can only eat “soft” foods until then, too, which is kind of hard to do around the gauze…

Wimpus Maximus

This morning’s surgery was the first of two I’m going to have in a week.  I’ve actually been a bundle of nerves for the past two weeks at least because of it, not getting much sleep, having scary dreams when I do, and just not being able to think of much else beyond that.  Yes, I am a Wimpus Maximus of the worst kind!

Other than oral surgery and an in-office procedure I had in 1994 to remove a cyst, I’ve never really had surgery before.  Having said that, I’m not really much of a doctor person, either.  Any sort of situation where pain may be involved is a situation I like to avoid, but this week’s surgeries are a long time coming and I’m having both of them done because I promised myself I would before summer comes, and so…

Bone Grafting

Today’s visit to the dentist consisted of a pulled tooth and what is called “bone grafting.”  Sounds pleasant, right?  Right!  Well, all of this is in preparation for dental implants which I am going to need sometime in the near future.  I have gum disease and so at 47 years of age, the bones around my teeth are not as expansive as they once were.  Before I can have implants put in, I need have this done so they can have something to hold on to. 

The procedure I had today involved depositing this gravel-like stuff under the gum line, and it is supposed to expand a bit and mimic the bone that used to be there so that eventually there’ll be something to hold the implant in place.  Yesterday one of my teacher buddies winced when I told her what I was having done, which didn’t help matters any as far as my wimpiness was concerned.  She said her husband had had that done a few years ago and it was really painful.  Thanks Ter! 

Hehe, I knew she felt bad right after she said it, and she did check in with me early this morning to try and ease my apprehension, which I really appreciate.  I know she didn’t mean to scare me, but whattyagonnado? The procedure took all of five minutes, and thanks to good ole Novocain, it didn’t hurt a bit…during the process anyway.

The pain afterwards hasn’t been too bad either.  Yeah, a couple of hours later it started to throb a bit and I couldn’t really focus on anything until I took a pain prescription the dentist had given me.  A four-hour nap afterwards helped, too, lol.  The worst part of the whole thing really is that I have to keep gauze in my mouth all the way until I go to sleep, otherwise the gravel-ly stuff might come out.  Eeewwww, right?    Gauze does not taste good, and I could say some more about that, but I don’t want to gross anyone out.

Hopefully in the morning all will be good and I can start looking forward to next Wednesday, the really big show!

Surgery – The Real Deal

Before I go on here, I want to reiterate that I am a wimp of the highest proportions.  I know that people suffer through a lot worse procedures than I’m going to experience and they grin and bear it.  I will, too, but I just can’t help but worry about it all the way until it happens.

The surgery itself is kinda private, so I’m just going to leave it up to your imagination to think of what it is, but my doctor did tell me that it is going to be painful.  Yikes!  Because of the pain involved in this surgery, he’s keeping me overnight in the hospital, which I’ve never done before either.  He tells me I’m going to have a “morphine pump” to help with the pain.  Oh joy!

To make matters absolutely worse is that my mom just happens to be going to Florida the very same day of my surgery.  I know that I’m 47 years old, but momma is still momma and she’s the one person I know that would be with me throughout it all, and I would want her to be more than anybody else.  Instead, I’m going to get dropped off at the hospital the day of the surgery and picked up the next day.  Not that I want visitors by any means, I really wouldn’t want anyone but her to be there with me afterwards.  It kinda sucks…woe is me, lol.

So, one down and one to go, and so far so good.  I just know that the next five days are going to go by in a snap and I’m probably not going to get a wink of sleep between now and then, but I’ll be a happy man once it’s all behind me.  Can anyone say Memorial Day on Fire Island?  I can’t wait!  In the meantime, wish me luck.  

Image Source: Weird Space

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