Dental Drama, Part Two

Yesterday was my follow up with the dentist after the extractions (x3) I had done last week. I did so good with having my wisdom teeth out a few years back and had every hope that I would skate by this procedure the same way. In the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast..."

I mentioned the hole in my sinuses. It was feeling much better until I got the stitches out yesterday. It isn't opened back up all the way but there's a definite drip. I'm taking Sudafed for that as it worked pretty well last week. You'd be surprised how stuffy your nose gets when there's an extra passageway into it. If I'm still stuffy after Sudafed. I use vaporub.

My gums are healing pretty well. Getting the stitches out yesterday was painful but once the stitches were out it actually felt better. Except for the whole sinus thing. My main issue is my jaw. My jaw aches soooo much! Last week I kept ice on it almost constantly. This week I've been mostly using arthritis rub on the outside and orajel on the inside. Plus ibuprofen and my usual maintenance pain meds and the stronger meds the dentist prescribed. It's getting gradually better but it still hurts to chew. I went to the store yesterday and restocked on soft foods.

The dentist put me on amoxicillan last week. I've had so many antibiotics in my life that amoxicillan is like tictacs for me. I didn't protest though because I am already such a high maintenance patient with the narcotics agreement/pain thing. I didn't go into this procedure with an abscess or inflammation with these teeth so I was hoping there wouldn't be much problem with infection. Yesterday they asked if I had been taking the antibiotic and I said yes but admitted that amoxicillan never works. They asked what I usually take and my mind went blank. Usually my primary care doctor gives me antibiotic shots instead of pills. He asked if I'd had success with a z-pack - and I have - so I started that yesterday. Already I feel less ill.

This is only the first procedure out of about ten or so that I will have to suffer through to get to good dental health. Hopefully most of them won't be as painful as this one has been. Eventually I will end up with several fillings and several teeth built up to support partials. Being a single mom without dental insurance takes a toll and I'm paying for it now, both literally and figuratively. My dentist is a really kind man and was really sympathetic about how miserable I've been with this. He said it's just a matter of healing and I'm a slow healer. I go back in a week and a half but I'm supposed to come back before if I have any problems. Honestly, I'm tempted to go to my primary care doctor to see if my jaw is broken because it hurts so much!

At any rate. I read back through old blog posts about past dental trauma to remember the problems I've had in the past. This blog post is more for my records than for anything else but if you were curious, that's the story.

Today my little princess is six months old! Most people say that time passes in a blink but I feel like the past six months has been so eventful that it should be a couple of years that has gone by and not just six months. What a year this has been! Lots of happy... a few disappointments... a good bit of pain but I'm glad I've been here to live through all of it.

I guess that's about it for now... love and hugs, y'all!