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Jun. 28th, 2002 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7recovering from oral surgery, i am gaining a new appreciation for eating... food... very... slowly.
i managed to munch/gnaw my way through baked chicken and potato, and a glass of wine, periodically jerking my head to the left to reduce the amount of corrosive substances falling into the gaping hole where my largest right sublingual salivary gland used to be so lovely and inflamed.
By the time i finished my family were all on their second glass of wine, and ann was actually lying down on her bench, napping. it took me a while. and i couldn't participate in the conversation.
it's a good thing i hadn't looked into my mouth in a mirror, or i wouldn't have been strong enough to put anything into my mouth.
i mean, there's a big hole in there.
There's one stitch, but the procedure the doctor performed (Dr. Smail of Troy, a grad of U of R), known as "marsupialization", involves cutting the top off of the dome formed by the swelling, and leaving it open to heal. The floor of the mouth is all soft tissues, and so it's very welcoming to healing into a new shape. I imagine it doesn't scar much. So for the moment, it's a giant hole, and quite ugly. The single suture will probably work its way out in the next day or two. The part where the novocaine wore off was excruciating, but has subsided. I managed some ice cream. Not much though. Perhaps this will be good for me.
I really wasn't expecting to have oral surgery today. I had a blocked submandibular salivary gland, on the other side, last winter, and went to Dr. Smail, and he poked at it, and said yup, that's what it is, but it's only partially blocked. I went to him twice, and each time he repeated this performance. I guess it wasn't severe enough for him to want to operate. And then, while I was away at school, it somehow healed itself. This one was worse, and I could feel that I was producing far less than the normal amount of saliva I was supposed to be. Ugh, drymouth.
I went to the doctor to get a referral to the oral surgeon, and the receptionist clicked her tongue and said "ooh it may take a while to get an appointment" (knowing my predicament with health insurance coverage expiring), and... I got an appointment for two hours later. A surprise...
So he poked at it for about two minutes, sat back, and said "ok, it's time", and within ten minutes, he was novocaining me. It took under five minutes, and there was a distressing amount of blood for a little while (i was starting to worry how much it would hurt once it wasn't numb...), and he was like okie dokie, all done, bye bye. I got home and Mom started bullying me to clean stuff up before I left, but she relented when I showed her the hole in my mouth (which i hadn't seen then) and she saw what obvious pain I was in.
Tum te tum. First time I've had surgery in a while. Yummy. Eck, I hope it feels better tomorrow; I have big things to do.
I've packed, mostly, but man, bringing nice clothes is not my specialty. What do you do to keep them from being all wrinkles???
Ah well.
Ta ta for now, I must go. Again, do let me know, you City-dwelling folk, if you'd like to meet up with me during my sojourn in the area.
;p
i managed to munch/gnaw my way through baked chicken and potato, and a glass of wine, periodically jerking my head to the left to reduce the amount of corrosive substances falling into the gaping hole where my largest right sublingual salivary gland used to be so lovely and inflamed.
By the time i finished my family were all on their second glass of wine, and ann was actually lying down on her bench, napping. it took me a while. and i couldn't participate in the conversation.
it's a good thing i hadn't looked into my mouth in a mirror, or i wouldn't have been strong enough to put anything into my mouth.
i mean, there's a big hole in there.
There's one stitch, but the procedure the doctor performed (Dr. Smail of Troy, a grad of U of R), known as "marsupialization", involves cutting the top off of the dome formed by the swelling, and leaving it open to heal. The floor of the mouth is all soft tissues, and so it's very welcoming to healing into a new shape. I imagine it doesn't scar much. So for the moment, it's a giant hole, and quite ugly. The single suture will probably work its way out in the next day or two. The part where the novocaine wore off was excruciating, but has subsided. I managed some ice cream. Not much though. Perhaps this will be good for me.
I really wasn't expecting to have oral surgery today. I had a blocked submandibular salivary gland, on the other side, last winter, and went to Dr. Smail, and he poked at it, and said yup, that's what it is, but it's only partially blocked. I went to him twice, and each time he repeated this performance. I guess it wasn't severe enough for him to want to operate. And then, while I was away at school, it somehow healed itself. This one was worse, and I could feel that I was producing far less than the normal amount of saliva I was supposed to be. Ugh, drymouth.
I went to the doctor to get a referral to the oral surgeon, and the receptionist clicked her tongue and said "ooh it may take a while to get an appointment" (knowing my predicament with health insurance coverage expiring), and... I got an appointment for two hours later. A surprise...
So he poked at it for about two minutes, sat back, and said "ok, it's time", and within ten minutes, he was novocaining me. It took under five minutes, and there was a distressing amount of blood for a little while (i was starting to worry how much it would hurt once it wasn't numb...), and he was like okie dokie, all done, bye bye. I got home and Mom started bullying me to clean stuff up before I left, but she relented when I showed her the hole in my mouth (which i hadn't seen then) and she saw what obvious pain I was in.
Tum te tum. First time I've had surgery in a while. Yummy. Eck, I hope it feels better tomorrow; I have big things to do.
I've packed, mostly, but man, bringing nice clothes is not my specialty. What do you do to keep them from being all wrinkles???
Ah well.
Ta ta for now, I must go. Again, do let me know, you City-dwelling folk, if you'd like to meet up with me during my sojourn in the area.
;p
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no subject
Date: 2002-06-29 08:49 pm (UTC)i really really wish i could meet up with you this week but again, fate (or rather, my family) seems to be conspiring against me. between my stupid allergist appointment, dental appointments and my mom being on vacation, it doesn't seem like i can break away at any given time, unless you want to meet up for lunch. let me think- yes lunch, tuesday or wednesday! holy smokes, that just may work out. now if this message gets to you, and you are free, then we are halfway there.
let me know if/when you can.
Completely irrelevant...
Date: 2002-06-30 11:53 am (UTC)