Posted on May 21, 2011 - by Ashley Jackson
The State of My Third Molars
It’s been a little over a week since I had my wisdom teeth out (hence the lack of posting–I’ve been busy freaking out/being stoned on percocet/catching up with work). My jaw still aches off and on–it’s been hurting a bit this morning, no doubt helped by my lunch of fries and a chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A–but the pain was never as bad as I thought it was going to be. In fact, while I can’t say that I’d like to repeat the experience, I’d be a lot calmer about it the second time around.
Fortunately, I have no more wisdom teeth left to remove. Ha ha!
The worst part was when the local started wearing off in the car on the way home, hours before it was supposed to, and really, that was upsetting more because I knew it was going to hurt a lot worse if I didn’t get some pain meds than because of the actual pain. I ended up taking an extra day off work, and I’ve been sitting at my desk with my jaw cradled in an ice pack, but really, it hasn’t been that bad. I attribute much of my pretty awesome recovery to the skills of the oral surgeon–Blue Cross Blue Shield Federal Basic provided ONE option for an oral surgeon in Raleigh, and I’m glad that option was Dr. Gaines. ‘Cause if I have to have someone dinking around in my mouth with a knife, I want it to be the chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Rex Hospital. Also, my mom stayed with me for a few days and kept track of all my medications and made me eat and took my dog out. That helped a lot, too.
Of course, part of my speedy recovery is due to my bad-ass self. Who was talking on the way home from her surgery? That’s right, me. (Wait, that wasn’t a good idea?)
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I had an appointment about my blood pressure on May 2 and had the follow-up this past Tuesday. Being able to sleep + being on metoprolol was tanking my blood pressure (and by tanking I mean it was 100s/70s–this is tanking in comparison to what it used to be), and I was getting lightheaded a lot. So after an appointment with my PA, I went down to a half-dose of the BP meds, and now my blood pressure is around 117/76. (Of course, it wasn’t at my follow-up appointment, thanks to all the ibuprofen I’m taking for my jaw.) My pulse is still averaging 107 no matter what I’m on, which is disappointing. I’m also a little sad to be on BP meds in my mid-20s–I know it might just be the way it is, but it’s still a little disheartening. I’ve decided to spend the summer focusing on seriously improving my diet in the hopes that by doing so, I can drop some (more) weight and maybe that will bring my blood pressure down even more. There’s no doubt that I eat a lot better now than I used to, and I’ll even venture that I eat better than most Americans (this past week’s soft-fast-food binge aside), but there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
I’m now going to lay on my bed with my netbook and an ice pack.
And no, I’m not posting post-surgery pictures of my huge swollen face online.





















