Day 2: post surgery

May I just start out by saying that Nitrous Oxide (aka laughing gas) is the best stuff EVER?

Yesterday morning, I woke up at 6am realizing I over slept and forgot to take the two anti-swelling pills I was supposed to take at 2am (no joke.) So I got up, took them and noticed the 3rd pill in there that was supposed to be taken 6 hours after the surgery was crushed almost to powder. So I decided to ask the assistant for another one when I was done. After that, I couldn't go back to sleep. I decided to entertain myself with some RockBand and Facebook until it was time to have Jake get up. I took a quick shower (I took my longer one the night before) and changed into my clothes. My Dad arrived a whole hour earlier than anticipated, so the three of us watched some TV while waiting for the time to leave. And it came, way too quickly for me.

We arrived at the doctor's office and sat down. I signed a consent form acknowledging that I was to have a surgical operation, the risks involved and what kind of anesthesia I had chosen and the risks involved in that as well. Fun stuff to read: especially the last word of the risks involved with the anesthesia: DEATH. Woohoo for me :(. Then Jake had to fill out a consent form that he was to drive me home and left his cell phone number in case they needed him and he had left, or to tell him I was done. So, the time came. I walked into the office and was asked to go to the bathroom. Then they brought me in the actual surgical room and I sat on that half gurney/ half dentist chair. So then they took my blood pressure and put little monitor pads on my heart and the little oxygen clamp on my forefinger. Then they put this nozzle on my nose that was gray and had two big tubes on either side. First came oxygen, then with some Nitrous Oxide mixed in. This of course was when they administered the IV. The Nitrous instantly relaxed me and I was feeling goooooooooooooood. They numbed the area where the needle would go through and before I knew it, I had the IV in. Then they stopped the nitrous (dammit) and the next thing I knew, all I could remember hearing was "OK, 5 mg administered" from the surgeon and "See you soon honey" from one of the assistants. I didn't dream, nothing. But then, our of nowhere, I felt this really intense pressure in my mouth and it woke me up. It was the surgeon cracking my lower teeth apart and I said to myself "OH hell no!" So I started to move around to let them know I was awake and it hurt so bad that I started crying. All I remember hearing was the surgeon saying "Oh, she's waking up" and the two assitants saying "Laurel, it's OK, it's OK. You're almost done" and then falling back asleep.

The next thing I remember is feeling being wheeled to recovery and hearing Jake's voice talking to the assitant. She said I did fine. I saw Jake and my Dad and started crying a little, which the assitant said is pretty normal when girls have this done. Then, with WADS of guaze in my mouth, I said "I woke up" and Jake asked the assitant if I did, and she said I did but I did OK. She said they were almost done so they couldn't give me more anesthesia because they didn't know how long I would've been out, so I'm guessing they just gave me another shot or two of the nitrous to make me fall back asleep. So we sat there for about 20 minutes and I slowly came to full consciousness. They wheeled me out in a wheelchair after giving Jake a baggie with post-op instructions, some extra gauze, a flushing syringe to clean the sockets, and a little white box shaped like a tooth. So I get in the car and looked in the box. There they were...my teeth. Two whole ones from the top and pieces from the ones on the bottom. I went home, took some pain meds and had a 3 hour nap. I woke up looking like a chipmunk, but with ice and pain meds, I did fine.