Taking Turns Being on the Mend: David's Wisdom Teeth Extraction

My CAT scan results turned up no problems with my insides -- everything looked normal, or, as medical reports like to note, "unremarkable" -- which seems an unnecessarily pessimistic term to use -- I mean, can't they just say that my liver size was "normal," as opposed to "unremarkable"? I beg to differ that my liver is "unremarkable" -- it's gone through some pretty heavy partying over the years and still looks good. Anyway, so after all the testing, my gastro- doctor concluded that I must have some sort of virus and that the pains were caused by viral spasms. And now, a few days later, I feel much better. Not much tenderness, no more spasms, I feel good as new.

Now, it's David's turn to be a "patient" of a sort. He had all 4 of his wisdom teeth taken out surgically yesterday. It was a big procedure, since one was impacted, another was turned towards another tooth, one had a cavity... I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth pulled at once when I was 20 years old, and this was an almost barbarically simple procedure and a kind of anti-climactic experience, as tales of wisdom teeth pulling go: I had novocaine injections locally, and the dentist proceeded to pull out one tooth at a time -- or almost wrenched out one at a time -- and I could hear the crunching and feel the pulling, but it didn't hurt. I recovered quickly, ate everything just fine afterwards, and flew to Scotland for the summer.

(David after the teeth extraction -- photo taken with my mobile phone, in the "recovery room")

David's wisdom teeth extraction experience was more complicated. He had an intravenous sedation, which knocks you out, basically. He had a proper surgeon, whom I met, too -- he was nice, friendly, thorough and professional. While David had his operation, I waited in the "recovery room" next door -- which is basically a tiny room with a bed for the patient to rest on after the operation. The procedure was surprisingly quick. David was in and out in 30 minutes. He came out of the operation very happily trippy on the drugs he'd been given, and excitedly repeated, over and over, "That was fun! I want to do it again!" -- until he fell fast asleep for about 30 minutes.


After a thorough explanation of David's care and a few prescriptions for pain, we went home. David slept much of the remainder of the day, and I made him a big batch of broccoli soup. He was in too much raw pain to eat yesterday, but he's much better today, he can eat, very slowly and gingerly. For the next few days, it will be soft foods, rinsing with salt water, taking anti-biotics (which he hates to do -- this is my most difficult task, to get him to finish the required prescription amount).

We are relieved that the operation went smoothly, with no problems with hitting nerve endings or anything like that, about which we were concerned beforehand. Now it's making sure the four corners of his mouth heal properly.