Author: JodiLea

I don't pretend to be who/what I'm not. I will be honest here unless I publish under the category "This could be news," which is 99% fiction and a wee bit sarcastic. ;-) I want readers who come here to have as much fun as I do. Not all subjects can be fun, but most can be funny if I do my job right ;-) My inner child is reflected in my logo and will change at a moment's notice.

The Dental Saga: A Second Week Rant

~ JodiLea

It has been over a week since the surgery. I see the surgeon tomorrow (snow permitting). Yes, we still have freezing temperatures, even if the sun is out. The sun gave up for the day because dark and gloomy clouds quickly gathered up. Have you noticed my writing skills are lacking descriptive prose and humor? I have no patience for niceties.

HA! My patience is getting lower each day, and why? Pain. I still am dealing with pain because I am forced to ration my meds. My surgeon, of all people, knows exactly why and what kind of pain I am dealing with. Let’s pretend that extractions were not part of it. That I am “only” recovering from my jaw being cut into for the bone graphs, shaving the bone, and 3 new implants. Oh, and just as an aside, my TMJ did not like my jaws being pried open for hours and is still complaining. If you are lucky enough to not know what TMJ is like, then I will just summarize what the pain is and not go into details – someone is hammering an icepick into my ear drum on both sides of my head. Sooo, with all that trying to heal at once, I’m a bit crabby.

Sweet and Lovable
2nd Week of Pain

Crabby, I can camouflage fairly well – I mostly bite my tongue and just say things in my head. However, in week two, the emotional toll is increasing, and my eyes keep leaking, causing my nose to need blowing, which hurts (of course), and so it begins the pity cycle all over again. If you think that only a pregnant woman is overly emotional and slightly nuts, you are mistaken.

I gave myself a “day off” from wearing dentures today. They were making me insane yesterday because I could not control them, and they would move and stab me in my gums. I can’t talk with them or swallow medication because my poor tongue is confused by what has become of my mouth. Anyway, since they were soaking in denture solution all day and not in my mouth, my gums feel a bit tight. I don’t know if that is good or bad. I only know that it’s painful. All I can do at this point is rinse (gently) with warm salt water. It helps more than I care to admit.

I’m unsure if this post completely expressed my angst, but I feel better now.
Thank you for listening.

TTFN

The Dental Saga: Operation Healing

~ JodiLea

I was never able to take a nap. Before I knew it, it was 8:30 pm and hubby went to bed. The first thing I did was take out the dentures – they were fixed in with denture goop. I rinsed them with warm salt water to loosen the grip before pulling them off my gums.

.The goop had helped the dentures stay in place. Unfortunately, it adhered to my gums enough to pull out stitches. Note to self – use less goop!

After a late dinner, I suddenly got hit with a chocolate craving. As an experiment, I took 2 Hersey’s kisses (melted), 1 tbsp of vanilla ice cream, and 1 tbsp of vanilla yogurt, and put them into a plastic glass. I microwaved all for 9 seconds, stirred, and nuked it for another 9 seconds. Stir and voila! It’s not fancy French or Swiss chocolate, but it was yummy enough for me at this point.

I got some great advice today – “Just take your pain meds and sleep until you’re better.” I plan to take that advice this weekend.

TTFN

The Dental Saga: Facing the Truth

~ JodiLea

I ran out of pain meds last night.

  • Unfortunately, that situation coincided with 3 other situations that I was forced to face.
    • 1. The sock-monkey look is gone. The swelling is much less now, so when I take the dentures out at night my entire face caves in. The thought of hubby seeing me like that makes me want to cry. So I brought out one of my prettiest COVID masks to wear when he is not sleeping.
    • 2. I can’t get the dentures into my mouth right and this is very painful. At my appointment with Doc today, I want him to watch me do it and verify they are in correctly. I am not putting them in so I
    • 3. 400 mg of Advil is doing nothing for the pain. I am quickly turning into the nasty old troll I resemble. I have to refrain from growling at my hubby, who after I told him the Rx was ready for pickup, completely went back to his puzzle. After 20 minutes, I asked him to go to the pharmacy. “Now?” he asks. “I was going to do the errands while you were in your appointment.” He’s getting better about reading me. He decided to run to the pharmacy now and drop off paperwork at the Sherrif’s station on the way back.

OK. I took a pain pill with my “lunch” and now I am going to try and sleep for an hour before I have to get dressed and go to the appointment. The Surgeon prescribed 12 pills (3 days worth). Monday I may have to look for a dealer all over again.

Sigh… The nap never happened and now off I go to Doc’s office. Stay tuned

Doc looked around my mouth and said to continue on as best I could. He and his assistant gave me their cell phone #’s so I could text them If I needed them this weekend. Not only did Doc show me how to put the dentures in, but he addressed the emotional side of all this sudden change. I was reacting to things (Like wearing a mask at home to hide my appearance from hubby, the grumpy, grieving, and emotional behavior that I was dealing with was completely normal and to be expected.

Get that, I’m behaving normally. Never expected that!

TTFN