Sunday, January 8, 2012

I Got the Ill Communication

I haven't been using the word "but" as much as I used to which goes right along with making no excuses this year. So far everything I've done has been something I either wanted to do or it was going to be a direct long term benefit.

Then there was the dentist last Friday and it was tough to remind myself how it could be considered a good thing.

About a year ago the tooth around the root canal filling I had put in many years ago, cracked. Because there was a root canal the crack didn't hurt or anything it just started becoming an annoyance and I knew the tooth really shouldn't be there anymore. It had to go but...and this is where I attempted to make an excuse...my fear of the dentist had me wanting to cancel and curl up in the corner instead.

But...and this is where I reversed the excuse on myself...I stopped listening to my nervous but(t) and made the appointment to have the extraction.

I won't go into detail all I'll say is my dentist said she never saw someone metabolize Novocaine that fast before. Yeah, I probably should have told her about my inner racing mind & body. Multiple shots of Novocaine plus one of epinephrine later and my poor little face had one more hole created inside it.

Matt was sure to be happy, I was finally going to keep the random babble to a minimum for a couple days.

Like I said on FB, pain is not my BFF so I picked up my prescription for vicodin on the way home & started taking it right away.  I felt no pain throughout the day but other than that benefit I started to wonder why people were clamoring for that on the down low.  I didn't feel anything.  Hmm, I guess maybe that's the point.  At any rate, the day went by fine, I drank soup and protein shakes, swallowed some strawberry yogurt, and ate cheezy puffs that dissolved in my mouth to stay nourished.  Truth be told I was starving (shocker), plus I wasn't allowed to smoke all day which was a nice side bonus.  I took my last pill of the day around 10:00 and went to bed around 11:00, glad to have the whole thing behind me.

Then at 6:30 Saturday morning I found out why I will never take that much sought after white pill again. I woke up so nauseous and with such heavy clammy chills and shaking body that I started to freak out that something had gone wrong with the extraction. I could hardly get to and from the bathroom without weaving all over the 8 feet between me and the door. 

It nerved me so much I woke up Matt, something I'd never do on his sacred weekend hours of sleep under normal circumstances. These weren't normal circumstances.  He rubbed my back for a few and then made a bunch of sense that I was probably dehydrated & lacking in protein since my body was probably using anything I'd put in the day before in trying to heal my face. I agreed and grabbed one of the protein shakes I had picked up for my liquid diet.  I drank as much as I could as quickly as I felt my body would let me and then went back to sleep.

I spent until about 10:30 in bed then until about 3:00 on the sofa purging that heavy medication out of my system through ingestion of lots of liquids. Luckily I never lost my cookies. It scared the crap out of me though and today I'm just thankful my pain is almost gone because I don't even want to take a Tylenol.

At least I found out and it will be quite unlikely I ever have the need to go on that stuff again. Guess I can add it to percoset as another prescribed med I just can't handle. And people wonder why I keep smoking and drinking, they're my only possible vices, no pills for me!

I'm back to my usual self today except a little achy pain but my plan for the rest of the day is to lie down.  For a while anyway. Enjoy your Sunday and I'll catch up with all of you next week.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ouch! That sounds painful! I've had an extraction, and I was sooo loopy afterward. And it was that kind of loopy when you're acutely aware of just how loopy you are, but you can't do a damn thing about it. But a root canal? Yikes! Can't even imagine.

Were you already on a liquid diet before the extraction, or because of it? Can you start eating solid foods again?

#1Nana said...

Just what I needed to read (this written in the sarcasm font.) My dentist appt. is at 9:30 tomorrow morning. I did exactly the same thing and lost half a tooth eating carmel corn over Christmas. I never even thought about extraction!!! I figured it would just be one more crown. God I hate going to the dentist even more than the gynocologist.

Hope you feel better soon.

Jenn Flynn-Shon said...

That's the worst, I seriously hate having that out of control feeling where you want to be in control but can't be. Luckily I wasn't on the liquids until the pull.

Back on solids now, irrigating the area twice a day with salt water so I'm chewing on the right side only. But because they gave me a temp crown that's a little tall on another left side tooth, I can't close all the way to chew anyway. Yea weight loss! Ugh...

Yeah, I know exactly how you feel about DMD v GYN Jann...I'm sure you'll do fine this morning but hopefully not in too much pain right now, a cracked tooth w/out a root canal since Christmas sounds pretty awful!

Suldog said...

Dehydration is a strong possibility. Both hydrocodone (Vicodin) and oxycodone (Percocet) do act as diuretics, to a degree. However, I'd say it was probably mostly just nerves. Since they both act to repress central nervous system function, the effect from coming off of them is sometimes a rebound to more nervous action than some find comfortable.

I'll take this opportunity to also advise those using such meds to remember that they both contain acetaminophen (Tylenol), and that overdoses of Tylenol can permanently damage the liver, so it is imperative to watch the dosage and NOT combine with Tylenol of any sort.

(No, I'm not a pharmacist, but I'm a firm believer in educating oneself on the drugs one chooses to take, whether prescribed or for recreational purposes.)