A Relaxing Saturday At Home...

Third day after the surgery. Yes, I did wake up with a little bit more pain compared to yesterday but it wasn't excruciating pain. There was just a slight discomfort at the area where the teeth were extracted from. My jaw was a tiny bit tighter compared to the day before and Kevin said he thinks there is a slight swelling on the left side of my face. After taking my pain killers and rinsing with salt water, the discomfort and swelling went away. It came back on later in the day when I was 2 hours late in taking my pain pills but it went away almost instantly once I took my pain killers. I guess the pain killers are really keeping me happy and comfortable :D I hope the pain and swelling will not increase tomorrow, let's just keep on praying for a speedy recovery!!

I am so sick of eating all the bland and mushy food! Can't wait to go back to normal solid food. I have upgraded to something a tiny bit more yummy today. I had Chef Boyardee's Mini Os for dinner today...Yay! At least something different. I really cannot take another bowl of bland porridge or mash potatoes anymore :P Guess I will stick to canned pasta and stuff like that for a couple more days before deciding what's next.

Oh, before I forget...check out the skyline of the city during Earth Hour today. Almost everything was in darkness, except for some of the mandatory street and safety building lights. It was such a sight to behold, the entire city just 'disappearing' before our very eyes!

Pretty cool, eh?

2nd Day After The Surgery

I recovered pretty well after the surgery yesterday. It took me about a little over 3 hours to completely stop the bleeding. I just had to continue changing the gauze every half an hour to 45 minutes. From what I read on the Internet, 3 hours is considered pretty good. The gross part is a wastepaper basket full of bloody gauze :P Wanna see? Let me warn you first, it's very gross and bloody. If you think you still want to see it, click here.

The oral surgeon prescribed me some antibiotics (Amoxicillin) as well as some pain killers (Hydrocodone). I really didn't feel any pain at all yesterday. In fact, by the time I went to sleep last night, my chin, lips and tongue were still numb! I was a little bit concerned because I read online that my nerve might be damaged . Kevin and I prayed real hard that it wasn't and when I woke up today, the numbness was gone! PTL!

I also had two big ice packs going on both sides of my face. The dentist instructed that I should have it 20 minutes on and 10 minutes off for the whole day. I guess my tiny cutey frog cold gel pack wasn't good enough. Kevin had to go get those big ice bags for me and went to McDs to buy a huge packet of ice :D

I was pretty much on a liquid diet yesterday, some milkshake, yogurt and I had some mash potatoes for dinner last night. I really didn't want to push it on the first day, so I just had light meals. I also realized that most of the soups that we bought the day before were chunky soups! How silly..I might have some trouble chewing all those chunky meat and pasta :P We shall see.

I braced myself for all the swelling and pain that was supposed to begin on the 2nd day. I woke up early today, expecting the worst and guess what? Totally no pain or swelling! The oral surgeon did say that I might have some difficulty in opening my mouth due to the soreness but I could open my mouth without any problems. The dental nurse gave me a call early today to check and see how I was doing. I told her I'm doing great, no pain yet! She was pretty pleased and told me that I should start rinsing my mouth with salt water every 3-4 hours. That will also help with the healing process. I made myself some really watery porridge with tiny chicken pieces and carrots today. Left it in the slow cooker for about 10 hours, so it was nice and mushy by dinner time :D

Kevin bought a selection of milkshakes (chocolate, strawberry and vanilla) and a hot fudge sundae from McDs for me after work today. So niceee....It's all in the refrigerator and I can take sips of milkshake whenever I want! So yummmy.

Well, it's almost time for me to take my antibiotic and pain killer meds. After that, I'll most probably drift to la la land...them painkillers ALWAYS make me drowsy! I am expecting the pain and sore feeling to come tomorrow. We shall see. As usual, I'll keep you guys updated!! Goodnight!

Surgery's over!

Just a short post before the Novocain wears off. The oral surgeon removed all four of my wisdom in about 25 minutes. It was almost painless, except the part where he had to inject all four sides of my gums. I think the Nitrous Oxide helped a lot, it sorta put me in another state, it felt good :P The oral surgeon had some problems extracting the tooth that was growing sideways, so he had to drill it and break it into a few pieces. The broken tooth on the right side also gave some problems. There was a small piece of tooth that just refused to come out. He somehow got it out at last. Other then that, everything went well. I just have to return next Thursday to remove the stitches.

I am still biting on to the gauze on both sides of my mouth. The bleeding should stop in a bit. I am certainly not looking forward to the Novocain wearing off :( I now have two ice packs on both sides of my cheeks. The oral surgeon said to keep it on until tonight. The more ice I put on it now, the less pain and swelling I will have tomorrow. Oh well, I'm going off to rest now. Thanks for all your prayers and concern. I'll try to update more later on. Cheers!

Day Before The Dental Surgery

It's here at last! I'll be having all four of my wisdom teeth taken out tomorrow morning. The oral surgeon will be using local anesthesia as well as nitrous oxide (laughing gas) in the procedure. Boy, I hope there won't be much pain. Just pray that everything will go on smoothly and that there won't be much pain :P

We went to get some groceries today. Kevin says that I will pretty much be in pain for a few days after the surgery, so we went to get some easy to make food for him as well as soups for me.

Kevin got some microwave meals as well as some cheese and ham to make sandwiches. He also picked up some hot dogs. Looks like his meals are all set for the next few days. I got a few different types of soups and yogurts.

We also picked up a cold gel pack, some witch hazel (my MIL said that it's good to calm pain) and some Advil PM (in case the painkillers prescribed by the dentist runs out and I am still in pain).

Looks like we are all set. Just continue to pray for me, for the procedure to go well and also for a speedy recovery. I'll my best try to blog after the surgery tomorrow!! :D

Help! I have a toothache :(

My left wisdom tooth started to hurt a little sometime last week when we were in Pittsburgh. I didn't think much of it but it became worse and worse. The left side of my head began to hurt and my left jaw was hurting like crazy. I had to pop Advil and used Orajel like a crazy woman to get some minor relief for my headaches and toothaches. I knew then that I had to go to the dentist. I am not a big fan of the dentist but the pain was killing me. I called 1800-dentist to look for a dentist that is located somewhere near our area and also someone that accepts my dental insurance. They recommended Smile Today in Nutley and I made an appointment for this morning.

When I said that I am not a big fan of the dentist, that's actually an understatement :P I am actually kinda terrified of the dentist (yes la, I can hear Sharon Ong going...scared what?). I don't even know why I am terrified of the dentist..hahaha. Anyway, I went in early today and it was a nice looking clinic. Very friendly staff and the dentist was pretty cool too. She took a look at my teeth and said that they will take an xray. You folks wanna see?

Well, from what she sees and from the xray, she said that I should just extract the wisdom tooth that is giving me the problem. She also said that I might as well remove all four of my wisdom teeth, since two out of the four is bad and another one is growing sideways. The dentist then referred me to two oral surgeons for me call on Monday (they are not open on weekends) to set up an appointment. She said she is not sure if the oral surgeon will remove all four or just the one that is giving me problems, I guess I'll know once I call them on Monday.

I really hope I can get an appointment to extract the tooth soon, I'm in so much pain. She thinks they should be able to slot me in sometime next week. Meanwhile, she prescribed me some pain killers ( Tylenol #3 with Codeine). Anything with Codeine is good :P I'm supposed to take it once every four hours but the pain comes back after 3 to 3 and the half hours. That's when I have to put on some Orajel and stuff. Man, I just can't wait to remove this tooth!! Another thing sucky about this meds is that it makes me drowsy! After taking the meds in the afternoon, I think it knocked me out cold for a good part of the afternoon..haha.

Guess how much we paid for the dentist to take a look at my teeth, xray as well as pain killers? ZERO dollars! Looks like the insurance covered all if it. We were expecting to pay at least some sort of a minimal payment but we were pleasantly surprised when we found out that we didn't have too!! Yay! Oh and checkout what I got to eat earlier today. Some super yummy, silky and soft HK Shrimp Chee Cheong Fun that we bought from 555 Asian Supermarket. Just perfect for people with a bad toothache :D Double Yay!!

Aaarrgghhh, it's beginning to hurt again. As long as the pain killers are working, I feel fine. In fact, I would sometimes even forget that I am having tooth problems. It's only when it begins to wear out, then it's hell all over again. Please pray that I will get an appointment as soon as possible to fix this and that I will not be in so much pain until then.

More photos from UPMC Passavant

Kevin's mom wasn't feeling that great when we visited her the next day after the surgery. The nurses took away her morphine drip and her knee was really really painful. She asked them to bring back the morphine later on and of course the pain subsided (they took her off the morphine drip the next day and she is now just on pain pills). We were there pretty early in the day, so her flow of visitors hasn't started yet. The nurses had already helped her onto a wheel chair so that she can sit up comfortably while she ate her food. Here is a photo of Kevin watching TV in his mom's room.

We just love her room. Here is a photo of all the balloons and flowers that she has gotten so far. The big bouquet of flowers are from her choir group and the smaller one at the top of the cabinet is from her good friend Meg and Meg's dad. The smiley face balloons and candies are from her other friend and of course the sunshine face balloon bouquet is from us. I love how flowers and balloons just brings a ray of sunshine into a hospital room.

This is the whiteboard at the other side of the room. Can you see some cards printed out below the telephone number? UPMC has this website where friends can go to send e-cards to patients. All you need to do is go to this website, click on the type of card that you would like to send and fill in your message. It will be sent to the mailbox of the respective hospitals and the nurses at the nurses station will print it out in full color and deliver it to the patients. Very very cool. Oh, and it's FREE!

Some of you might be wondering what the food is like at the hospital. Gone are the days where you get a standard meal on a tray with a weird piece of jello. These days, it's just like ordering room service from a 5 star hotel. Check out the menu.

Looks so nice, hor? Like some restaurant menu. Wanna see what's inside? They have such a wide selection, looks better than the average restaurant! You can basically get anything you want from this menu.

There are also no standard mealtimes for the patients. You can call and order your meal anytime during the day before 7pm. You can order whatever you want and call as frequent as you want. Here is Kevin ordering his mom's lunch as well as her dinner. You can just pre-order your food for the entire day so that you do not have worry about not having any food during a certain mealtime, just in case you forget to order your food.

We are really pleased with the comfort level, cleanliness as well as the attitude of the doctors and staff in this hospital. I feel that all this little things makes recovery a whole lot faster. We are now back in NJ and Kevin's mom will be there for another week. Of course we feel bad that we cannot stay any longer but Kevin needs to work. I guess it helps to know that this hospital has staff and facilities that are a class above the rest and we can rest assure that she is in very good hands. :)