In ten days' time I will have all four of my wisdom teeth extracted. Three are impacted, the fourth is a 'tricky' one.
I'll have it done under general anaesthetic - after talking with the surgeon he recommended it and, even if he hadn't, I think I would have asked for it.
I think I'm scared about the pain. I know it's coming, but don't know exactly what it will be like. I know there will be a needle for the IV drip - I hope that's the only thing I feel until after the surgery. The only thing is the surgeon said that I'll need to take pretty much the whole weekend off - the kind of pain is the kind that 'will have you rocking back and forth' and 'give your tail a good kicking'. Hmmm.
The nurse warned me to not choose a light coloured t-shirt, just in case - when they extract a tooth (or tooth fragment) - they drop it on me and I have a blood stained shirt to worry about as well.
The risks outlined in the brief consultation (other than the pain, which is guaranteed and therefore not a risk but a certainty) were nerve damage or a hole in the roof of my mouth. Nerve damage would be to the nerve running along each side of my lower jaw, just near my wisdom teeth as it happens; damage would result in the loss of feeling around my chin and lower lip, so I would have to watch out when shaving. A hole in the roof of my mouth would mean food or drink coming out my nose, but this can be repaired with a few stitches.
I am a little nervous about going under a general anaesthetic too. Mrs Hope has had three operations which required going to sleep and each time I have seen her fears of how she will react to it. Not that I have ever been around her when she did wake up - but she said she was sometimes overcome by sadness, or the groginess was disorientating. Perhaps it will be like being drunk?
So after the operation I will be watching what I eat - apparently nothing too hard (obviously) or anything that can crumble into little bits and get stuck in the four gaping holes in my jaw.
What's most worrying to me is that nothing has been mentioned about whether they will give me any pain medication to take home and use over the weekend.
Oh, and the ice-pack (please let that not be all I get to take home) costs $20.
