Extracted and Distracted in These Foolish Things

Tooth was extracted yesterday right around this time. It went off without a hitch, except for that my blood pressure reading was uncomfortably high. I understand why my pressure would have been high because I’ve been so stressed about this situation, but we took my BP again after I’d had time to calm down and it was still high. Since my injury last year I’ve been on powerful meds to keep it normal, so this was super weird to me.

But I will say that it was way less of a big deal than I thought it was going to be… YET. There were parts of the event that I would have much rather been asleep for: the sound of my tooth cracking as the dentist pulled each root out one by one, the sound and sensation of the sutures going through my gums, the pulling. It was weird.

Dentist sent me off with Rx for lots and lots of painkillers, which was also scary. So far, I’ve only had to take 2 Tylenol extended release tabs. Like, I only felt a little pain and discomfort last night and I happened to wake up in the middle of the night thinking, hmmm…there’s ZERO pain in my mouth. And then this morning? Nothing. So, hopefully, that’s it for the painful portion.

I am still walking around with a hole in my mouth, however. I won’t get the temporary fake tooth until my follow-up, which is in a little less than three weeks, I can handle three weeks with summerteeth, but I don’t think much more.

In fact, yesterday on my way to pick up the dog from daycare (she’s doing much better, by the way!), I was driving with the top down and passed by a man who got really close to my car as I rolled by. He was trying to get into his truck that was parallel parked on the street. He was standing in such a way that he could kind of poke his head over my car (more than 6 feet away but less than 10 or 12 feet) and say something like, “It’s a really nice day today!”

I had a GIANT wad of gauze in my mouth because my no-longer-there tooth was still bleeding and I needed to keep pressure on it until it stopped. So through my gritted, wadded mouth I said, “It sure is!” and waved to the guy.

Now. This is not someone I would have taken too much notice of, so I was not too embarrassed that I was looking like I’d lost a fight. In fact, my mouth was still numb, so it had kind of a stroke-like droop to it as well!

But as traffic moved and he came up around me, he yelled out his window to me, “DO YOU HAVE A MAN??!!”

And all I could do was nod yes…because REALLY?!

I suppose there’s someone for everyone. But I don’t think I represented myself very well yesterday. I’d like someone who’s going to appreciate the fact that I’m getting a false tooth due to pure vanity so I don’t have to look droop-face, gauze-packed and bloody-mouthed any more.

Until then,
GS