Things have been weird and wild and wooly these past ten days or so. These things (the weird, wild and wooly ones) have kept me off the computer and thus (or thusly? I never know the correct placement of adverbs) from blogging (I'm going to stick with thus).A week ago I had oral surgery for the third time in two and a half years. This one sounded the most gruesome...but actually has been a breeze so far. A breeze unless I sneeze...more on that later.
So I needed three tooth implants. One was fine. But there was a place where two were needed where the bone had atrophied (common when teeth are missing) that implants were impossible unless a bone graft was performed on the area. But to accomplish this a sinus lift was needed.
I was a bit nervous but they put me out fast. I was getting dizzy soon as the IV drip begain dripping. Apparently when they made the initial incision they discovered that the bone they were planning to graft the new bone on was non-existent. They had expected to find a small layer of bone...but there was none to be found. So they got all excited and whipped out their cameras and began taking pictures because they felt this was an event publishable in a medical journal. They were going to have to come up with a new grafting procedure. It appears to have initially worked...but they really won't know for months.
If I do get published in a medical journal can I put that in my own curriculum vitae as having a work published?
Only downer is that they weren't able to complete what they were expecting to because they need to see if my system accepts the graft. This means that I will probably have a second graft (bone taken from my jaw) in about six months. Then once that solidifies they can go in and put implants. We'll have to let that heal for a couple of months. Then they'll put in the actually crowns. So I have at least a year before this whole mouth thing is "complete."
Strange side-note: It seems I was flopping around during the surgery...waving my arm around and stuff. The doctor actually had to bring me back to some sort of consciousness and ask for my cooperation and assistance. They then put me back out. It worked and I have no memory of it at all. So even when unconscious I cause problems.
I'm wearing these uncomfortable transparent retainers which cause me to lisp a bit although it's getting better. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have a permanent retainer "installed" on the lower teeth and that will make things easier. Yes, I was excited at the outset on having my braces taken off two weeks ago...but that was not nearly the end of the road as I orginally expected.
There's also a possible root canal in the near future.
But the surgery's aftermath has been surprisingly painless. There truthfully has been no pain...not even an ache. I'm off the prescribed narcotics and still no ache. I'm on a decongestant for a month because if I sneeze with my mouth closed I could dislodge the graft and tear the sinus membrane. So the fear of a sneeze hangs over my head like the fear of an atomic bomb over Kansas City in the movie The Day After.
Infection is also a possible worry so I'm on antibiodics that make me feel strange. Also my system could reject the bone graft. I still have a lot of hurdles to clear but so far it seems good. I was zoned out for a few days then I was back to work in less than a week. Easy work week too since we are giving semester exams and end the semester with three early release days.
I have my own final exam this evening. Not as prepared as I should be with all this other stuff going on. But I got a 99 on the first exam and an A on the 10 page research paper this semester. So my chances are good for an A even if I do average on tonight's three-essay test. Supposedly tonight's exam revolves around analyzing poetry. I can do that...I think.
So that and the holiday festivities have made for an interesting run of weeks. But tomorrow is Friday...and then it's Christmas Break! I can really use it.
