Help me calm my nerves!!! Wisdom teeth removal...

Not quite the same but I had my 12yo molars removed and I was awake for it. It isn't that bad. It will be worse if you leave them in.

I had four of my adult teeth removed when I was younger (12?). I have a small mouth! Gosh it was one of the worst experiences of my life. I remember sitting in the chair crying and my grandma took me and she was crying too. On reflection taht was probably why I was crying! It may also be one of the reasons why I am anxious now?

Hi Everyone! Once again thank you so much for your kind thoughts. I thought I would give an update because I am all recovered! It's rather long. The short of it is it went really really well : )

I had my surgery last Friday. They were running about four hours behind so they checked me in and then I had to wait all by myself (they didn't tell me this). I'm not sure why but they wouldn't let my partner stay with me and the place I had to wait didn't have phone reception. I handled it pretty well (the most stressful part was trying to take my toe nail polish off - do that before!). I had taken my iPad and spent the whole time watching the office which helped keep me relatively calm and even gave me a few giggles. The anesthetist came to speak to me and he was so lovely (and cute!). He discussed that I was young, fit and healthy (low risk) with a low risk surgery which meant I should be relatively fine - exactly what you want to hear!

After that I went through to my bed and had to wait there for another half an hour. This was associated with a little bit of anxiety as I no longer had my iPad to distract me and I was cold and they had run out of warm blankets. That was a bit comical really. I practiced my deep breathing and was fine throughout.

The orderly came to get me. This increased my anxiety a little bit. He asked me if I needed to go to the toilet and I said yes and then he started rolling me into the pre surgery room anyway. Then the nurse asked me if I had gone to the toilet and I said no and she stopped and let me go to the toilet - thank you nurse!!! After that they took me through to the pre surgery room. I guess this was where I got really nervous. More deep breathing and I was fine.

Next I went into the surgery room. The orderly that took me there freaked me out a bit (at first I thought he was my surgeon because they looked a little bit similar and it just didn't feel right). He was saying you don't have a warm blanket why don't you have a warm blanket. The staff out the front don't know what they're doing. Not what you want to hear when you're going in to have surgery. I know it's just a warm blanket.. but don't say that staff in your own hospital don't know what they're doing!!!!! I pretty much lost my ability to speak at this point.

Then I went into the operating room and it was fine but intimidating. The nurse for the anesthetist was so lovely. She made sure I had the warm blanket and then put this " heating pipe?" under my blanket to make sure I stayed warm throughout the surgery. Helped me to take my bra off because the other staff hadn't told me I was supposed to (something to do with the metal clips). Then we had a lengthy discussion about what sticking plaster to use over the cannula as I'm allergic to pretty much any bandaids/ sticky plaster etc. They put in my cannula and it went in really easy apparently I have good veins. Then I remember seeing the oral surgeon come in (which relieved me for some unknown reason). Then the anesthetist came in and they put the first lot of drugs in and I started to get "groggy" which they told me I would and then they put the mask on and I was out for the count.

I woke up in the pre surgery room. There was another lovely nurse there. I remember having random conversations with her and I kept asking how long it had taken (multiple times!) - for some reason this was very important to me (about 50 minutes if you're interested). I had a towel/ice pack thing wrapped around my head and then we started talking about how it wouldn't stay in place because I had washed my hair that morning - and that was just hilarious! Then my nurse had ridiculously pretty eyes something I felt a compulsion to tell her over (and over?).

After that it was off to my bed again. They handed me over to a new nurse who really wanted me to go to sleep. I had other plans. I was asking her to call my boyfriend to tell him I was alright but she kept asking me to sleep first. As my bag was there I decided I would call him as he had no idea what had been happening for the last 6 hours for a surgery that was supposed to take 1 hour (poor thing!). He came to get me and I was not a very obedient patient as I didn't sleep in the time it took for him to get there (10 - 15 minutes). They had run out of jelly and custard so all I was offered was water which she gave me through a straw! I pretty much was like no I can't drink through a straw I don't want dry socket but she made me drink it anyway. Then she said if I was feeling ok I could get up and get dressed. The nurse explained my post op care instructions. Then my anesthetist dropped by and said everything went well (after which I remember saying you didn't ask me to count and he apologised!) and I was free to go! I'm pretty sure I actually left before the person who had surgery before me. I think I must be impatient but honestly I felt great.

My post op is going pretty smoothly. The first few days (three I think?) I kind of intuitively woke up every four hours to have my next dose of drugs (I was on a lot - endone, paracetamol, antibiotics, and ibuprofen) . Frozen peas were on my face constantly (20 minutes one side, 20 minutes the other side) - this was the best pain relief I think!! I had a limited diet which was mostly custard, icecream and meal replacement shakes. Gosh I like custard. Don't know how I'm going to give that up but it's too high in calories to stay in the diet.

Day 3 was rough (the first day I was by myself). I woke up and I had a huge chunk of blood (I thought) behind my upper left now absent tooth. I completely freaked out and didn't know what to do and panicked. I became nauseous and dizzy. I put myself directly to bed and called my boyfriend and he came home to make sure I was all right. I called the surgeon and he told me it was the packing and if I touched it it would be stringy. He told me I just needed to rinse it and it would go away. This was a bit of a relief. I rinsed. However it came out and again I became nauseous and dizzy. I just don't think I cope very well with "gross" things. Calmed myself down and went back to sleep. My partner went back to work and the rest of the day was pretty smooth.

Day 4 was when I really started to feel the pain. By this stage I have realised that my bottom right lip is still numb - "*kitten* this is what I dreaded". Fast forward to day 8 it is still numb but I have the majority of my feeling back however it is still a bit numb. The surgeons office called to follow up and they assured me it's normal and it sounds like my nerve was bruised. We'll see what happens. I'm positive the feeling will all come back as I can feel much more then I could compared to day 4.

I think I had taken myself off the endone by day 5. By day 6 I felt normal I even went into work for an hour. One of the negative side effects was that I developed a female problem due to the antibiotics. Another course of medicine and probiotics and I'm fine. I would recommend taking the probiotic with the antibiotic to try and avoid that! I also had a little bit of a low mood following the endone.

All in all. Much better experience then I thought it would be. Thank you for everyone who offered me there experience. That was mine and I hope that it may calm anybody else out there going in for wisdom teeth removal :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

Next hurdle - braces!