wisdom teeth – Imaginary Sunshine

Busy bee on a sunny Saturday

Michelle — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:09:05 +0000

Today seemed fairly short, which was good and bad. Good because it felt like the day went by quickly and that I did a lot. Bad because it’s the weekend and who ever wants the weekend to go by quickly?

I got my stitches removed at the dentist, it was a very quick procedure (maybe ~3 minutes!) but I had to wait about 15 minutes for the dentist to be done with his other patient before getting to me. But luckily, it wasn’t too long before he was done just snipping and pulling the stitches out before telling me that I was good to go and that all I had to do was continue to rinse with salt water for about another week or two and then it should be fine. Still doing pretty okay in terms of chewing, but still nothing too solid because I can’t use my back molars too much yet (no pain in general, but if I accidentally clamp down on food over the healed incision sites, it’s a world of pain for me).

Also visited the other medical professional that I’ve visited so far in the last few weeks (in just under 3 weeks, I’ve visited the dentist 3 times, optometrist 2 times and family doctor once), my optometrist. But no big deal, I was just picking up my new glasses and he was telling me to walk in a straight line and making sure that the lenses were centred correctly for my eyes. Nice thing is that this time I got a new case! Last time, I got my glasses at a place that didn’t give me a case when I got my new glasses, which was disappointing because I always need somewhere to put my old pair. But because my prescription didn’t change (I got new ones because my old ones had a few scratches that were making it a *bit* blurry), I can still use both pairs and I’m planning on doing that (the old pair comes with magnetic clip-on sunglasses attachment, the new ones don’t).

My sisters and I went to the thrift store…. I went with the full intention of only looking through the books, toys and glassware (looking for Pyrex prints in good condition – I found one that was in the print that I wanted, but it was so scratched up that it was just not worth it). I ended up going through racks of sweaters, in hopes of finding something good to take apart for the yarn (didn’t find anything nice that wasn’t acrylic) and I ended up with a new hoodie. My sisters both thought it was the most busy-looking hoodie that they’ve ever seen, but I like it. I’ll take a photo of it after it gets cleaned in the wash, but it’s green and the print all over it is of sketches and doodles. I’m quite infatuated with the print. Photos to follow soon! It’s a bit big on me, but it’s a hoodie so I don’t care too much.

My parents commented on the fact that I’ve gone to so many medical professionals lately… And to be fair, it is the most I’ve ever gone to see doctors in such a short period of time. I mean, I went to the dentist three times in under 3 weeks (twice for teeth extraction, once for final removal of stitches!) but it’s just so many. The receptionist totally knows me by face and name now. She looked up and just went “Michelle! How are you today?” without even looking down to see the schedule list or asking me who I was. Gah… Clearly, I go to the dentist too often. When I went back to the optometrist today because both of my sisters had appointments, there was nothing to indicate to him that I was supposed to even be there (no appointment made, since I was just picking up my new glasses) and he goes “Hey Michelle, here to pick up your glasses?” <- That coming from a man that I see once every two years. Or maybe I’m just amazed that they can remember my name because I can barely remember the names of people that I’m supposed to know. Just the other day, I called one of my TAs by the wrong name and I see her 4 times a week! That might be it.

Questions for you:

Do you ever go shopping in thrift stores? (If yes, what sort of things do you look for?)
Do you wear glasses or contacts? If no, do you need them?
If you were stranded on a deserted island and someone came along and offered you one of two desserts (coconut cream pie or chocolate cream pie), which would you choose and why?

My answers:

Yup. I look for doll clothes/accessories (sometimes get lucky with things that fit Blythe), Pyrex (especially in prints that I want) and clothes (sweaters for the yarn, clothes for myself).
I wear glasses. I’ve considered contacts, but insurance wouldn’t cover all of it ($200 for 2 years).
Coconut cream pie. Because I had a small slice of both tonight (lol) and I liked that one better.

Oh, food

Michelle — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:04:38 +0000

The last few days have really sucked for me. Wisdom teeth extraction is actually one the things lowest on the list of things that have gone bad actually. Ugh. I just wanted to share my latest victory, post-wisdom-teeth-extraction:

Two days post-wisdom teeth extraction, swelling is way down and I’m already eating solid food!

And to think last time, it took about 4 days before I got to that point (it was mostly the waiting for the swelling to go down before I could manage to chew properly). This time it’s been 2 days. Yay!

Wisdomless – Part 2

Michelle — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:39:01 +0000

I got the two wisdom teeth on the right side taken out today. The dental assistant went and made sure that they were playing a new movie for me, since I was going to be in the chair for such a long time (Night at the Museum, for anyone who is interested in what I saw). I was there for three hours, mostly because of the bottom tooth (really badly impacted, apparently it’s one of the “best” worst impacted wisdom teeth that my dentist has ever seen. I guess that’s something, right?). Bottom tooth was done first, badly impacted and involved some scalpel work and a lot of suctioning of blood (meep). It came out in several pieces, same as my left impacted (bottom again) tooth last week. The top one came out with little issues, but the dental assistant (they switched out) suddenly went “Oh my God” while she was holding onto the suction.

And it freaked me the hell out. Like, did they screw up? Did the x-ray not show badly mutated roots for that tooth? Did the tooth have tentacles or had teeth (lol) and was coming after them?

None of the above, thankfully. I just had a bit of a bleeding issue in which there was no end to the bleeding for a few minutes. Mouths heal quickly, and the dentist mentioned that last week, the left top socket (no stitches because there was no incision) stopped bleeding fairly quickly except for a small amount. This time, no such luck. The now-empty socket ended up getting packed with some kind of material (that I don’t need to remove, it’ll “come out on its own”, how nice for it) and I was given a (crappy) cold compress (which was not that cold) and then went home.

I’m back to icing my swollen jaw (whoot…) and not eating solid food again. Luckily I know what to do this time around instead of fumbling about with the instructions sheet that the dentist provided me with. They gave me another bag full of packets of sterilized gauze that I just… don’t use. They said to only use it when I’m bleeding (but only change it out once ever 30 minutes and if bleeding persists past 2 hours, to go back in to get it looked at), but I haven’t had a need beyond changing it out once or twice and that’s about it. Which is nice, because I don’t like the feeling of gauze in my mouth.

After I got home, I napped for a little bit and then turned on my laptop (lol) and unboxed Blythe #4 (of 5, one of them skipped the queue) and there’s some photos up on Flickr and commentary on my dolly blog. Her name is Bennett and I love her (granted, I love all my Blythes… My second cousin actually sent me a very serious-sounding email the other day to inform me that I desperately need to seek therapy for my “issues” due to my dolls.). I watched some of the recorded Olympics events from yesterday (awesome moment for Canadian athletes!) and today’s episode of General Hospital (ahh, GH love). My mom came home and the first thing she said was “Aww, Michelle, you look like a chipmunk!”. My sister, when she arrived home, she look one look at me and said “So… Guess what I bought today!”. Ahh, last Tuesday when I got my two left wisdom teeth removed, she brought home the Mukmuk plushie on a keychain. Today, she came home with a bunch of yarn (and here I thought we were both yarn dieting unless we had a very specific project in mind and were going to use it ASAP). Yum, yarn.

Anyways… Time for bed for me. Feeling pretty out of it. All the stuff from the needles given at the dentist have worn off (a whooping 14 injections this time – 2 of them were into the roof of my mouth, and those hurt like hell) so I’m just on… antibiotics and good old generic ibuprofen right now. They decided to not give me antiinflammatories this time, I did ask about it.

Just need sleep… and rest. =)

Swelling-be-gone =)

Michelle — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:17:11 +0000

Wow, the last time I blogged here was Tuesday? Lots of changed since then (sort of).

Wednesday
This was the day that it really hit that I got my wisdom teeth pulled. I woke up very tired and sore. The swelling really started to hit. Also, I didn’t eat very much with the medication that my dentist prescribed and it said ‘Take With Food’. Apparently half of a mushed up banana wasn’t enough and my body really did not like the medication and basically rejected it. Which sucked. I got incredibly cranky and ended up sleeping with an ice pack against my face (don’t worry, I pushed it off sometime during my sleep). I watched some of the Olympic events, fell asleep during it though. I didn’t realize that I’d get so tired from getting my teeth pulled. I guess it’s my body’s way of saying that I need to sleep, rest and let my immune system deal with the trauma of minor oral surgery.

Thursday
So Thursday I actually left my house. I went to No Frills just to buy bananas and generic ibuprofen, which was fun. I swear the cashier looked at me funny when she eyed what I had and went “Is that all?” like she was expecting me to have a shopping cart full of stuff. I watched some Olympic events again. I find that I like the ‘racing’ type events the best, or the ones that have the most aerobatic things. So far, I’ve enjoyed watching the moguls (each run is fast and plus they do neat tricks), snowboard cross (racing!), halfpipe (men’s is so much more entertaining that women’s, only because they do more interesting tricks) and some of the figure skating events. Went to bed relatively early (just to wake up again and stayed up until around 1am). Studied for my biology lab midterm (the Tuesday I go back to school) and did some math problems.

Friday (today!)
So far, I’ve taken some photos of my dolls (who’ve been neglected), some things I’ve made for the Blythe Spring Swap (criteria is that everything needs to be handcrafted) and of my sister’s Vancouver 2010 Olympic plushies. I adore them, Quatchi is super cuddly. I plan on repotting my bean plant as it’s outgrown the small pot I initially planted it in, as well was watching Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice (I didn’t last night because I was feeling tired, that’s a first!). I also plan on trying food that’s a little bit more solid today! Since getting my two left wisdom teeth pulled on Tuesday, I’ve consumed: congee (rice porridge), peanut butter, mushed bananas, apple sauce, cream of mushroom soup and clear chicken broth. Mushed bananas are the best since even if I don’t get the pieces really small, I can swallow them straight down. Peanut butter took a lot of effort, the swelling didn’t allow for very good movement of my tongue (TMI?). Cream of mushroom soup was delightful. I’m pleased to be able to say that the swelling has gone down quite considerably, there’s barely a difference between the two sides of my cheeks now (yay!). I’m also able to brush my teeth without being in pain (whoot!) and the incision site for my bottom left wisdom tooth is healing quite nicely!

These are my sister’s plushies. At the back (in the earmuffs) is Quatchi. In the front row, from left to right, is Sumi (Paralympics mascot), Mukmuk (sidekick) and Miga (whom I personally consider to be the mascot who transfers the worst from drawings to plushie form):

And this is my favourite photo that I’ve taken today, it’s of Sophie (my first Blythe doll):

Wisdomless – Part 1

Michelle — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:21:07 +0000

So guess who got their wisdom teeth remove?!

(If you guessed anyone else but me, no cookies for you.)

I had my appointment at 12:30pm and it last until around 3pm. I was only getting two of them removed (top and bottom on the left side – right side is getting done next week!). I initially got 6 injections of anesthetic (freezing) and they waited about 5 minutes for me to be fully numbed. The bottom wisdom tooth took the bulk of the time (nearly 2 hours for that one tooth), it was impacted against the tooth in front of it and they had to make an incision and break the tooth into pieces in order to remove it. My only complaint during this time is that my dentist kept on going ‘Don’t do that!’ to the assistant, which really does not help with my confidence in her capabilities, and everyone kept on blocking my view of the movie that was playing on the ceiling (I got to watch, in its entirety, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Very cute movie if you haven’t already seen it. They only show animated children’s films there.).

Oh, the worst part of the entire time? Once he finished stitching up the hole that he made on the bottom, he started working on the top and I was in absolute pain. I’m not sure if it was because the initial freezing had worn off at this point or if it wasn’t numbed enough to begin with. He had to stop and then give me two more injections (8, cripes) and wait to make sure I was completely numbed before continuing. Top tooth took under half an hour because the tooth was completely out and just needed to be pulled (i.e. not impacted and causing a lot of trouble!). So no stitches and nothing difficult there.

I got sent home with a sheet of care instructions, a (pink – they always give me pink and never green) toothbrush with super-soft bristles (child sized, so I can be more careful), sterile gauze (yum) and a prescription for antibiotics. The dentist didn’t check my chart first, clearly, because he wrote me a prescription for something that I’m allergic too. I took one look at it and had to make noise (was biting down on gauze, so couldn’t really talk) against the wall to get his attention and I pointed to the prescription and then he looks at my chart, goes “Oh.” and rewrites a prescription for something that I can take (yay). Not impressed with his lack of paying attention to a patient’s allergy. Not impressed at all.

The medical insurance plan that I’m currently under via my mom’s work plan used to cover more – now I believe I pay around 10% for dental. Heh. The total damage for two teeth getting removed, plus the anesthesia, was just over $450. I’m assuming that it’ll cost about that much next week too. The medication only cost a grand total of $6.51 though, which was nice. Go generic.

OMFG, it’s a wasp.

Michelle — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:49:52 +0000

What’s worse? Wasps, spiders or ants?
I went to the library today (first time in a while) and borrowed a crochet book to use and review from my crafts site (chelle-chelle.com). And I parked in the parking lot of the library and then I looked to reach for my bag on the passenger seat next to me and there was a freaking wasp on my bag. I freaked the fuck out and went ‘Oh shit’ repeatedly in my head (and once out loud) so I quickly exited the car and then locked the door. Heh, I went to the library, browsed through the books, and then went back to the car and it was on the inside of the window for the driver’s side.. I opened the door and nudged at the wasp with the car keys (all the while praying it wouldn’t sting me!) and then it dropped (or flew..?) to the ground of the parking lot and then I stepped on it for good measure. Nothing against wasps… I don’t like them, they freak me out more than spiders (seriously) because they’ve caused so much damage (… I could give you a tour around my house and point out all the places where we’ve had wasps make nests…). Not as much as ants freak me out, but still. But yes, the wasp was, ahem, taken care of, and then I was on my way.

Taking out my wisdom… teeth.
I had a dentist appointment today… My last appointment was just on November 28th, but that was for a cleaning. This appointment was for doing some fillings, apparently my teeth suck and I had three teeny cavities to get done. I was in the dentist chair for about half an hour, the wait was a lot longer. I also got x-rays done of my teeth so I can get my wisdom teeth extracted yoinked in February. I’m getting all four of my wisdom teeth taken out (including the one that is not showing at all), but my dentist will only do it over two different appointments. My first appointment is on February 16th, where I’m getting two teeth extracted on one side. Then on the 25th, I’m getting the stitches removed on one side and the other two teeth extracted. I actually wanted to get all four extracted at once, but my dentist said no because he a) wants me to be able to eat and b) probably because two of my wisdom-filled teeth are impacting my hind molars. Whoot. My teeth suck, obviously. And no more wisdom for me… Because I don’t feel like having them completely get full of cavities in the back of my mouth (eww). And, well, apparently that’s what I’ll be doing during my reading break.

Shopping, shopping, shopping!
I’m going shopping tonight with my sister, J. She’s getting a laptop as a desktop replacement. It beats out my laptop in so many ways. My laptop is an HP: 15.4″ widescreen, 2gb RAM, 200gb hard drive and it cost just over $1000 when I got it back in 2007. Her new laptop that she’s getting tonight? 15.6″ widescreen, 4gb RAM, 500gb hard drive and it’s costing her just under $750. Sigh. But hers is also HP, my other sister (D) has a Toshiba, but none of us like it because it aesthetically doesn’t look that great and overheats quite a bit, even with a cooling mat. I’m just going with her because she doesn’t feel like shopping alone, but hopefully it’s not too crowded at the store/mall…. Mostly because I don’t feel like dealing with people, hah.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Wednesday!

Names and (the thought of) getting teeth ripped out of me

Michelle — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:54:14 +0000

My Simply Peppermint (new Blythe doll) has a name, Tertiary Jane. A pseudo-explanation for her name is over at my dolly blog. I ended up having her sitting at the table this morning while I was eating breakfast, just so I could figure out what name ‘clicked’ with her. My mom thinks I’m a complete and utter dork now (… which didn’t really change too much from yesterday to today, so that’s okay!)

Sunday’s been pretty busy. I woke up fairly early and ended up making breakfast for everyone (out of my goodness of my heart… J thought it was because I wanted those three balls of merino yarn that she has – not true! She ended up letting me have them anyways, as my sister would like to use up some of the yarn that she has in order to justify new yummy yarn purchases in the future – i.e. on December 26th) and we all sat around the table and ate… well, I ate while trying to come up with a name for the new doll. And my dentist appointment yesterday was discussed.

Apparently my wisdom is lacking. Or rather, my wisdom teeth suck. And I have a nice handful (3-4, the dentist isn’t even sure how many there were…) cavities that need to be filled. The cleaning went splendidly though, the dental hygienist I got was really chatty and friendly – such a better experience than the previous few times, besides the last time I went, that I’ve gone to that dentist. I got a tooth brushing lesson too, hah. Apparently I brush too hard… But yeah, ended up making a new appointment for sometime in December (during the week that I have between my 3rd and 4th/last final) to get the fillings done. And then I have to go and call back in a couple of days and make an appointment for during my February Reading Break because guess who’s wisdom teeth are definitely coming out?

If you guessed mine, you get a cookie. My two wisdom teeth are definitely needing to come out, one of them shows signs of a cavity beginning to form, and apparently it’s next to impossible to actually be able to fill it at the angle that my lovely tooth decide to come in. Oh, and for one of my bottom wisdom teeth, the one that’s showing, it’ll need to be cut out because right now it’ll never continue to come out due to the fact that it’s angled itself to grow into my other tooth… And they’re not even sure where my 4th/last wisdom tooth in (bottom right). Apparently it could have never formed or just be doing the same thing as the one on the left and impacting another tooth. So yeah, I’ll need to get at least three teeth removed (whoot…) so I’m going to get it done when I have time off from school so I won’t be drugged up and trying to write midterms or papers. Good idea? I thought so.

For those who have gotten their wisdom teeth removed… Did you get general or local anesthesia? What did you like about your decision?

[Edit] Local means that they only numb the area around where the tooth is getting extracted (usually multiple injections in your gums and cheeks so you don’t feel anything). General would be where you’re completely knocked out and just wake up to have the teeth extracted and probably feeling incredibly groggy.

Talking with my hands

Michelle — Sat, 09 May 2009 06:44:16 +0000

It’s been a long day. It consisted of work (obviously), and work consisted of a meeting where I had people staring at me like I was an idiot when some of the people there required me to explain what “it goes in a bag with the product” three times. The last time I explained it, I threw in hand gestures, like grand ones. I normally talk with my hands, but I don’t do it too often in meetings, especially not when I have to a lot of talking. So that was work. Which was not fun, at all. Well, besides after when I got back to Building A and got to vent… That was fun. And that was about it. After I got home, I got into another argument with my dad… and then I spent tonight watching television, catching up on shows, watched the season finale for Dollhouse (which was amazing).

I have a dentist (you can read about Pacific Dental & Implant Solutions to sort out any kind of issues related to oral health) appointment tomorrow, hopefully it goes well? And hopefully they stop freaking nicking my gums with those pointy metal instruments, it’s rather disconcerting to taste blood when they’re just supposed to be checking out if the surface of my teeth have any cavities. Ugh. Well hopefully it goes well, it’s at noon (whoot?). Chances are, I’m going to have someone informing me that I need to get my wisdom teeth out (again). And instead of talking to me about it, they’ll talk to either my dad or my mom. Because, you know, I can’t make medical decisions for myself and all… That being said, I’m not a fan of the idea of getting teeth yoinked out of my head. Been there, done that – having four adult teeth with very little painkillers was not fun. I can’t imagine getting wisdom teeth, what with their roots and all, getting taken out.

How did your Friday go?

Kissing disease smooch

Michelle — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 04:08:45 +0000

Writing a partial essay on sickle-cell anemia and infectious mononucleosis (the “kissing disease”) makes me very glad that I don’t have sickle-cell anemia or infectious mononucleosis. You know… not having clogged blood vessels or blood cells break apart is always in my best interests for survival and all. You know me, huge fan of survival and breathing and living and all that jazz.

But besides doing my lab report today (which is done, after 4 pages! I have 1.5 pages worth of calculations alone, meep!), I helped clean the kitchen today, as well as hemmed some pants for my mom and I made cookies. Also, spent an hour arguing with my dad about if I’m going to get my wisdom teeth extracted. I haven’t even had x-rays done yet! I’m not about to make an appointment with a dentist to get my teeth taken out before I get my x-rays done and a dentist informs me that there will be, without a doubt, detrimental health issues caused by the direction that my wisdom teeth are growing in. Because right now they’re not causing any problems and it doesn’t hurt or anything like that. And I’m not about to just have a person take out my teeth without having x-rays done first. I really don’t see why my dad doesn’t see that it’s necessary to have the x-rays done first before commiting to having oral surgery done. Gee, dad, in the event that the roots of one tooth are interacting with another tooth, I would really appreciate it if the dentist performing said oral surgery on me was aware of the face before they start attempting to remove something from me. Just a thought.

So what have you been up to this weekend? Do anything more exciting than me? (Although that’s not very difficult to do!)

They want my wisdom

Michelle — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:27:11 +0000

I just sent through my order with Surpass Hosting, so once they get my account set up, I’ll be moving everything over. Once all the files and databases work over there and everything’s kosher, I’ll be pointing the domain name at the other place so… There will likely be a little bit of downtime, but probably not too much. Just a heads up so you don’t think I just died. Or something. You can stop clapping now, I said I wasn’t dying.

I had some issues with my father today. He dropped me off at Michaels and said he’d be back in half an hour after going to the bank. After going through the store twice, I checked my cell phone and an hour and a half had passed. So I wandered over to the bank and he was still talking to the damn woman about mutual funds. She was all like “Aww, is this your daughter?” and then she offered me a lollipop from the bowl on her desk. Was I amused? Hell no. I wanted to call her a patronizing bitch, but I figured that’d be rather rude. We went out for lunch then went to another bank (I went shopping – went to the bakery and bought pastries).

I had a date with the dentist this morning and it wasn’t pleasant. They gave me a newbie dental hygienist. That part wasn’t the big deal. It was the part where he had to adjust the seat that I was sitting on about ten times before he actually started cleaning my teeth. Plus, it turns out that my wisdom teeth on the top are about half-out and they’re both coming out an angle and angled towards my cheeks. So guess who’s dentist recommends that she has dental surgery to get them yoinked out! But apparently my teeth need to come out a bit more first. And then I started to think of when would be an appropriate time to arrange for the removal of my wisdom teeth. November doesn’t work because of midterm, papers, lab exams and NaNoWriMo. December doesn’t work because of finals. January doesn’t work because it’s ‘settling into new classes’ time. February and March is midterms while April is final exams. Then there’s May to August, which covers work. I mean, I could do it during one of the long weekends during that time period (BC Day, anyone?). Of course, if I work at the same place again, I’d have to put up with people making snarky comments about my lack of wisdom teeth.

Just remembered. Apparently work is falling apart. If the guys there were flies, they’d all be dropping. R is leaving at the end of this month and started a new job (as a manager, yay for him). D (the nice one) is potentially leaving – he’s searching for a new job. Clay’s getting promoted to shift supervisor, but because ‘everyone else’ is leaving (and getting jobs that pay more), he’s going to start looking for a new job (again). So of course, if that happens and I go back to work there next summer, it means I’d get stuck with… A (ew), D (the bad one) and K for company. Am I impressed with this? Not very much at all. So I’m attempting not to be selfish, even though I really am deep down inside.