Monday, January 25, 2010

General Anesthesia and Major Pain

So I had oral surgery on Friday to remove all my wisdom teeth, and I went under light general anesthesia for it. I'd never been anesthetized before, and it was kind of a freaky experience! I wanted to write down what I remember since my memory of the experience is already sort of fading.

I laid down in the chair, and they started me off with nitrous oxide, aka laughing gas. Oh, that's not me in the picture, I just bing-ed anesthesia. Haha. After a minute or so of breathing in the N2O, I said to the doctor, "I don't feel anything." Then it hit me.... my toes started tingling, and I felt like I was kind of floating. "Oh there it is...." I said.

I felt him insert the IV into my right arm, but it seemed like it was happening far away, and didn't really matter. Jess was allowed in the room with me until I was asleep, so I waved to her and said "Bye Honey!" I was mostly kidding around, and I thought I'd be awake for a bit longer, but that's literally the last thing I remember.

The next thing I know, the doctor and nurses are cleaning up the tools, and talking amongst themselves. I remember thinking.... "Shouldn't they be getting ready to do this, not chatting and packing everything up?" Turns out it was all over!

Apparently Jess and I walked out to the car after that, but I don't really remember walking out there. We also stopped at the pharmacy on the way home, and I waited in the car. I don't really remember that either. I spent the rest of that day replacing the gauze in my mouth, and recovering. I don't remember a ton about that day either.

The whole experience wouldn't have been that bad at all, if it weren't for my reaction to one of the pain meds they gave me.... I tried taking the hydrocodone twice, but tossed my cookies each time afterwards. Haha.... then I just decided to stick with the ibuprofen. I was never really in much pain anyways.

I'm 3 and a half days post-op, and feelin' pretty good. My face is still a little puffy and sore, but it's feeling better every day. I should be back to normal completely in another couple days.

I still can't get over how effective the anesthetic was. I expected to have some sort of vague memory of what happened.... but NOTHING. I'm a pretty light sleeper, so I'm used to having some sort of awareness when I'm asleep, but this was WAY more than sleep. Anyways..... anyone who's ever been under knows what I'm talking about.

I'll always choose general anesthesia over major pain!

J.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like when I had my wisdom teeth taken out a couple years ago. You just kinda wake up, not even realizing that it's all over. Weird how that works... :)

Regina said...

It kinda freaks me out if I can't remember what happened before I went out. But it's probably a good thing sometimes. My brother had his wisdom teeth out about a year ago. I had to keep myself from laughing when I first saw him because he looked like a chipmunk. But he said it wasn't very painful for him either :)He was fine after a day or two.

Anonymous said...

Aw. I understand in a way ..

I had four teeth pulled to make room in my mouth a week before a concert .. it sucked not being able sing along as I still had stitches in my mouth and in slight pain to open my mouth wide. ( I ended up taking out the stiches in the venue washroom .. got some funny looks as I was sitting on the contour looking in the mirror and pulling out strange looking pieces of whatever a stitch is made of. )

Of course, I wasnt asleep and the doctor didnt freeze the gum enough .. it hurt! I yelled at her and said " I felt that you know! My gum is NOT frozen, you need to try that again and freeze it more" It took about 5 doses for ONE tooth .. and I still felt it. I guess I dont react to well to such products. Oh well.

Glad to hear you are doing well. Good thing you were asleep. I heard all the crunches .. and drills .. and loud tools .. and " is that the right tooth?!"

Starryy

Britney said...

cool. lol im gopnna have 2 get a few teeth pulled i wonder if i will have 2 b put under lol who knows ;D lol

Ida Lou said...

ooohhhhhh that reminds me of the video of the little kid. lol..

Anonymous said...

haha, that sounds like the same thing that happened when i got my wisdoms out! can you still feel the stiches?

hope said...

Haha! Totally sounds like my experience, only my doc removed 4 of 6 wisdom teeth. That was the first time I went "under" and boy was it weird. All I remember was the mural of the beach on the opposite wall spinning and me passing out. Flash forward and I was in a wheel chair at my mom's truck and the doc asked me if I knew where I was, and I lied and said yes. Throw on top of that 2 very mean an hateful brothers making fun of me, and I call it the worst day I have had yet. Need less to say, I am putting the removal of the other 2 teeth off for as long as I can.

Anonymous said...

What REALLY hurts is getting braces. Getting teeth pulled only hurts for a few days, whereas when you get braces you can get teeth pulled and then get everything else put on. And then they can keep adding stuff to your braces, like chains and rubber bands, and then it hurts again!! And they don't come off!!

Andi W said...

I just had my wisdom teeth out yesterday and I think I'm having an allergic reation my my pain meds. I think I like your idea of sticking to the good ol' faithful ibuphrophen...

I wasn't put under, but it wasn't so bad. I watched my favourite TV show on the ceiling. The worst part is the chipmonk cheeks. That, and I already miss eating chicken.

Kristen said...

Thank goodness for anesthesia! Without them, you will feel the full power of pain that you'll be feeling the whole operation and on its aftermath. Talking about the extraction of the wisdom teeth, I had mine pulled out many months ago after being sick and tired of the pain which gave me a week of sleepless nights. Having my x-ray at the dentist (Charlotte office) to confirm that I had an impacted wisdom teeth, I sat down on the chair to get them removed once and for all.

Few minutes after the administration of anesthetics, I started to feel no pain. Every detail of the operation was told to me by my boyfriend after the operation since I was all drugged up to remember what was going on. In just a few days, the wound and the swelling of my face had healed. Currently, I visit the dentist (Rock Hill) to have my dental check-up to track my dental health.