lost my wisdom, lost my immune system...

i've been out of commission for about 12 days now, due to the damn vestigial objects known as wisdom teeth. i got them pulled out on the 31st after 5 yrs of prodding from my dental hygienist & 2 wks of misery when one came in, but i would rather have suffered from all 4 breaking the gumline rather than deal with the effects from the surgery to get them pulled...

day one was fine, just swollen and tender as expected. but by the time day 3 rolled around, i knew i was in for a rough week. for some reason, my right cheek was swollen and the percocet i was presribed for pain wasn't having any effect whatsoever. i could hardly open my mouth and my eye was starting to swell half-shut due to my cheek, which of course decreased my desire to try eating/drinking to near nothing. mom ended up calling the oral surgeon's office in juneau (there are 2 surgeons who take turns flying down to ketch once a month or so to perform surgeries, as we don't have a local dr. who can do it). it took about 6 hrs to get ahold of someone & the dr. said i either needed to eat/drink & brush the sockets out or i would have to go to the ER for an IV. so i gave in, but could hardly manage much more than a few spoonfuls of applesauce at a time. throughout, i could taste the infection that i knew was on my body, but the dr. wouldn't prescribe antibiotics unless i started eating & it got worse--what an ass. i was stuck trying to disinfect my infected mouth with a salt water rinse--YUM.

i improved over the next day or so, but of course my regular dentist was out for the weekend so i couldn't get in to see him and get checked out, but by day 7 i was feeling healthy enough to brave the outside world and attend blueberry festival despite still having a swollen cheek. i was sooo tired of being confined to the house, especially when we had really nice summer weather that week! sunday i went out to lunch with grandma & some of mom's friends; i was able to eat more solid (but still mushy) foods like potato salad & crab melt. all in all, i spent a week on the couch and went through 100+ advils trying to recover from getting my molars pulled.

i made it back to work this week finally, even though my cheek is still noticeably swollen. i called my dentist for an appt. to get checked out, and yesterday he took a look--it seems as if i have an infection (duh) that has moved to my outer tissues. so now i'm on a 10-day regimen of amoxicillin, an antibiotic. already after one day, the swelling seems to have gone down a bit (enough so that my nerves don't feel stretched & raw to the point of pain), so i'm trying to remain optimistic that i'll be back in normal form by this time next week, before the school year starts & i have to answer questions posed by our students. fingers crossed!

on a more positive note, i'm going to help coach the killer whales swim team! there's been a coaching position open all summer, and i'd given it some thought, but was afraid of the time committment for when i start school. 2 wks ago, the head coach (my old coach) approached me about the job, and after talking to him & weighing the pros/cons, i've decided to go for it--coaching has been on my life's list of to-do's, so i'm just going to do it earlier in life than originally thought! i'm still nervous about the time committment, but i haven't enrolled in school yet & don't know when i will & have more reasons to coach than to not coach, so i'm going for it. i'll time-manage later if necessary, it's something i've had a lot of practice with over the years as a student athlete!