Monday, January 31, 2011

Adventures in Dentures

Believe it or not, I'm actually trying to make something in PSP. However, I thought I should go ahead and post today's entry for my Adventures in Dentures as I am now calling it. Pixie thought it was the name of something "real". It is real I thought and said nope just what's going on for mom!

This morning went to the regular dentist to have the dentures checked and adjusted a bit. Learned how to take them out and to put them back in. Why is it that everything is always easy when the expert who can help you is standing right there? So off I went through my day confident that this evening I would be able to pop those suckers out, clean them and pop them back in no problem... WHAT was I thinking?!?!

On a side note, the Dentist and his staff were all amazed at how well I was doing. I am functioning, speaking reasonably well and not the quivering mass of jello that I expected myself to be. DH was talking to the Tech, they agreed that one of the possible explanations is simply that the pain I was living with prior to the extractions was so much worse than the pain from the extractions and the dentures themselves. The result being that the extraction recovery is not so bad for me. Fingers crossed that it keeps going that way. I'm having more and more bad bouts as time goes on. But...more of that to come.

So there I stand in the bathroom with my little denture bath and my denture brush and my fizzy tablet thingie realizing that I have absolutely NO IDEA what to do with all of this stuff. I gather up all my mouth rinsing stuff and stand there perplexed.

Did you know that there really is not a lot of information out on the internet about the little things regarding denture care? Proper use of the denture brush for example. Or do the dentures go into the bath with the teeth up (and therefor away) from direct contact with the fizzy tablet fizz or teeth down putting the underside (that part that goes against your gums and where all the protective soft stuff is at the moment...the stuff I don't want to "fizz away") further away from the fizzing? SIGH Or how about does one need both denture paste 9the denture version of toothpaste) AND the fizzy things or just one or the other?


So anyway, there I am poised at the sink with my 4 different kinds of post surgical mouth rinses, my denture bath prepared and ready (thanks to help from my daughter reading the directions for me...I had read them already myself, several times, but kept forgetting what it said. Now to pull the teeth out of the mouth. Just like I did at the dentist's office.

Ready, set, Dang teeth are slippery when they're wet from saliva! Not easy little buggers to grab a hold of! Need to rock the uppers forward a tiny bit like a hings toward the front of the mouth to get them out. Now exactly how am I supposed to achieve this feat? I eventually figured out that if I used my tongue to help I could break the suction and get them out! Rinse well and place into the denture bath!

Now for the partials on the lower... Simply push up, gently, on the part of the appliance on the side behind my canine teeth. Pushing up gently, and little less gently...they're not moving! I'm starting to panic! (Really ridiculous things are flashing through my mind now - What if I can NEVER get them out!?!? This is going to be very bad for the healing!) Calm down, take several deep cleansing breaths (do NOT look in the mirror, I look SO STRANGE all swollen and with no upper teeth!). Try again, and again, okay this is getting PAINFUL! After several more attempts I finally manage to get them out, rinsed and into the bath. Now remember you still have teeth on the bottom jaw so don't let the remaining teeth tear into the gums up top. SO much to remember!

WOOHOO! Add my warm water to the bath to cover the teeth and watch it start to fizz. Now onto my mouth rinses at about 30 seconds each. Ewww, when I allow the stuff to dribble out of my mouth I find that stitches have come out! NO!!!! I just got those stitches yesterday...well, maybe they are not stitched, maybe they're little bits of cotton from the procedure the day before. About three little clumps of cotton. Probably, I assume, I pulled them out with all the failed attempts to get the blasted teeth out. Oh NO! Well, go on with what I'm doing. It's after 10P and nothing can be done about it right now. The important thing at this moment is to do all my rinses and clean my teeth and get them back in my mouth. Especially important for my big plastic bandages to get back in there if I've ripped out stitches!!! The teeth are to soak for about 15 minutes. My timer went off before I finished with all of my rinses. I did a LOT of warm saltwater rinses! LOL

My Pixie comes in and very gently asks if I have my teeth out. I nod and lisp that my teeth are out (extremely difficult to say without teeth BTW). My wonderful child looks at me with eyes filled with curiosity and asks "So, do you look like a warthog?" I attempted to smile, I have no idea if it worked or not...probably pretty gruesome in all reality (my appearance trying to smile...nodded and asked if she wanted to see Mommy Warthog. She did. So I jutted out my lower jaw and showed my little warthog teeth. She smiled, thanked me for showing her, gave me a kiss on the shoulder and stroked my back saying "poor mommy". She knew I was hurting.

So now we "brush our teeth" and rinse, rinse, rinse them. Now we pop them back into our mouth. Hinge maneuver in reverse for the upper, ouch! Sore spot on the gum! But they're in! Now for the lower. Okay, line them up so that the remaining natural teeth are in the gaps and press down, and a little toward he back of my mouth, and they will go right into place. MAJOR OUCH! Man this hurts! I must be really swollen. They simply refuse to stop hurting (the ouch on the uppers has stopped hours ago and the lowers show NO sigh of stopping. Try to rest!!!

Pixie went to bed hours earlier (right after the Mommy Warthog thing) and she's been trying to cough up something off and on for hours...okay days...but that's neither here nor there. Off she goes into another violent coughing fit. This one so protracted that now she's retching. THAT'S IT! We're going to the ER, I cannot take anymore of this. So she and I (along with my icepack for my face) head off to the ER. She's fine BTW! We're doing everything right for her. However,while we are endlessly waiting for the XRay tech, and my icepack has given up it's last bit of cold...anyway I'm sitting there feeling every point of pain and it dawns on me that the appliance was not uncomfortable before I took it out. I must have put it in wrong. OH Just Peachy! NOW I want out of the ER more than usual. I want to, No NEED to get home to try to fix this situation.

We finally roll home a little after 5 a.m. and I'm back in trying to wrestle the lower teeth out of my mouth again. Finally get them out. Put them in water, get a new ice Pack as I am now so swollen I'm looking like I did right after the surgery again. Let the cold work it's miracles for about a half an hour and try again with the partial. I set in in there and, gently, push down and get it firmly back into the same position I had it in all night. DRAT! So I start feeling around in there and cannot for the life of me figure out how to get it the rest of the way down. However my investigations continued along with attempts with different pressures in different spots around the mouth (always along the sides of the partial) then it shifted, ever so slightly and there was a SNAP sound along with searing pain. Somehow ever the mayday alarms going off in my head because of the pain that little voice of reason says "that cannot be a good sound". So I, very gently, start feeling around in my mouth, expecting to find a broken appliance. But there was no broken denture...then my mind offered up my dental visit earlier that day and Doc saying that the lower will "SNAP" into place. Ohhhhhhhhhhh!

Now the teeth are in, both properly this time, and the pain dies down significantly!

and now...I must rest. I will continue my saga another time.

Huggles, Faerie

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Completely Out of Left Field

I picked up a new pair of jeans the other day (they have sparkles on the pockets!) and four new casual tops. I think, on some level, I was so excited about my new teeth, and looking forward to not feeling like the poster child for backwoods lack of dental health...well so I got myself some new things to wear.

The teeth, BTW, DO look pretty...they need an adjustment here and there and also much getting used to, but I think they look wonderful. Like my teeth even, only not all icky!

Huggles, Faerie

I'm Hanging On

I'm about to kill somebody if I don't get a smoke...I'm counting the hours. Doc said at least 24 hours at least until after my follow up with my regular dentist tomorrow @ 11:30. I am trying everything I can think of to distract myself. I've already thanked DH for moving my cigarettes, I cannot count the number of times I would have lit up by now if they had been in their normal spot.

As far as today's oral surgery goes...18/19 teeth down, full upper and partial lower in. Obviously the more the numb goes away the more I become aware of the discomfort, the places that dig and rub and that both bloody jaws just blasted hurt...can't imagine why.

DH is floored saying that I've been doing things, putting away laundry, putting dishes in the dishwasher, little things like that...pacing because I want a cigarette so badly, trying to drink and eat, and to wrap my brain and my tongue around the new additions... He's saying that when he had his wisdom teeth pulled he was out for a couple-a-few days and obviously expected such from me. Well, SO DID I. I do NOT feel like I'm doing well or much at all.

I WANT to curl up and hide, I want to sleep until all the pain is gone and all the adjustments are made to the dentures (neat trick that would be eh?), I want to be able to speak clearly, to eat anything without playing at being a trained seal with a sardine (chin up to allow said food to slide down my throat, the same way I had to start with the water earlier today...taking meds has been a "delight").

Unfortunately, my daughter is still sick, my husband is still sick, our laundry still needs to be done, I need to pull myself together as quickly as possible, at least get to that point where i can fake it well enough to fool most of the people most of the time... What am I supposed to do? The kitchen will not clean itself, the laundry doesn't wash or fold itself...all the things that have been falling behind because of my teeth or fighting off this stupid "creeping crud 2011". Please do NOT get my wrong. Our home is a disaster. I've not had it well maintained in more years than I care to admit to. I have considered hiring an organization expert to help me out (...which really upsets me because organization IS MY THING!) I've thought about hiring a maid service to help me whip this place into shape so I can do the regular maintenance myself...do they do that sort of thing? We will ignore that we do NOT have that kind of money...I just DO have that level of frustration and desperation.

So ANYWAY...maintaining this level of chaos is not as easy as it seems either...which is evidenced by what happens every time I give in to whatever the matter may be, pain, illness, appointments, shopping...or that little Home-Schooling thing...

I think I've lost track of where I was going here....

TL:DR

And I'm not scrolling back up to see it either.

I AM hanging on...and hopefully tomorrow will be better...I'm going to try for sleep to eat up some of those non-smoking hours...

DH pampered me today, he finished making the tea I started, went out and got me pudding and yogurt and ice cream (all stuff they told me to eat at the surgeon's today) and I joked when he was on his way out to the store that cheesecake would fall into that soft smooth food category...He brought me home a cheesecake!!! OMGoodness! He made me mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner and scooped me up ice cream to help with the pain and for something easier to get down...even ice cream is tough when you're playing the trained seal.



Huggles, Faerie

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Fun, Fun, Fun...NOT

My poor Pixie is very sick. Poor darlin' is coughing until she actually makes herself "sick". Her fever broke a few days ago but the rest of her symptoms are pretty much the same. She's had this for about a week now. Her highest temp was 102.6. She's got a lowgrade fever now, rarely breaking 100. She seems to do much better in the morning but by about 3 pm she starts coughing and not much we do seems to help. She's finally sleeping peacefully now. I haven't heard a cough in 5 or 10 minutes. YAY!

Me...I am currently terrified about tomorrow's surgery to remove my teeth. Well, I'm more terrified about the recovery...and the pain.

I am excited for my new "store bought teeth". I cannot wait to smile again. I've been so self-conscious about my teeth for so long I think sometimes that I have forgotten how to smile. And laughing...again that has been right out. I've been so embarrassed that I don't even really smile or laugh at home. I don't even want the people who love me to see me this way...don't want them to remember me this way.

That's the first thing I'm excited about with the teeth. That emotional part has been going on longer than the next part...

I am so excited about the prospect of not having the physical pain. The inability to eat. The inability to sleep. Sometimes having to prop myself up to sleep because the blood pressure change when I lay down normally causes the jaw pain to shoot up into my skull. The vise grip that attaches itself to my jaws from time to time...twisting, crushing pain that feels as if it is going to shatter the jaw...and the feeling that if the jaw did finally give way under the pressure that it would finally hurt LESS.

Amist the excitement is also a fair bit of fear...because of the bone density meds that I've been taking all these years (since the hysterectomy)...but that will have to wait for another day.

I must try to get some rest...I have a bit more laundry to fold...I'm saying to heck with the kitchen at this point...they will have to deal with it being a mess a bit longer...

Hopefully back up and running by Friday (?). Fingers Crossed.

Huggles, Faerie

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

That being said...

I do hope to have something new for you (IncrediMail & Tag wise not "Pity Party Over Here" wise).
Actually...do have one new one that I need to still do tags for...
And then on to my next masterpiece! ROFL!!!!

Huggles, Faerie

My Blog Is Driving Me CRAZY!

I cannot add things...the search is no longer saying that I am not permitted to search my own blog...but my searches come up with nothing even though I KNOW there are posts containing that information.
That DOES IT!
I am learning how to do this HTML CSS XHTML garbage if it KILLS ME!
I am done with being helpless!!!!!

Huggles, Faerie