Afternoon update, 2023-08-01
Aug. 1st, 2023 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brin_bellway[fairly strong cw: medical]
It's done. I'm sitting back on my couch at home, biting on a gauze pad.
The actual extraction went surprisingly quickly (like ten minutes, maybe?), and I overheard the dentist and assistant remarking to each other that it was unusually easy for a 29-year-old. So *that's* a good sign.
Also the recovery timeline they gave me is much shorter than the timelines I was seeing online. I might still take things slow, especially since my normal diet is so nut-heavy and that seems likely to be among the more difficult and/or risky things to eat, but probably I can gently sip water through a straw at work this weekend after all.
(Although I think they're used to people wanting to rush through and Get Back to Normal, assuring me that it should be *possible* for me to work on Thursday or possibly even tomorrow. I assured them right back that I had deliberately scheduled this on a week where I had no events planned until Saturday, to give room to maneuver.
I was at an herbalism/foraging class a little while ago, and the instructor remarked on how we-as-a-society don't really do *convalescence* anymore. People are always trying to speedrun the short-term disruption of illness, when maybe what's best for the long term is to set apart some time to heal and then to let your body ease back into its normal life gently and gradually.)
---
I am *so extremely glad* to live in a spacetime with local anesthetics.
---
I am...pretty indifferent to live in a spacetime with nitrous oxide. I barely felt *anything* from it this time. Some reduction in proprioception and, like, *one* kinesthetic hallucination, but only slightly dissociated and the pain of them pulling my lip out of the way was not especially polite about its intrusion into my awareness (though it was mild enough to be ignorable the normal way). Still a verbal stream of consciousness, too.
(The nosepiece didn't fit my face very well: possibly there was too much room air leaking in and diluting it?)
---
There's an ache starting to leak through or maybe around the numbing. We'll see what the pain level ends up being once the anesthetic wears off. They said that if naproxen isn't enough I should add some acetaminophen, which I *think* I don't have on hand† but if need be I could buy some at the nearest pharmacy or send Dad or Brother to get it.
---
†although we might still have the stuff I picked up in 2020? kind of old by now, but possibly not *too* old
It's done. I'm sitting back on my couch at home, biting on a gauze pad.
The actual extraction went surprisingly quickly (like ten minutes, maybe?), and I overheard the dentist and assistant remarking to each other that it was unusually easy for a 29-year-old. So *that's* a good sign.
Also the recovery timeline they gave me is much shorter than the timelines I was seeing online. I might still take things slow, especially since my normal diet is so nut-heavy and that seems likely to be among the more difficult and/or risky things to eat, but probably I can gently sip water through a straw at work this weekend after all.
(Although I think they're used to people wanting to rush through and Get Back to Normal, assuring me that it should be *possible* for me to work on Thursday or possibly even tomorrow. I assured them right back that I had deliberately scheduled this on a week where I had no events planned until Saturday, to give room to maneuver.
I was at an herbalism/foraging class a little while ago, and the instructor remarked on how we-as-a-society don't really do *convalescence* anymore. People are always trying to speedrun the short-term disruption of illness, when maybe what's best for the long term is to set apart some time to heal and then to let your body ease back into its normal life gently and gradually.)
---
I am *so extremely glad* to live in a spacetime with local anesthetics.
---
I am...pretty indifferent to live in a spacetime with nitrous oxide. I barely felt *anything* from it this time. Some reduction in proprioception and, like, *one* kinesthetic hallucination, but only slightly dissociated and the pain of them pulling my lip out of the way was not especially polite about its intrusion into my awareness (though it was mild enough to be ignorable the normal way). Still a verbal stream of consciousness, too.
(The nosepiece didn't fit my face very well: possibly there was too much room air leaking in and diluting it?)
---
There's an ache starting to leak through or maybe around the numbing. We'll see what the pain level ends up being once the anesthetic wears off. They said that if naproxen isn't enough I should add some acetaminophen, which I *think* I don't have on hand† but if need be I could buy some at the nearest pharmacy or send Dad or Brother to get it.
---
†although we might still have the stuff I picked up in 2020? kind of old by now, but possibly not *too* old
