Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Thursday, January 28, 2010

I had oral surgery today to take a broken tooth out

and it went well. I guess I was in the office a total of 40 minutes and the procedure took 15. They thought they might have to cut it out in pieces because it had had a root canal, but they just had to drill a bit and make a couple of incisions and it came right out. I paid out of pocket for nitrous oxide (my insurance doesn't cover it) because I was nervous and it really helped me relax. The local anaesthetic has worn off and my jaw on the right side is just a little swollen. They have me on Percocet 5 for pain (I can't take Lortab; it makes me itch and a little manic) and a Z-pack of antibiotics. The latter is a little iffy. It contains azithromycin, a drug related to eurythromicin, which I can take, and clindomycin, which I'm allergic to. I've never had it before. So we'll see. In the meantime, I stocked up on soft foods (I have ice cream in my house for the first time since August of last year). Tomorrow we're supposed to get a snowstorm so I didn't want to get caught without food. I got some soup and pasta to get me through.

I didn't think to ask about using my CPAP after the oral surgery until after their office had closed, but I found a page online that were surgical directions from another practice that said that it was fine. I hope so, as I don't want a dry socket. I'm pretty sure that I used my CPAP right after my wisdom teeth were pulled, and that was a more serious surgery, as I had sedation and five teeth were extracted (I had another tooth that had issues at the time.)

I got up early and went out to Best Buy, which is near the oral surgeon, and returned the graphics card and got another one that was better and fits in the AGP slot. I figure since the current card is in that slot, I may have better luck. This card supports not only Windows 7 but also dual displays and HD. So it should work for awhile, assuming I get it going. I looked at memory but I wasn't sure if they would work because they were rated by speed of the processor and I couldn't remember what I have. I checked although the computer has a speed of 2.67 gigahertz, the memory speed is 533 megahertz. I'll have to do a little research and see what's available for that. Some geeky guy came up to me (not an employee) bragging about how he had 4 GB of memory in his computer and that he loved this stuff. I'm not sure but I think he was hitting on me. He definitely didn't attract me, and I kept the conversation short and decided to go before I missed my bus.

I then took the bus (to the next stop, but it kept me from having to walk over the New Circle bridge) and had Long John Silver's fish and chips with cheese curds and a milkshake. I figured if I was going to be on soft food for awhile, I'd live it up beforehand, and I had to make sure I ate before surgery (that's a switch, I know, but I wasn't being sedated and they didn't want my blood sugar to drop). The guy who made my milkshake made too much so he brought not only the mug (with whipped cream and cherry on top) but the rest of the cup that goes in the mixer. All in all it made two and a three quarters mugs of milkshake. :) Okay, I know, I didn't really need a milkshake, but it helped settle my nerves a little.

I still had about an hour before the procedure and so I went to K-mart, which is just a couple of buildings away from the surgery centre. There I used some of the money I'd gotten from the return of the graphics card to buy three towel sets (my friends will rejoice; they've kidded me for years for owning pretty much one towel), a screwdriver set (mine have evaporated, and I don't want to use a multi-tool on the new graphics card), and a new shower liner (mine is five or six years old and needs to go on to shower liner heaven). Oh, and I bought a dispenser for hand soap. The towels were just $2.99 and then $2.49 for the hand towels and washcloths, all in all I spent $43. I did look at bedding but I didn't see any I liked. (Although I see Martha Stewart was replaced by Jaclyn Smith). So I had a huge bag to carry around. I went ahead and put the graphics card in there, too. By the end of the day I had my gauze/post-surgery kit in there, and a library book they'd put on hold for me (one of the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher). Then of course I also had my medicine and then in separate bags the food and drinks I'd purchased at the pharmacy.

By the time I got home I was ready to take some Percocet (before the numbing wore off completely) and sleep a bit. I got into the comfy chair and had a massage (there's a massaging cushion I keep on it) and fell asleep for a couple of hours. Then some friends called to check up on me and afterwards I moved to the bed and the CPAP machine. So I've had a four-hour nap. But I feel refreshed.

I have several things to work on (notes, the fish tank, and the house) and I've taken off tomorrow from both jobs in case I have much swelling or any aftereffects. If I'm doing okay I'll try to get that stuff done. I'd love to go see The Lovely Bones but I'm not sure I want to get out in the snow tomorrow, and it's not like I can eat popcorn or anything. :) I may just hole up here and do what I can, whatever I feel up to. I might even get to read a little. I've not completed one book since the beginning of the year, and January is almost gone. I have a Charlaine Harris book out from the library that needs to go back next Monday and it's very popular so I can't just renew it. I need to read that before the Jim Butcher one.

Okay, this has been a very long post. I'm going to see what I want to do now. I'm not used to having an evening to myself. I don't feel like doing much physical (and I took another Percocet because the first wore off), so I'm a little relaxed and sleepy (even my feet feel better), so it might mean watching TV (which I never do) and then later working on the game notes for awhile. Oh, and I should check my RSS reader; it's probably got a lot of news in it. But just in case I don't blog anymore tonight, have a great night. And there's that graphics card....

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