YAY!! Today the stitches came out and I got to take a real shower. Until they came out, I could not get them wet, so that meant no showers. I had to carefully take a bath or wash up in the sink, neither of which really make ya feel clean. And since there were no showers, that meant i couldn’t wash my hair either. at least not on my own. Sunday, before the rehearsal for Lynn’s wedding, I had to lay down on the kitchen counter while Carl washed my hair. To make sure the stitches stayed dry, I taped gauze over the stitches and then held wash cloths over that in case Carl got a little crazy with the sprayer hose. Yay, clean hair.
Today after spending 2 hours in traffic because people here are morons, I got to take a real shower and wash my hair. YAY! All clean!
On Wednesday, I had arthroscopic surgery on both sides of my jaw to try to straighten out the issues from dislocating my jaw on Memorial Day. I really don’t remember much of anything after the anesthesiologist gave me the first round of meds in the prep room. I do remember giving me oxygen and putting my out on the operating table and then nothing after that until i was in recovery and i was awake enough for them to wheel me over to where Carl would sit with me. Trying to eat crackers when your jaw is bandaged up is not fun. Neither is trying to get a pain pill in your mouth to swallow it. When they bandage you up after having this surgery, you end up looking like a chipmunk in a water polo helmet. Your cheeks get mushed leading to the chipmunk effect. and the bandage that go over the sutures are covered in tons of gauze and then you get a wrap that goes around your head that makes it look like a water polo helmet. Not the most flattering look. Thankfully that came off on Friday and not I am left with stitches on both sides of my head right in front of my ears. At least they are low enough that I can wear my glasses without touching the stitches. Now I’m just waiting for everything to finish draining. Eating is still an adventure. I can chew food if i can get it into my mouth. So I’m back to cutting things up small enough to get into my mouth so I can try to chew normally. The sooner I work my jaw like normal, the better. I go back to the oral surgeon on Wednesday and hopefully everything will be healing like it should.
Tomorrow, we have a rehersal and dinner for Lynn’s wedding. Then the wedding on Monday. The girl is a junior bride’s maid and has to get dressed up and everything!
Have a good weekend!
Last monday, i took the nephew to the park so he could play a while before the rain started. he was having fun climbing up the ladders and coming down the slides. while watching him play, i yawned. i didn’t think it was any different from any other yawn until my mouth wouldn’t shut. well crap! now my jaw is locked open. kiddo thought i was playing around since i was talking funny. and so the adventure begins. after taking kiddo back to teh house, i went to the urgent care place to see if they could help. it was a fairly slow day for them so i got back pretty quickly, but by the time i saw the doc, it had already been an hour that my jaw had been locked. two docs, a nurse, a shot of lidocaine, time waiting for Red to get there to drive me, a shot of valium and several attempts at resetting my jaw later, i’m still stuck with my mouth open. valium was not my friend that day. i’ve had enough of my head being shaken around, so now it’s time to go to the ER. the ER took some x rays, used me for a human pincushion, and finally gave me something better than lidocaine for the pain. the first doc (yes it took more than one here too) was smart enough to wrap gauze around her thumbs for padding before she tried to reset my jaw so she wouldn’t have to worry about me biting down on her thumbs. urgent care guy, you should think about doing that. anyway, she had no luck either. time to call in a bigger doctor. before he came in they gave me more meds. thank you ER doc for that. i zonked out from the second dose of meds, but carl tells me it took the second doc 2 tries to get it reset.
now i’m having to track down an oral surgeon that will take our insurance to make sure it is healing well. there are 4 within a 50 mile radius all of which are on the other side of the river. yippie!
now should you ever find yourself with a locked jaw in search of medical attention, make sure you take a pen and paper with you. trying to talk is pointless as it just makes things hurt worse, and no one knows sign language. not even numbers or the alphabet.