Drea's guide to surviving wisdom tooth removal

So I'm bored, home alone and still recovering from my wisdom tooth extraction. So needless to say I haven't done anything terribly interesting lately. But given that I've been through most of the horror I can impart my advice and experience of this procedure for anyone that is looking at or is needing to have it done.

Don't drive while taking codeine. There is a good chance you're popping pills before your procedure due to utter dental pain. Like me you're probably going to ignore the instructions on the codeine packet. But take heed! I almost crashed into someone whilst in codeine la la land. You might not be so lucky.

What's cooler than cool? Ice cold! Ice yourselves kittens. Non stop! On yer face. Your cheeks are going to puff out like a chipmunk's and they will feel like a Victorian bushfire. The hospital give me this neato thingy-ma-jig that you filled with ice cubes and hung around your face. Everyone that had previously had their wisdom teeth out where jealous of it. They just had ice in a chux cloth!

Keep a bucket on hand This tip isn't for everyone as it depends on your reaction to anaesthesia. If you're like me though you'll be puking for a couple of days. What a joy that was let me tell you. Those travel puke bags are good too. My hospital gave me one and it sure came in handy in the car, though I felt incredibly sorry for the other 3 passengers in the car having to live through the experience with me.

Eat real food. I can't stress this enough. It was pretty rad getting to eat as much jelly, ice-cream, mousse, KFC mash and snack packs as I wanted. But it wasn't long before it just made me feel sick eating so much junk. Eating real food like mashed and cooled roast vegetables with gravy and puree fruit was much more satisfying not to mention healthy.

Movies! Watch lots of them. You can't do much else anyway and they make the time fly by.

Stay at home. It so happens my boyfriend's best friend's engagement party was on the day after my surgery. We were adamant we were going and besides, I needed to go where my carer went. I thought 'well, this will be sweet, I'll sit in the corner with my jelly and everything will be dandy'. If only. I think I lasted 2 hours before I was alternating between being back in bed feeling like Jabba the Hut or in the bathroom hugging Karen and Allen's toilet bowl. FAIL.


I hope this helps anyone out there who is going to live though this experience. Just remember once they're out and healed, it's all over. You'll never have to do it again. If there is any experience to scare you into taking amazingly good care of your remaining teeth this is it.

Tell you what I am looking forward (very much so) to reaching the finish line. But for now, it's mashed p'taters and gravy until then.

The tongue is ever turning to the aching tooth

If you read my last post you might remember I did a fair bit of complaining about my teeth. My wisdom teeth to be exact, which had been giving me a fair bit of pain. Between then and now everything just went from bad to worse. Not content with the current plan of doping up on pain killers and waiting for the term to finish, I booked in to see my dentist. He told me to get an x-ray and referred me to an oral surgeon to see about getting the nasty little suckers out.

It was at the oral surgeon's office I was told that stress of end of semester exams and assignments were aggravating the pain in my teeth as I no doubt would have been clenching and griding my teeth in my sleep. I had the charming choice of having surgery right in the middle of all these assessments or wait over a month.

Not one to wait around in pain I chose the soonest possibly option. Glad I did because the following weekend I experienced the worst pain of my life. The doctor gave me painkillers strong enough to knock out a horse (and give me a stomach ache to boot!. Needless to say I have been incapacitated for most of the week. I've been feeling a tad better today and tomorrow I think I'll try go to TAFE. Hilarious given that the day after I'm going to be knocked out to have my teeth torn out, so I'm going to feel like a trainwreck for the next 5 days there after. Fun times!

Bring on the ice-cream and jelly I say.



Before I leave here is something to freak you out with. An Xray of my teeth. Note the offenders. Also, does it creep you out that you can see my skull ... and jaw bone ... and part of my neck? So gross and cool at the same time. It makes me sad that I wasn't the person to got to do these amazing shots for the Eizo Pin-up Calendar. Hahaha! Enjoy!







See you on the other side of anaesthesia.

Sunshine Coast Getaway

I haven't been around much lately. Did anyone notice I was gone? Part of it was due to hanging out in the sun, sand & surf. Apart from that I've hit snags in the river.

First of all it's the end of the semester and with that comes the turmoil of giant assignments that are drawing to their due date and gulp ... assessments. Then there is my current vexation, my wisdom teeth making themselves known! My bottom wisdom's are getting pushy in there and it's giving me an endless headache, an aching jaw and my ability to chew is being sporadically compromised. So put the two together and you have one big pain in the head.

But there is a happy intermission to this story. Matt and I had a two night stay at Noosaville to use so we scrambled off to relax. The stay was an awesome joint birthday present from the lovely and wonderful Karen & Allen.

We arrived mid afternoon. Luggage was immediately dumped and after sussing out our pad for the weekend we headed out for a walk on the beach. I collected cuttlefish bones for a friend's parrot. It's a habit after years of budgie ownership. A quick costume change later we raced off to dinner, keen for some fresh seafood at The River Deck Restaurant.


The River Deck catch. So good! It was an effort to eat even half of this.


But I still had room for dessert! Friday night ice-cream on Hastings Street is a bit of a tradition I'm told. Gelatissimo is where it's at! I chose scoop of creme caramel with a scoop of coconut. Matt's caramelised fig was more caramel than fig.



60's Rat Fink surfboard at Noosa Longboards. Yours for only $4,900!



The next day we happened upon Noosa Longboard's famous woody wagon on Hastings Street. I've seen this vehicle many times at car shows but it's an entirely different thing when you come across a car like this in it's native habitat. It took a bit of courage to strip off on the busiest street in town, but oh woody wagon, I did it for you!




Once again here I am being a giant poser. This time at the edge of the pacific ocean in Noosa's Laguna Bay. Look at that sky! Perfect weather.



I've never seen bush turkeys on the beach before. They were everywhere. Some of the cheeky buggers were trying to get into the satchels of unaware sunbathers. Even more hilarious was watching a plucky little turkey crossing the road on Hasting's street with the rest of the street folk.



And here is a dead puffer fish I found washed up on the beach while scouting the sand for driftwood to put in my fish tank. Not the find I was looking for but it was interesting enough to take a photo of. We also found some knickers on the beach! Gross.

It wasn't always out and about. Our resort had a heated pool and spa set in a tropical garden that provided much enjoyment. I also slept on the shaded deck chairs beside the pool. Until some ignorant jerk splashed me when he got into the pool that is.

I did a lot of sleeping on the trip home too. It's so good to get away from the stress of life every now and then. You don't realise how refreshing these trips are until you do them. I am going to make sure I chill out more often from now on.