Last Friday I had my wisdom teeth taken out chiseled out of my jaw bone and sinus cavities. I did ok after the surgery, and I even woke up Saturday morning with no pain. I thought “Great! I’ll be back in my routine in no time. I don’t know what everyone was so excited about.” Let me just state (and Ryan you better keep track of this because you don’t hear it often) that I was completely WRONG!

Let me back up and say that I went into surgery with high expectations that my recovery would be easy. I’ve had surgery before and I can endure quite a bit of pain. Everyone around me kept saying how painful it would be and that I would be recovering for at least a week. I chose to not believe them since some of my advisers tend to be on the dramatic side.

Everything was roses until I woke up at around 11pm on Saturday night. My face had started swelling with a fury. The skin on my checks was tight. I looked at myself in the mirror and began to sob. The swelling is supposed to peak on the third day after surgery. Here I am five days out and my swelling is just now starting to go down, maybe. I’m not counting on it because I don’t want to get my hopes up.

So, if you’re wisdom teeth are impacted and you have to have them taken out, just know that it is a BFD! Let me repeat it is a BFD!

Take off a week from work if you can because even if the pain isn’t there do you really want people to see you with your face swelled up like a balloon? I didn’t think so.  Stock up on soup because the pain involved with eating is just not worth it. Also plan on sleeping non stop for the first three days. My pain meds had me so doped up that I think I was only awake about 10 hours TOTAL the first three days. The lack of productivity really pissed me off, so I cut out the pain meds on Monday. I wish I had taken care of this when I was a teenager with no responsibilities to conflict with my recovery.

But hey, I’m not bitter, not one bit…… unless I feel so crappy that I can’t enjoy going to Six Flags this Friday or eating at Maggiano’s this Sunday. Then there will be hell to pay (shaking an angry fist towards the sky in indignation)!