Surviving a Health Event

I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, but clearly I wasn't when I scheduled oral surgery for April 23rd, the day after Ed's sadiversary.  It was originally scheduled for February but due to my mother's health and care, I had to postpone a couple times.  As a wid friend said to me (yes, that's how we refer to each other, "wids"), "at least you get all your pain out of the way all at one time."  So true, since mixed up in with my grief of missing Ed and all the memories of each day two years ago, I added to that the sadness and fear of needing to go through this procedure by myself, with no one here to care for me or be by my side.

The procedure was a soft tissue graft to repair the gum near one tooth that had been damaged many years before.  I stocked up on soft foods and liquids which my diet would consist of for about 7-10 days.  On the day of the procedure I drove myself to and from the appointment.

No big deal until I got home and the Novocaine wore off.  I thought I was going to die and I wondered if this is the type of pain Ed tolerated in his last days.  It was awful and I couldn't distinguish if my tears were from the shear pain or that I was alone having to deal with it.  But I didn't have to wait long before the Vicodin kicked in and the intense pain subsided.

I spent the next several days at home resting, icing, eating lots of Italian ice and no talking.  They had said to limit talking and now I know why.  It definitely hurt more when I talked.  So a benefit of living alone...I was able to not talk at all for several days!

I am now 10 days past the procedure.  The last couple days have been more difficult than I expected until it was pointed out to me that I had been taking 800 mg of ibuprofen, three times a day, for the past week.  A single, over the counter, ibuprofen is 200 mg.  So taking one of those, once a day was definitely not doing the trick!  Once I increased the dosage (just yesterday), I began to feel much better.

Last night Dan and I went to a 40th birthday celebration for my niece Missy.  For the first time in 10 days I ate solid food!  I felt human again and the food was so good.  And I enjoyed carrying on conversations and talking with others without constant pain.  I'll be getting together with some wid friends today for more food and camaraderie.  I am probably overdoing it this weekend, but it will be worth it.

My first major health event since Ed passed and I survived.  I had friends and family in the wings if I needed any help.  But I didn't need it and I survived.

Now on to the next adventure which hopefully is less painful...we're redoing our kitchen!  But that's a story for another day...