Another Impromptu Surgery

So I went back to my oral surgeon on Monday as requested by the ER surgeon who saw me on Sunday.  I saw this doctor about an hour after writing up my previous entry.

I should've waited.  Ha.

I went into my surgeon, fully expecting this to be an in-and-out venture with her signing off on the meds that the ER doc had parceled out.  Instead, I got an impromput surgery and yet another IV drip of the new antibiotics.

She also gave me dry socket.  On purpose.

When she did a more thorough search of my mouth, she, too, noted that all her incisions were puss-free.  Everything looked clean, but she couldn't figure out why my face / eye / throat swelled out the way it did.  On a hunch, she opened my bottom back socket and realized that the clot had trapped the infection, not letting it drain properly.  So she and her nurse suctioned a bunch of it out, then started "milking" my infected cheek / eye in an effort to expel the built-up infection.

Again - all while I was awake, and this time, I DID care.  I could feel an awful lot of what they were doing, and I was crying like an idiot.  They had to stop periodically to wipe away tears, snot and let me hyperventilate it out.  I cannot remember a time I was so scared.  The only time that trumps this, I think, is news that I might've miscarried Vince.  Otherwise - this takes the "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna die, aren't I?" cake. 

I kept saying "Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary" over and over as she was scraping away at my socket.  She didn't even tell me not to talk.  The nurse just patted my hand saying, "We're really sorry, but we've gotta do this" as if that would magically make me not freaked out about it. 

Ugh - I felt insane.  I was in so much pain, but I was more scared than anything else.  I tried to tell them that, and they seemed to get it, which is why they let up on me every so often so I could kinda cry it out.  They didn't rush me, which was nice, and they were very kind and reassuring.  But dear God - I was shaking so uncontrollably that even the sedative that they pumped into me didn't do much of anything.  The nurse suggested giving me more, but the doctor thought I was just fighting it off and didn't want to give me "too much" on account of needing me not to breathe the infection in.

She put in another stitch, but left the dry socket open to give the infection a place to drain.  She did put some clove-oil gauze into the hole to help expedite the healing (and boy does it taste horrific!). 

On the plus side, it's now 6 in the morning and my eye is no longer swollen half-shut.  My temple has gone back to normal, and my cheek is about half the size it was yesterday.  My throat, though still a little swollen, isn't causing me any pain when I swallow anymore, either.

All in all, I'd say that's some massive progress!

However, I'm still scared insane of having to go back there on Wednesday.  When I told John about what happened, I couldn't contain my sobbing.  I've always known myself to be scared of dentists, but going over what happened in there and then explaining I'll have to go back - I was a wreck!  Ugh - I don't even want to think about it at this point.  Considering my current progress, I doubt she'll do anything to me again, but I no longer wanna hope for that and then get side-swiped by something else.  *Shudder*

I'm just ready for this all to be over with. 

Oh - and the new antibiotics they gave me?  My stomach hates them.  *Sigh*  Go figure, right? 

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