drowning in dinner

I had a checkup with the surgeon today, he said everything's looking good. Unfortunately he also said I have to continue with the liquid/soft food diet - I can't be biting into anything, to give the front teeth time to set into the new bone and tissue properly. That's going to get tiresome real soon. On the positive side, I should be spending less on lunch and I won't be going out to dinner, so that should help with finances this month. The liquid/soft diet continues at least another two weeks, when I have another checkup. Hopefully by the time my parents come to visit just after Independence Day, I'll be able to eat solid food again, otherwise going out for dinner will be awkward.

In other news the swelling has mostly gone down, though my upper lip and gums on the left side are still puffy. The upper lip's also still got some stiffness and restricted movement, making speaking a little awkward sometimes; plus of course I'm still not allowed to wear my retainer, so I've got the gaps in my teeth affecting speech too.

I had been using the ibuprofen regularly, but I got sloppy about taking it with food, and I think that irritated my stomach as by Sunday I was feeling a bit queasy at times and having heartburn. Monday morning I again took the ibuprofen just with water first thing, before showering and eating, and it immediately gave me heartburn, so I just didn't take any the rest of the day. I just have constant slight discomfort now, more like constant pressure than anything else, with just an occasional pain if I move the wrong way, so I probably won't bother with any more painkillers. I have taken the stronger hydrocodone/ibuprofen before bedtime the past couple nights, but I think tonight I'll either go back to just ibuprofen or see if I'm okay without anything.

on second thought

All done with painkillers? Ha! If I hadn't already said I wasn't on drugs in the previous post, I'd have to accuse myself of being on drugs when I wrote that post.

Being at work for the afternoon was tiring, and my teeth gradually got more sore. Also, I found driving to work seemed to make me tired and my head a touch motion-sick, maybe because I'm not used to the extra mass in my head yet, maybe because of the extra fluid still in my head, maybe some other reason. Anyhow, driving home didn't seem to affect me. However, I had to stop at the grocery store, and that definitely made me more tired and my head more sore. It was much like when I first got braces, all I could feel was pressure on my upper teeth and jaw. By the time I got home I was feeling pretty unhappy, and I immediately took one of the stronger painkiller pills with a glass of milk. Just drinking the cold milk seemed to help soothe, or at least numb, the teeth. So now I'm trying to sit for a bit with a cooling pad strapped up against my mouth, and that also seems to be helping (though it's rather awkward).

Hopefully my teeth will settle down over the next day or two, because if I go back to taking the ibuprofen regularly, I'll run out in a couple days, and I really can't drive if I have to take the stronger hydrocodone/ibuprofen. Of course, there's just a couple days until the weekend, so then I'll have another couple days where I can basically sit around at home if I need to.