May 19, 2017
Dear Everyone:
I now have a titanium
screw in my lower left jaw.
In time, this will replace the molar I had
extracted
last November. I also have a
titanium hip,
which has been there for just about six years.
Like the Tin Woodman
in
The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I am slowly being replaced by titanium
parts. When will they come
up with a replacement titanium spine?
Think what that could do for members of
Congress!
I reported two days ago to the office of the same Kindly
Oral Surgeon who extracted what was left of the molar last year.
The Kindly Oral Surgeon believed in being very generous with
Novocain, making
sure that he deadened the entire jaw before proceeding.
Nevertheless, it was still a tense time.
I couldn’t actually feel anything, but when the Kindly Oral
Surgeon picked up a
scalpel and started making a sawing motion in my mouth with his
hand, I sort of knew what was going on.
And yet, less than an hour later, it was all done.
The Kindly Oral Surgeon was very pleased with the result and
informed me that it had gone so well that he had included Step Two,
which has something to do with a metal “cap” that sits on top of the
screw during the healing process.
So I won’t have to go back again in a couple of months for that.
The Kindly Oral Surgeon even called me at 6:30 that evening just to make
sure everything was OK. I
was actually able to talk on the phone without too much difficulty.
So the operation was a complete success.
In the meantime, I have stitches in my mouth and a whole plethora of
instructions to follow.
Rinse with salt water four times each day.
Suggested schedule:
After eating breakfast, lunch and dinner and just before bedtime.
Take
antibiotics three times per day until they are all gone (about a
week’s worth.) Rinse with a
special prescription-strength
antiseptic
mouthwash twice
daily. I’ve already
discovered that you want to time this as it wipes out your
taste buds for at
least three hours.
Avoid using a
straw when drinking for 48 hours.
That’s a precaution against sucking so hard that you loosen
things in your mouth.
Absolutely NO POPCORN
for 30 days. I guess they’ve
had issues in the past with little bits of husk getting inside the gum
while it’s healing and causing infections.
Most importantly: No
strenuous exercise for a week.
Specifically, no
PE.
That’s right. You get
out of PE for a week. Of
course, if you haven’t been in
High School
for 48 years, that kind of an excuse doesn’t work as well as you might
hope. But it does mean that
I have an excellent reason to stay out of the gym until the middle of
next week. At least.
I go back next week to have the stitches removed.
Until then, I’m allowed to eat only soft food, like
cottage cheese,
baked potatoes,
cooked rice and
pasta.
All the things my Primary Care Physician advised against eating
because foods high in
carbohydrates
elevate my
triglycerides.
But, hey! I’m under doctor’s
orders. If I can’t get out
of PE, at least I can eat all the
French Fries I
want for another week, right?
Love, as always,
Pete
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