Monday, October 31, 2005

I've been having fun the past few days not eating. On Thursday I had gum graft surgery. Yeah, "gum graft." Don't read if you're easily disgusted.

What they do is take a couple of bits of tissue from the fleshy portion on the roof of the mouth. Then they stitch it where your gums are receding, which in my case was the lower front.

The operation is not half as bad as it sounds. They gave me a couple of shots to numb the mouth, but I was otherwise awake and alert, and even carrying on a conversation with the nurse, sort of. At the end they cover the palate with a retainer (oh, joy), and the graft with a bit of material that looks like used chewing gum.

The recovery is what sucks. I can't speak clearly, and I can't eat solid food. I've had more oatmeal in the past four days than in the previous 44 years. I've taken to eating bananas with a fork to get the pieces small enough for me to process. Jello and pudding cups and a couple of scrambled eggs (that took an hour to eat) have rounded out my diet.

As for pain, I'd really just describe it as discomfort. There are moments of pain when a bit of "food" gets into the affected areas, but mostly I'm just being hungry and uncomfortable.

Aren't you glad you asked? Trick or treat! No candy for me.

3 comments:

  1. Can you tell me how long it took for your swelling to go down after your gum graft?? I had it done 3 days ago and the right side of my face still looks hideous! No pain, just swelling... and hungry as well... thanks.

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  2. I think it was about a week to "look normal" but a couple of weeks total healing time.

    If it's still truly hideous after three days, you might want to check if you've go an infection.

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  3. What about bruising? It's day 5 now, swelling has gone down but now I've got a nice yellow/green shade of bruising, one right on top of my canine, and another up towards the top of my nose below my eye... sound normal? I went into the ER doctor yesterday to make sure there was no infection, which there wasn't.

    I'm still in no pain, but still hurts/feels funny to laugh or smile... how long does it take for my face to feel "Flexible" again?

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