Bacterial swamp

Blood red ink for today. It seems appropriate. The periodontist, let's call him Dr W, was a real charmer. First visit he tells me no one will even notice by the second day that I had any work done. It's no big deal. No need to postpone surgery until after Las Vegas, since I will be just fine by then.

When I showed up for the actual surgery, his spiel changed slightly. I might experience some swelling, maybe a little bruising, I will need to eat soft foods for at least several days and so on. He added that if I do not follow instructions I could cause the transplant to not take. Of course it would be my fault. Who else?

My regular dentist knows me and works with me. He puts me in the chair, tells me a joke, and puts the gas on. He makes sure the equipment is working properly, then he leaves me alone for 10 minutes or so. Sometimes even longer. He wants a docile, happy, relaxed patient. It works - I take my shots like a big girl. I even try to be brave for the roof of the mouth shots if he turns the gas up as far as it goes. My reward is he leaves me alone again with the nitrous oxide to relax before he starts doing anything. He knows I won't open my mouth until I am feeling the effects of the gas anyway. If I can speak, I say, "Turn the gas up." He never once caused any swelling or bruising, not even for two crown preps in one visit. He is very gentle and considerate.

Dr W has a different approach. Put the gas on after making me beg for it, after we had agreed I would have it in advance. As soon as it is in place, go for the shots. Before it even starts to work, go for the roof of the mouth shot. Before the shots barely have a few seconds to work, start causing mouth damage. Don't be gentle, don't be patient. Don't even give it your full attention. Don't explain much about what you are doing. Have your friends and buddies stop by to discuss future ski trip plans. Have a woman in the office stop by the door while your patient has her mouth open and cannot shut it, and joke to the woman about how sick she is and how she is a walking bacterial swamp. Or words to that effect. Assume your patient is stoned and has no idea of her surroundings, and ignore her requests to turn up the gas.

As soon as the gas starts to work, within seconds, decide the mask is in your way and remove it for the duration of the surgery. Don't forget your patient could not pre-medicate because she had to drive herself. Be very rough on her mouth. It's her fault she has a small mouth. Pull hard on that lower lip and crush it. Grind your thumb into her skin, especially around the chin area. Pull harder, dig deeper.

While he was doing all this, I was dealing with him having cut a huge chunk of meat out of the roof of my mouth. He had said it would be a "tiny piece," but judging by the number of stitches he put in and the length of the incision, it couldn't have been small. It almost made me gag when he said, "Wow! A great piece of tissue!" Ewww....Do you know the sound you get when someone cuts your palate up?

I was given a lot of stitches. No gas, no sedative whatsoever, just the shots. The sound and pressure from stitches in the palate is not to be forgotten. Nor forgiven. He could have worked around the mask for the nitrous oxide, I am pretty sure. Meanwhile, I am working hard at telling myself, "relax, relax," and being the best patient in the world so we can get the procedure done. All I wanted to do was go home, take a pain pill, and go to sleep.

We had to argue over the pain pills. He wanted to give me tylenol with codeine. I said no, I have Darvocet and also still some Vicodin left over from my shoulder surgery if needed. He offered to write more Darvocet, and I said no, I have enough. He gave me an antibiotic. I crabbed lightly about making me stop by myself on the way home and wait for a script to be written when he could have given it to me in advance. I hate that, I really do. The pharmacist was very kind and got it filled quickly for me.

Finally I was all through being cut, squished, stitched, squeezed, and whatever else he did. I was told, "do not pull your lower lip down to look at the graft." Right. Don't think about the pink elephant in the room, either. I drove home, exhausted. ST had been over that morning to offer his support at 5 am, and I hadn't had much sleep. Pain pill, couch, book, dogs, sleep - that was all I could think about.

I came home, leashed up the dogs, and took them out to pee. Baby started to pee blood all over the lawn. I sighed, went in the house, grabbed the ladle, and tried to get Baby to pee in itenough to get a decent sample. No luck. I called the vet, explained I just had a gum graft, needed to get a pain pill in me before the numbness was all gone, Baby has a UTI, can I get antibiotics for her even though I haven't been able yet to get an adequate sample? Yes, he said, so I drove there and got the drugs for Baby. I left the tiny sample I was able to get.

Eventually Baby got her antibiotic, I got mine, I got my pain pill, my book, and my sofa with the dogs. Of course, with the bladder infection, Baby had to go outside to try to pee every 3-5 minutes the rest of the day. I didn't get any sleep. She didn't either. We were quite pitiful. By bed time, she had her second pill and was able to sleep through the night. She is much better now.

By morning, I had significant swelling. By afternoon, I started turning blue. I had clear thumb prints all over my swollen chin. They started at my lower lip, and the bruising goes down my throat a bit. Then over the next two days, the bruising spread. It really looked awful. The swelling stayed. I didn't pull my lip down to look in there because my lip was too big and too firm. I did see that the inside of my lower lip was blue. It still is, somewhat.

Saturday night I brushed my non-involved teeth and accidently touched the putty-like packing over my lower front teeth. It popped off. I was tired, really tired. I pushed it gently back in place and went to bed. I woke up in the morning and wondered if that caused a bacterial growth factor, and called Dr W. He said I could take it back out, rinse with the stuff he gave me, rinse the packing, and put it back. Or, he said, I could leave it out. I left it out, since it didn't bother me. The third choice was go back in for a new one. Uh uh. No way.

Sunday Molly had to have her shot. ST came over to help me. He made one Jay Leno joke and then was very considerate of my situation. Molly will live another month, Baby was happy to see ST, and I was happy to get a few hugs. I hadn't left the house since Thursday when I went to the vet. No one had seen my bruising - and I was good with that idea.

After ST left, I started to feel very tired. Then, warm. Quite warm, which is odd for me. Tired, warm - hm, fever? I took my temp - 101 degrees. Where did that come from? I had noidea. I get delirious at 101 degrees. Knowing this, I knew I had to do something. I figured I needed to cool down. I dropped the temp in the house a little, took off my slippers and socks, took off my sweatshirt and put on a tank top and drank a lot of water. It didn't drop. I decided I didn't care and went to bed late.

By Monday, I realized I probably have either a cold from Ms Bacterial Swamp or perhaps a sinus infection from chemicals he put in my mouth. I had a pretty bad sinus infection and laryngitis once from using stuff too strong for me to try to whiten my teeth. My temp has lowered. I hope to be all "normal" again by my flight to Las Vegas. It's iffy. My chin is still partially swollen and not nearly normal in color again, although the bruising is slightly faded. Every time I sneeze or cough I fear ripping stitches out.

I have one hope. Thursday I go back to Dr W for my stitches to be removed. He tried to postpone the stitch removal, but I reminded him that I already had an appointment Thursday. I have no intentions of getting in trouble with TSA in the Detroit airport because I have stitches in my mouth. Dr W is a personable guy, but he is not gentle with patients. I believe how he handled my mouth caused the bruising and swelling to be significant. I have read up online what other people have said about this same surgery, and the bruising and swelling issues vary greatly. I truly believe it's mostly due to how the periodontist handles the patient.

If I am lucky, I can share my germs with Dr W on Thursday.

I am no periodontist, but it looks to me like this graft is working fine. I have a big reddish bulge where the graft went in. The skin around it looks cut up and some is whitish and the rest is mostly pink or red, there are black stitches all around the mess, but looking ahead to how it will look after time and some healing, I think he actually did a decent job. He is supposed to be excellent at what he does.

Still.