Vicodin, Pennicillin, Promethazine and Triazolam

Happy 4th of July! Oh wait, that's been over for a few days now. Well, for some of us, the fun was just getting started.

Our family spent a lovely weekend together, doing all sorts of fun things like going to a minor league baseball game, major yard work and going to the county fair. Everything was quite nice, until we headed home about 10:15 from the fireworks/fair on Sunday night. We had pushed Ethan just a little too far (he was up WAY past his bedtime), so he was melting down. We had all been out in the heat (holy moly it was hot) riding rides and eating fair food and Emily was not far behind her little brother in the melt-down department...and then, I noticed it. We were only a mile or so down the road from the fair when something just didn't feel right...on my wisdom tooth. I still had them all, and the upper right one was starting to break off. This could not be good. I saw the writing on the wall and it wasn't a happy message.

Allow me to briefly break away and list a few things I'd rather do than go to the dentist, even for a check-up:

~ natural childbirth
~ cleaning the bathroom every single day for the rest of my life
~ weeding the flower beds every single day....
~ running a marathon (I don't run, by the way)
~ exercising

I could go on, but you get the point. However this time I knew I couldn't avoid the inevitable...I had to go to the dentist, and I would be having my wisdom teeth out. So, on Monday morning, I called the dentist and got an emergency appointment at 12:00. I got there and they told me that the tooth needed to go and if they were going to get rid of that one, how did I feel about the other 3? I told them that if they were going to do one, they might as well get rid of them all, because I wasn't going through this more than once. What I didn't know was that I would be having it done THAT day. Since they were all four "fully erupted" they didn't require any oral surgery, so it would be fairly simple. They gave me the option of having nitrous oxide (laughing gas) so that I could drive myself home or taking an oral sedative and having Andrew drive me. While not normally a wimp in the pain department, this all changes with regard to my mouth/teeth, so I opted for the oral sedative. I got my medicine packets, paid ahead of time for the removal of my wisdom teeth, dropped of my pain med prescriptions to be filled at the pharmacy and headed home so that Andrew could load us all four up and take a then-sedative-filled me back to the dentist.

All I can say is a big "thank you" to whoever came up with Triazolam. That's some good stuff when it comes to relieving anxiety and relaxing you. I wasn't sure what to expect, but understand that Sunday night, I was so worked up about just going to the dentist, nevermind the whole wisdom tooth removal, that I couldn't sleep. However, I popped that little pill before getting in the van to head back to the dentist and while I was still fully conscious and able to respond normally, I was SO relaxed. In fact, I fell asleep in the dentist chair while I was waiting for them start. That would NOT have happened otherwise.

I was awake the whole time. Along with the triazolam, I was also getting a nice dose of nitrous oxide, which I'd never had before, along with an anti-nausea medicine (Promethazine). The whole procedure was pretty quick, and then I headed home. This was all around 3:00 pm. By around 7:00, I was starting to get kind of sore, so I took 1 Vicodin (first time around with that) and waited for the fun to begin, but I didn't really feel any different, nor did it do much for the pain. So the next time I could take meds, I took two. I was feeling no pain and actually feeling pretty good...just slightly dizzy at times and kind of tired. I slept a little Monday night and didn't feel terrible, but took two more vicodin around 9:45 Tuesday morning....and then started getting some really nasty hot flashes and waves of nausea. Not fun, but since I hadn't eaten much, I decided that I just needed to try to eat more.

Yesterday was sort of a nasty day. I wasn't in a ton of pain, much to my surprise, but I didn't feel good either. I battled nausea on and off all day, and my late afternoon was starting to work on a pretty good headache. Andrew came home from work, took Emily with him to the store for a list of things I needed and by the time he got back, I was feeling pretty lousy. As he was taking the kids up to bed, I was running to the bathroom. I managed not to puke, but it wasn't fun. I tried eating some more, but I just couldn't get much down between my head aching and the waves of nausea.

And then I did what I've managed not to do for 10+ years. I vomited in front of Andrew. Even when I was so sick while pregnant with Ethan, I always managed to make it to the bathroom....but not this time. I did (sort of) make it to a trash can, but in front of Andrew. And I felt better for about 15 minutes....before round two hit, and then another 15 -20 minutes and round 3. It wasn't pretty. We called the pharmacist and Andrew went and got me some ginger ale and Emetrol. I took two doses of Emetrol and then a dose of Excedrin, since I hadn't taken any pain meds since early that morning and my head hurt worse than my teeth, and promptly vomited all that up too. By this time, it was about 10:30 pm, so of course, there was no one to call in anything for me for nausea. I tried calling our family physician's emergency line, but as soon as they heard that it was a dental issue (well, sort of), they wouldn't help, so their advice was to go to the ER. Well, I really didn't think I wanted to sit in the ER half the night, feeling ( and looking) like I did. Although I really don't have any bruising or swelling, I hadn't showered in a few days and my breath could have killed a horse, forget stunning it. So I did what I try never to do...I self-medicated. I had some old Promethazine for nausea that I had taken when I was pregnant with Ethan. It expired about 6 months ago, but I was desperate and I figured it couldn't really hurt me too much, but dehydration and vomiting could, so I took it...and the vomiting stopped. It made me sleepy enough that I was able to sleep a little bit, but my head still hurt enough that I kept waking up every hour or so. When four hours had passed, I took some more excedrin and this time kept it all down. The headache finally went away and I've sworn off Vicodin for the rest of my life.

This was definitely one case of the cure being worse than the injury. I'm sticking with Ibuprofen for now (and my week's worth of Penicillin) and so far have felt much better today. I've done a little housework and run to Meijer, so I think I'm on the mend. My teeth (or their now-gaping holes) actually don't feel too bad...just really swollen and strange, but I'll survive as long as I don't ever have to take any more Vicodin.

So, it was definitely a fourth of July that won't soon be forgotten!

I'll have some pictures up soon. (Not of me, but of more fun things!)