Four Less Teeth

Notice anything different?

My sweet and amazingly talented friend Miranda gave my blog a makeover.  I absolutely love how it turned out!  She captured my vision perfectly.  Simple and feminine.  I can't say enough good things about her and the work she does.  

It was a great surprise to come home from extractions to discover she had installed everything.

Extractions.  

Glad those are over.  

I slept really well last night which was a complete answer to prayer.  I woke up this morning feeling pretty good about everything.

I went through my normal routine of having toast followed by my quiet time.  My quiet time was an exceptionally sweet time this morning.  God knew I needed to feel his sweet spirit surrounding me this morning.  

I showered and got ready for the day and then sat down to eat again.  I wasn't sure if I would feel like eating at all for the rest of the day so I wanted to eat while I could.  So yes I enjoyed pizza at 10AM. 

The thought of trying to eat later scares me a little.  The thought of removing my gauze later scares me.  Right now I can't tell that there are teeth missing because I have a mouth full of gauze.  

After I ate I took my anxiety pills and tried to read a little bit in my book.  Anything to take my mind off things.  When I couldn't stand it any longer I went into Andrew's office and asked if we could go.  I was ready to get it all over with.

Our dentist is just four blocks down the street so it wasn't a long drive.  

Andrew prayed over me and then it was time to go in.

I snapped this picture right before walking into the office.

I think I'm hiding how terrified I am pretty well in this picture.  You would never know I was just crying.  Plus can I just say good hair day! 

 It's the little things.

Everyone in the office knew how nervous I was about today.  They were so incredibly sweet from the moment I walked in the door.  I could not ask for a better dentist and staff.  

They asked if I thought the anxiety meds were helping and I when I said no I was still incredibly nervous they immediately made the decision to give me the gas as well.  I was so incredibly thankful for that.  It helped put me to ease.

I asked Andrew to come back with me.  He didn't really want to watch the procedure since he is having a tooth pulled next month.  I can't say that I blame him.  I wouldn't want to watch it either.  I asked him to come back long enough to be with me while they numbed me up.  I needed him to document the process.  He ended up staying the entire time.  I can't even tell you how thankful I was to have him there.

He and Dr. Arnett talked about their boats while we waited on me to become completely numb.  It was a nice distraction.  That's actually how we came to choose Dr. Arnett as our new dentist when we moved.  He and his family have a boat just a few slips down from ours.

My brother had a tooth pulled several years ago.  He told me that for him the worst part was the sound.  Because of that I had myself all worked up over the sound.  I was probably more worried about that than anything else.  It didn't help when Dr. Arnett told me I would feel a lot of pressure and hear a lot of noises.  

He started with the top right tooth.  He wasn't joking about that pressure.  It felt like he was trying to relocate my skull.  I may have moaned a little at the pressure.  But Dr Arnett, his assistant, and Andrew kept assuring me that I was doing a good job.

Of course I had my great coping mechanism.

I'm a shirt clincher.  I love that Andrew captured this picture.  I do this even when I'm just having my teeth cleaned.  Andrew said he also noticed that I would draw my feet up and kind of curl my toes when the pressure was the strongest.

The top teeth were the hardest to get out.  Those are the two where I heard a noise.  It sounded like he was cracking my teeth.  The top ones have two roots instead of one like the bottom.  When he pulled the top ones out one of the roots came out with the tooth, but the other broke off and stayed in the bone.  They had to take the drill and drill out the bone to pull out the root.   Apparently the cracking sound was the tooth breaking off the root.

And Andrew watched all of that.  He is an AMAZING husband.  

Hearing Andrew describe it was much worse than actually living through it.

The bottom two came out with no problems and no noise.  They came out much easier and much quicker.

I wish he would have told me when the first tooth was out.  I thought I knew but it was hard to tell.  I had no idea what he was doing with the drill at the time.  I've had so many cavities filled that that part didn't bother me.  

I also kind of wish I could have kept my teeth.  I'm sure they would have let me, but I didn't think about it before and I couldn't really talk afterwards.

Twice during the process his assistant squirted water in my mouth and told me to swish it around.  I have no idea how to do that when your mouth is completely numb.  I've never had work done on both sides of my mouth where everything was numb before.  They would tell me to bite down or open and close my mouth.  I had no idea if I was doing what they asked or not.  At one point I reached up to touch my mouth to see if my lips were closed or open.  I couldn't tell.

I'm going to have to send them a thank you card.  I felt bad at the end because I wanted to smile at them and say thank you, but I couldn't do either. They are such a phenomenal staff. 

Andrew brought me home and helped me into bed before going to pick up my pain meds.

Taking pain meds wasn't easy.  I have to really work to swallow and I have never taken pills very well anyway.  Andrew broke it in half for me and I attempted to take a drink of water.  The second half took some work to get down, but I knew I needed to take them.

Overall it wasn't too bad and I'm certain that is because I was being covered in prayer by family and friends.  Thank you everyone for the prayers and the encouragement.  

I loved receiving this text right before Dr. Arnett started working.

I'm currently laying in bed resting and watching Friends.  The perfect way to heal.  

Ready for healing to take place and braces to go on and start to close up these gaps.

I'm not sure I will feel up to updating via video tonight, but will definitely do it tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow - I think we might actually get to go back to school tomorrow.  A little nervous about that.  I have lesson plans made that won't require much from me so I'm hoping I will make it through the day okay.

Oh one other thing.  I can't use mouth wash for the next two or three days and I'm not supposed to brush anywhere near those gaps.   So if you see me and I have bad breath, I apologize in advance.  I'm going to do the best I can.