Hey guys! You probably didn't know because I've only mentioned it once in passing but I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed at once two weeks ago! Yes, that's right -
ALL FOUR AT ONCE. People consider suicide (I say this in a joking manner, of course) with getting one taken out cos your face swells up so much, you bruise all over your jaw and you can't eat normal food... but I had to endure all that pain times
FOUR!
It's been one heck of a week and a half.
I was supposed to do this surgery back in October last year. The date was set and all but HKU Architecture had to mess everything up (what's new?). They scheduled a two-day, one-night field trip to China for some
factory visits BANG right during my surgery. Lameeee!! I know some classmates actually skipped the trip and obviously I could've done so too because my reason is pretty legitimate, I mean this kind of major surgery is really hard to re-schedule in government hospitals. I had to book my appointment like
three years ago.
But just a month before the field trip I had
chickenpox which made me miss a week of school already, and I didn't think it would be too great if I missed another school-related activity, even if it was for health reasons...
Man I'm such a good student?!
Before the surgery:
Woke up and got to the hospital by 8AM cos my surgery was supposedly scheduled for 11:30AM. Met the doctor, went through some medical details, saw the anaesthetist, etc etc... you know the drill with surgeries. Actually you may not, but I'm not bothered to go into more details haha.
I was really concerned about the anaesthesia because although I wasn't going under general anaesthesia, I was going with
local anaesthesia and intravenous sedation. And if you're aware of my health at the moment, it's not that good and I'm really underweight (don't even try to guess). I was really worried that my body may not be able to take the extra drugs?!
The nurses and anaesthetist were really nice and explained everything to me, well I suppose they do determine the dosage by your weight and body measurements so it's specific to you. I felt the staff was a little inchy about my condition though... they were all, "well obviously if you're so underweight, you're gonna run into many problems, and not just health related ones too." Duh. But then again, I don't expected anyone to understand so I didn't take it personally.
Me on my bed! It was really, really cold and I was super sleepy from waking up at 6AM so I actually pulled the blankets over me and went to sleep until 11AM... =.= After that I just kept waiting... and waiting... and waiting... past 11:30AM (my supposed surgery time), past 12PM, past 12:30PM, past 1PM...
Omg I was getting really impatient and pissed at this point. I felt too cold to sit up again so I could only lie down inside my blankets like a dead corpse. And even though my phone had internet connection, I didn't feel like scrolling through Facebook or Instagram or whatnot. I ended up reading my ebooks on my PDF reader in my iphone (which is what I always do when I'm bored, actually, I love it!)
At around 1:30PM it was
finally my turn to undergo surgery, goodness knows why the two patients before me took so fucking long? I changed into my surgery gown and was wheeled down to the operation rooms. Really reminded me of my
colonoscopy surgery back in summer!
During the surgery:
It was kinda awkward cos I had to unbutton my hospital gown, which was already really loose and revealing on me, so I was more or less naked with a piece of cloth over me. And most of the doctors were male, okay! I was so embarrassed LOL. Although tbh at that point I didn't really care cos I was nervous as fuck, I was so damn worried about the anaesthesia and my weight.
To get the anaesthesia in they had to get into my bloodstream first, which means,
NEEDLES! Aka my worst nightmare because if you've been following me you'd know that I have huge problems with drawing blood for blood tests cos I'm so underweight. I didn't think it would be so serious that they had to jab me a total of like
SIX TIMES before they could get into my bloodstream!
It was so nerve wracking as well, the doctors jabbed me once, couldn't get in. Twice, couldn't get in. Then they were like, "don't be nervous, don't be nervous... it'll hurt a little bit!" And obviously that just made me more nervous cos they were starting to bark instructions at me like, "hold your hands into a fist! Tighter!"
I was still very conscious (obviously) and I could hear them muttering to each other. "Hmm... can't get a vein. Why is it so thin? Oh I've lost it. Hold her hand here." etc etc
And everything they said just made me panic even more LOL.
In the end they gave up trying to enter the bloodstream from the back of my wrists (the jabs there are so fucking painful by the way, and I'm still bruised there right now even though it's been more than a week) and moved up to my arms. Luckily after a few more jabs, they successfully got the needle in!
I was like, "FINALLY!"
And the doctors replied, "yes... remember to eat more!"
And I said, "真係好感動啊..." (which means "I'm really fucking emotional/touched")
I heard the whole team of doctors, nurses, anaesthetists, etc etc laughing, which made me laugh too because the worst part for me, the needles, was over. They put this gas tube up my nose and I could smell the gas coming out and into me and I just found what I'd replied funnier and funnier LOL. I remember thinking, "damn, I'm fucking witty!"
Then I lost consciousness laughing like a maniac. Wtf.
After the surgery:
When I regained consciousness after the procedure, I was wheeled back to my ward and my bed. I was pretty drowsy at this point and it took me half an hour to recover from the sedation. The above selfie was taken when the nurse gave me back my iphone. Look at my disgusting skin without BB cream... argh the patches and my eyebags! And my tiny eyes lol. Anyway I took more selfies and sent them to my Dad, and in some of them I looked so bad I began laughing to myself again...
The nurses probably thought I was crazy? I was taking pictures of myself, half drugged up, then looking at them and laughing...
It took me four more hours to completely recover and at that time, as the anaesthesia wore off, my jaw got more and more painful. And I kept spitting out blood, it was HORRIBLE! I was really cold again so I stayed nestled up in the blankets but although my body was inactive and dead, my mind was really bored and frustrated and I just wanted to leave the hospital and get on with my life.
I had nothing to do cos I wasn't allowed to leave until I'd had something to eat, but I was bleeding so much and I didn't feel like moving physically at ALL so I remained stuck in my bed until 6:30PM. It was the worse four hours of my life, I was in pain and I kept spitting out blood and my mind was screaming at me cos I was so bored.
When my iphone ran out of battery, meaning that I couldn't read my ebook anymore, I lost it and began crying. One of the side effects of the surgery medication was
mild depression, so once I began crying, I couldn't STOP crying... I was so worried about the time I was wasting cos I wasn't working and I had to go back to school in two days. :(
Eventually my Dad came to pick me up and I had some plain congee and we FINALLY left.
Recovery:
Got home and immediately felt so much better! We stopped by Parknshop on the way home and I bought some baby food, just because I've always wanted to try it and now I finally have a legitimate excuse HAHA!
I eat a huge amount of fruits, I can eat up to more than 10 portions a day (usually I only eat 8 portions a day, which is still too much, but whatever), but with my poor jaw, I couldn't eat my favourite fruits anymore... so I bought baby food as a substitute because they're just fruits in mush form!
I would say the real thing tastes better though. I can't binge on baby food like I do with fruits, simply because the taste is a little too acidic which made me kinda nauseous after a while. Dunno if this is a good or bad thing actually, that I can't binge, haha. Why do people go on the baby fruit diet when they could just eat real fruits and it's the same damn thing / tastier / less expensive?!
I was still hungry so I had some yoghurt and steamed egg that night too.
Writing thank you notes to the team of doctors and nurses! Got these little cards a while back and they're finally coming in handy :) They're so cute as well! The pig one was perfect cos it also reflected Chinese New Year haha, I think I had my surgery on the fifth or sixth day of CNY?
My first meal the next day... so sad wtf. Tofu and egg in tiny ass amounts cos everything hurt. Basically I only swallowed the food up, I couldn't even taste anything and it was all so bland...
But over the next few days, I upgraded to FISH! And super cooked melons that I could just swallow. That's a whole salmon fillet btw. I found that eating fish was totally possible, so if you're worried about not getting enough protein after your surgery, fish is the way to go. I've been eating fish every fucking meal since my surgery... I've tried every type of fish I swear, I eat steaks and fillets and whole fishes from the wet market that my mum cooks Chinese style. And of course I eat my eggs and tofu and melons and congee.
By the third day or so I could even eat rice. So I ditched the congee and had rice instead. I had to be really careful that the food didn't fall into the little holes where my wisdom teeth used to be though!
Oh, and I stopped having baby food after two to three days. I was SICK of it! I wanted real fruits! But I couldn't really eat my favourite oranges or apples or snow pears so my Dad especially went out to get softer fruits like papaya and kiwi and persimmons... all of which I inhaled in a day. The fruits you see in the pictures above? I can finish everything in two and a half days... I'm crazily unhealthy when it comes to fruits LOL.
Cos I felt like I wasn't gaining any weight during the initial week of recovery, I ate one giant papaya a day as a snack. And this is not including other fruits. Wtf.
Swelling and bruising:
I didn't skip school at all despite my ugly face but I did wear a mask outside. I showed my friends and tutor my new bloated look though and everyone couldn't stop loling. Clar commented that I didn't look TOO abnormal because I have a very small thin face naturally, so being bloated only made me look like a normal girl.
I disagree! I was swollen in the wrong places! I wasn't swollen on my upper face, instead I was puffed out at my jaw area which took away my lovely V-line jaw and made me look like Buzz Lightyear...
I REALLY LOOKED LIKE BUZZ LIGHTYEAR GUYS!
Derp.
I'm not going to show you a picture of me with my swollen face, sorry! I do have selfies of myself but they're not for sharing haha. I didn't even dare Snapchat anyone, not even for one second, cos I was so scared someone might use the photos to blackmail me some day. Just take it that I looked fugly, ok!
The swelling took one week to completely heal but the bruising took an extra half week - at least. Bruising was something I had not expected, btw! Starting from like the third day of recovery my jaw was multicoloured. Green, yellow, purple, blue... it looked so bad with the swelling as well.
Overall:
Overall it took one week and a half for my face to de-swell and almost two weeks for the bruises to disappear and for me to eat properly again. Oh and the stitches were removed one week after the surgery!
Actually... I
still can't eat properly. Because there is a huge hole where my left bottom wisdom tooth used to be and
food keeps getting stuck inside. It's suppose to close by itself over time as new gums grow but I'm not even joking when I say
tons of shit get stuck inside. I have to literally pick pieces of food out from the hole with a toothpick because they won't wash away even if I gargle my mouth. It's so disgusting! I've had pieces of fish, chicken, broccoli, veggies in general, fruit, fruit skin etc stuck inside the hole. It makes me feel like puking my meals out when I pick the food out at the end of the day.
Ending the post with the babies that gave me hell. There are five because the last two are in halves, cos my bottom wisdom teeth were both impacted and close to the nerves. So I think the doctor had to smash one of them to get it out.
Someone asked me why the roots are gone when I uploaded this picture onto Instagram. The answer is... I have no idea LOL. They probably just broke off and the dentist didn't bother giving the pieces back to me. I know I was in top hands during the surgery though!
Oh and one last
fun fact: I already had four pre-molars pulled out when I got my braces back in 2009, so overall I've had
eight big teeth removed. And there is still not enough space inside my mouth. My teeth are waaay too big and my face is waaay too small. LOL.
