I had my dental surgery today. The first surgery i've ever had in my life. Haha. Somehow, i wasn't scared, expect maybe when they were poking the needle into my arm and when i was being put to sleep :P

It's quite an exciting experience, really :) But the waiting is such a bore. After i registered and changed etc, i was told to rest while waiting cos someone else was apparently in surgery at that time. I felt a bit like i didn't know what to do with myself, cos i don't know how long i had to wait and didn't want to sleep, but there was nothing else to do but sleep! So i did. Not much though. I spent most of the time eavesdropping on the conversations going on outside.

Finally, i was woken and told i was going to the operating room soon. But not before i had to sit outside and wait some more. While waiting, i had 3 different people come to me and ask my name and if i had any allergies and all of them checked my file. Heh. I'm pretty sure all this information is written in the file actually, but better to be safe than sorry i guess.

One of the doctors inserted the tube thing into my hand while i was waiting there. The needle was so long! o__o I'm one of those people who would watch while getting injected (i find it fascinating), but i didn't this time because it looked a bit freaky and anyway, i wasn't wearing my glasses.

So after a bit more waiting, i finally get to go in, lie down and get hooked up to some monitors. Then the anesthetist comes in and injects something into the tube thing that's already in my arm. Another nurse also covers my nose and mouth with a mask and says it's just oxygen. But the mask smelled medicinal, probably from very effective sterilisation. Haha.

I didn't fall asleep that quickly. The anesthesia caused a really uncomfortable feeling in my arm and somehow or other, i felt like vomiting (so that's why i had to fast...). Together with the medicinal smelling oxygen, i felt rather sick and was really hoping to quickly fall asleep. I've heard that it takes less than 10 seconds to get knocked out, but i think i took a bit longer. I was told to breathe deeply, so i did, and after a few times, i fell asleep.

I got the answer to my question. You do dream under anesthesia. Haha :)

I awoke to 3 nurses having some interesting conversation while measuring my blood pressure. I can't remember what the conversation was, but i remember that i was wondering why they were talking about that in front of a patient. Maybe they knew i wouldn't remember. Haha.

I felt totally disoriented and my eyes had difficulty opening. I could have easily fallen back asleep again, but i forced myself to wake up. Also, having huge pieces of gauze stuffed in my mouth was not comfortable. Not to mention the weird feeling in my throat from the accumulating blood and saliva and probably also the after effects of the tube they put down my throat during the operation made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

I wanted to go back to sleep cos i felt giddy, but i couldn't really cos of the discomfort. And i was shivering! Literally! I was really cold, probably from inactivity and also because i hadn't eaten anything since the night before. The nurse gave me some blackcurrant drink later, which made me feel better. Glucose probably? And thank goodness it masked the taste of blood :P

My dad came to pick me later and i left, still feeling rather unbalanced. I couldn't walk a straight line! Haha! I was quite giddy and still feeling sleepy. So i slept all the way home. And when i got home, i slept again.

By the time i woke up and decided to try putting something into my empty stomach, i had gone almost 24 hours without eating. So of course i didn't dare to just eat like that in case i got gastric pains. Ended up just drinking stuff and waiting for dinner, which ended up as a bit of a challenge for me too. I was eating porridge and it was already a challenge! How to survive?!

I couldn't open my mouth fully, so i ended up eating with a teaspoon. And i couldn't really chew, so i ended up just eating the porridge without anything else (sauce not counted). And then, my mouth is still numb, so it becomes more difficult to eat. I never realised how important being able to feel is for eating. Cos unless you look in the mirror when you eat, you'd probably rely on your sense of touch somewhat to feed yourself.

So it's been 12 hours after my surgery and my mouth is still numb. I'm still bleeding a bit and i'm a bit hungry too. And i'm still feeling a bit giddy even after sleeping so much. I just sneezed and there is blood in my mucus too. Why? Because the nose and mouth tracts are connected! We learn something new everyday :) Hahaha!

Actually i think it's cos taking out my tooth caused a small hole in my sinus thing (some part of the nose lah) as the doctor said might happen. And i think the sneeze just un-clotted a bit of the blood clot in my mouth cos i can taste fresh blood :P

Am i totally freaking you out yet with my explicit details? Haha!

I haven't felt any real pain yet, probably cos i'm still numb, but i do feel a bit sore. I think it's more due to having gauze stuffed in my mouth for so long rather than the surgery though :S I took painkillers even when i didn't feel pain cos the nurse advised me to. I hope i know when to stop...

I wonder how the next few days would be like. The good thing about this is that i'll be eating a lot of ice-cream! :D (Wait, don't i already do that usually? Haha! :P) Hopefully my recovery goes well! :) Please continue to pray for me!