2003-02-09 - 10:38 p.m.

Friday Post-Op

This morning, a few minutes before ten a. m., I was munching a western omlet sandwich in preparation for the oral surgery. Mean me,- the gals had to clean my teeth before the doctor could dive in.

It was a relatively painless procedure. He even applied topical painkiller gel before injecting the deep-down analgesic. He also kept reminding me to breathe deeply to relax. He'll never replace Curt Gowdy on play-by-play narration, but he did give me a good idea what was going on. Briefly, he removed the roots of four teeth that had broken off at the gumline. They were all on the right side of my face. (We'll do the left side later on.)

The receptionist gave me an ice pack and had me sit in the waiting room for a while after Dr. Lee had finished. Good thing I'd picked up a Metro (free newspaper) in the subway; gave me something to read.

Coming back on the subway, Jim called just about the time the meds were wearing off. That was a good distraction. He's coming over tomorrow to see if I need anything.

When I got to Anam, my landlord's pharmacy was closed. Another one wouldn't fill my 'scrip' because it wasn't local! The third drugstore, up by the hospital, did fill it after checking by phone with Dr. Lee. By that time, I was nearly in tears.

The pharmacist gave me some water so I could swallow the first dose immediately. The directions say to take the capsules after eating, but she saw that it was better to start those meds working fast. My stomach was growling by then as it was nearly 2 p.m.

By the time I walked down the hill, I could feel them taking hold. Whew! What a relief!

Came in and blended the rest of the soup and drank it right down. Then went to the store to get some spring water. A pickup truck on the corner had bananas. Visions of "smoothies" danced in my head, so I forked over 2 chunwon for a bagful. After that, I came back and settled in for a two-hour nap.

That nap put me right! For supper, I made another vegetable soup, seasoned with bean paste (sunchang doenjang) and liberally fortified with kelp and mushrooms. Now that really hit the spot.

Carol called while I was making the soup. She's hoping I'll be up to coming to womens' group tomorrow evening. She's got some soft persimmons and plans to blend them with yoghurt. With "bait" like that, who could resist?

I just whipped up a chocolate banana smoothie. I think I'm going to enjoy convalescence! This is rather fun, as long as I take my meds. He's got me on something like Tylenol 3 (nothing too major-ly addictive), along with an anti-inflammatory med and antibiotics, for 5 days. I'm to go back tomorrow morning so he can check the sutures and see how I'm doing.

Thanks for reading.

Happy Trails!

~ Sil in Corea

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