De-toothed...

So, my dentist told me that I should get my wisdom teeth extracted as the bottom two are impacted, and since I'm getting two out, might as well get the other top one out to prevent future problems, and the other top one is hidden from sight, beneath the gum and will most likely be hidden forever. So, unless that one starts giving me problem, we will let it be.

I scheduled my wisdom teeth extraction on last Friday, so that I will have the weekend to recover before showing up at work looking like a chipmunk.

Before the surgery last Friday, I had my first consultation end of last year in mid Dec, where I took an 360 degree x-ray, it was rather cool. Then, the surgeon had the talk with me after had me watching a video. I was given the option to be how 'sedated' I want to be during the procedure. I've heard about the drilling and the 'noise' that people talk about so often, and decided to experience it first hand. I got a look from the surgeon when I told him that I want the local anesthetic (instead of sedative with laughing gas, or general anesthesia (being put to sleep)), he told me that probably about 10% of people choose the option I'm choosing. So, I'm all set then.

When my colleagues learned about my brave decision, they thought that I'm some kinda freak, and started describing how horrible the entire experience was for them. How they puked and all that, had bad migraine and what not. I got to admit that I was a little freaked out by them the night before the surgery, second guessing my decision of just having novacaine to numb my mouth and nothing else. But, I guessed that since it's an option on the table, it shouldn't be that bad.

Knowing that I'll be on liquid/semi-liquid diet for a few days after the surgery, I made some preparation the weekend before by buying yogurt, jello, mashed potatoes, and ice cream (gelatto, sorbetto, and stuff). Also, the night before, I soaked some dried mushrooms for the congee I'll be cooking. What else on the menu? Oh yeah, steamed egg (cawanmushi style).

The morning of the surgery was like any other morning, except that I thought I needed to fast, so, I skipped my coffee, but I was so hungry, that I had some munchkins that my manager bought at work. After a half day of work, I left for my surgery at 11.30am, in the middle of a conference call. The weather was frigid, and the wind was blowing strong. Not sure why the weather matters.

After 15 minutes of waiting, I was brought into the surgery room. First I was given few novacaine shots to numb my lips and tongue, and 7-8 minutes later, I was given a few more novacaine shots because my lower lip wasn't numb enough after the first round. And another 7-8 minutes to let the shots to do their work, my lower lip was really really numb by now. So, the surgery began. The bottom two wisdom teeth needed to be broken into two pieces in order to remove them, while the top one was a simple wiggle and pull extraction (in my own terminology).

The whole procedure took about 40 minutes (including the 15 minutes of numbing), and I was done. Just need to come back this following Friday for a post-operation check.

The first day wasn't bad, especially the first 6 hours after the surgery as my lips were still so numb to feel anything. I tried eating jello for lunch, but it was a hilarious sight as my lower lip felt like 5 times its original size, and trying to shove jello into my mouth was like a hit and miss. And to be careful, I just pretty much swallow them straight. Same for the congee I had for dinner. The ice cream and yogurt too.

Oh yeah, I even drove myself to the store to get my prescripted painkiller, and a couple more food items. My apartment-complex-mate cum colleague (due to several misinterpretations, need to clarify that it's the same apartment building, but different unit) noticed that my car was missing when she got back from work and I got a text which reads: Crazy! Where you at?

LOL. And I got many more texts asking about my condition, I even got a call from Keng Yang. He was semi-expecting that I won't be able to speak clearly. Take that! :-p
The pain wasn't bad, it's not really bothering me until I have to eat. And when the painkiller wears off.

So, I spent most of my weekend watching tv and that's about it. I tried studying but, was too distracted.

Here are some pictures...
My drugs - anti-inflammatory and antibiotic.. missing from the picture, Percocet (painkiller)
Ice Cream...
And yogurt...

Jello...
Soaking those dried mushrooms overnight...
Congee... with mushroom and ham...
Steamed eggs with ham...
The plastic bag I got from the surgeon... At least he has a sense of humoUr...

And my swelling isn't that bad. I took my before and after pictures, but it's not really that visible. So, I decided to scrap it.

And... my extracted wisdom teeth... WARNING... There's dried blood on them!!!
The whole one (whitest one) is the one from the top, just the wiggle and pull extraction...
The others are from the bottom, needed to be broken into pieces to be extracted...



So, there you have it... My wisdom teeth extraction...
75% less wise now...

It's been two weeks...

So, it's been two weeks since I left home for the States again. Wow, that's pretty quick. My tentative plan of going home for CNY next year is probably about 51 weeks ahead. Since it's exactly 1 year from today, Valentine's Day... Oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day to all...

I've been having some problem with my laptop lately. But, since I'm only using it to surf the internet and check my email, it didn't really bother me all that much. See how long I can survive on this problematic machine, and then, I'll get a new one. I'm not sure if i should get a desktop or a laptop, considering my laptop pretty much sits on my desk 99% of the time, and I don't see myself needing the mobility of a personal laptop after college. So, a desktop, with a huge monitor sounds like a better fit for my needs.

Digressing a little. So, the trip back to the States from home was a little eventful. The 6+ hours layover in Singapore was dreadful. I had 2 huge coffee, and some Sushi to get me through the night. I did manage to study a little, though I'm about 2 weeks behind my study schedule. At the airport, I managed to catch the last 20 minutes of the Man U game, and well, Man U won and topped the table with 1 game in hand. Sweet!

The flight from Singapore to Japan was alright. Because I wanted to set myself to US time, I tried to delay my sleep as much as possible while I was on this flight, making it a 36-hour day. I wasn't too bad, as I can't really sleep much on the plane anyway. One thing that really bothered me, was how rude the stewardess on Northwest Airline acted. They don't have the pleasant smile, not personable, loud, and just miserable. "CHICKEN OR BEEF!?!? CHICKEN OR BEEF!?!?!?" "COFFEE?!" "COFFEE!?" There was this one air stewardess that was just miserable and looked like someone stepped on her tail or something... Cheer up!
Not to mention, the food was terrible, and not to mention no free booze, and the in-flight duty free shopping was lousy, and again, VOD selection was pathetic (or no VOD service for the longest leg of the flights.) Sorry for my ranting, but, that's my last international NWA flights that I'll take.

Not to mention, that one of my checked baggage was somehow sent to Detroit, and took them a day to return that to me. What's worse, they tried to send it to me during workhours, so, I need to have them sent it to my workplace, and it did look funny - me dragging a huge 26" baggage across the hallway to my car after work. And the stuff inside were pretty hammered. Losses: A cup stand, a mug, a bottle of garlic chilli sauce, a bottle of black pepper sauce and cookies. Well, the cookies are still edible, but not really presentable. Next time, I'll just bring those cookies in my carry-on instead.

So, it took me about 3 days to get over jetlag. Longer than usual I must say, maybe I'm really getting old. LOL!!! Not really, just that I got so tired the first day that I pretty much dropped dead at 6pm, after getting back to my apartment from work. I skipped dinner altogether, and woke up at 12 midnight. Sweet! The next day, rolled back my sleeping time another 3 hours, and finally, the 3rd day, back to normal...

With the jetlag, and also, catching up with work, I was finally able to find time to go to the gym on the Saturday, and that's when I found out that I gained 8 freaking pounds over the 2 weeks I was home, plus a week of not going to the gym after coming back from home. 8 freaking pounds... Unbelievable. Last week, I've been running more. It started with 2 3-miler on Monday, one in the morning at 6 before work, and another in the evening after work. Then, one 3-miler before work on Tue, and a 3-miler after work on Wed, then, so-on... a total of 22 mile from Mon-Sat. Depends on the weather, maybe I'll be able to venture outdoor tomorrow. That'll be fun. Need to get rid of those extra pounds asap, and also, to get my mileage up to start training for my next marathon, maybe in June or July. (checking the schedule, hmm... unless i want to fly to west coast or the midwest or the south, don't think there's any marathon in New England area in those months... maybe Aug or Sept or Oct then...)

That's all for now... Too bad that I had quite a lot in my mind during the week, but couldn't find time to post them up here, and by the time I find time, it seems to me that it's not that important or noteworthy anymore. Oh well...