We, and when I say we I mean Marty, started the process of implants
a couple of weeks ago. And, when I say
implants I don’t mean the soft squishy silicon kind, I mean the dental kind.
We have had a good run of health lately and it is past time
to revisit the dental issue Marty has experienced most of her life. I don’t like dental stuff, the very thought
of it gives me the heebie jeebies, and when I say heeby jeeby I mean massive,
light headed, creeps.
I’m not sure why I have such an aversion to the tooth and
gum, but I do. I have sat beside Marty
and held her hand in a lot of medical situations in the past years but when it
comes to removing teeth, I have to excuse myself lest the dental hygienist has
to break out the smelling salts and that looks bad for an old man.
We have been mulling this whole ordeal for about two
years. We first visited the implant guy
some many months ago and Marty said nope, nada and I just didn’t have the
conviction to put her and our bank account through that assault on her
mouth.
Over the ensuing months Marty lost more teeth and more were
becoming less viable. Even Marty agreed
it was time to do something and implants seemed the best option for my
bride. Marty is a fidgeter with
everything and I can’t imagine dentures would ever stay in her mouth….so
implants were the best solution.
The implant thing is a multi-stage process. You have to get molded for a temporary
prosthesis you will wear for months, you get teeth extracted, titanium posts
inserted into the bones in your mouth and then the temporary set of teeth
fitted and screwed into your mouth.
Exciting huh?
Getting the mold done was a big nothing. The big stage, removing teeth and
screwing metal into her gums took about five hour. Marty was not sedated except the Xanax I gave
her a couple of hours before she hit the chair.
I moved Marty into the chair and stayed until they brought
the 21st century torture devices and left poor Marty to the good
graces of the nurses and the oral dude.
I’m told they numbed her mouth really well and she sat there with people
pulling teeth, cutting her gums, hammering and screwing posts in her for five
hours. In case it’s not clear, my wife
is one tough chick.
All went as planned and we got Marty home about 4:30 and of
course took her to bed, got her some ice packs, some pain meds and soup. I’m a firm believer in pain meds, reasonably
used, and they make Marty real sleepy which is clearly the way to do oral surgery. Sleep through the recovery to the extent that
you can.
The next day my bride was bruised and swollen, she looked
like she had been through a street fight and lost. We went to the dentist for them to check the
temporary teeth they had screwed into her upper gums and all was good. Marty, for her part, due to the pain meds was
way high by this time.
All was fine. Marty’s
pain was manageable, she was more than a little high from the meds (she’s a
cheap drunk anymore), and the temporary teeth were doing fine. Marty was bruised, battered and drugged,
other than that, peachy keen.
The bruising got worse, the pain got better, and slowly, as
the bruising turned from purple to yellow and moved around her mouth and to her
left eye, the eating got better and she could have something besides soup.
Today, the yellow marks on her face are gone, the teeth look
dandy and eating is just fine as long as we stay away from really chewy hard
foods which we would do anyway. We went
back to the oral surgeon, he checked and she is doing well. The oral dude recommended we start using a
water pick, which should be a huge mess every time we use it, but okay, we
shall do that too.
Every time we go through one of these “procedures” I am
reminded of how far we have come in Marty’s recovery and what a tough,
resilient person my bride is. Do what
she had done to me and I’m out for a month.
Not Marty, she just deals with each and every new assault to
her body and she quietly and simply does the next thing. She doesn’t complain, she doesn’t moan, she
doesn’t pitch or make life hard for those who care for her the most and want to
help her.
She is one tough mama and now she has a really cool set of
temporary teeth just waiting for the new ones like an impending Christmas
present.
God gave me the right woman.
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