Wisdom Unrecognized

Tuesday January 26th, 2010 ~ This is me this morning after
a very long week. This is the 'aftermath' of having my wisdom
teeth pulled last Monday the 18th. I had the 2 bottom wisdom
teeth and 2 other bottom teeth pulled. It was a hard procedure, with
them having to break a piece of my jaw and remove the tooth in
several pieces. I went home in a lot of pain and it just got gradually
worse. While I expected the procedure to not be pleasant, I never
expected I would experience so much pain, spend 2 days in the North
Platte emergency room, 3 days in the NP hospital or have 2 surgeries
to repair the massive infection I developed!!! The whole ordeal was
very surreal, I could not believe what I had to endure. In this picture,
you can somewhat see I have a some bruising and am still swollen. The
white bandage on my neck is from my second surgery yesterday morning,
where drain tubes were removed. I have stitches inside my mouth and
outside on my neck so I am very very sore. Hopefully this is the beginning
of the healing process!

This is a picture Bernie took on cell phone Saturday late afternoon
when I came out of my first surgery. I was so swollen and had a bandage
all around my face and had to be on oxygen to keep my vitals up. I was
really unrecognizable. The first surgery was to scrape some of the massive
infection out of my mouth and to insert drain tubes into my neck. I spent
2 days of laying in a hospital bed with them in my neck, very uncomfortable
and very painful. I had 3 days of continuous i.v. antibiotics and fluids as well.
The entire staff, er staff and nurses and operating staff at North Platte were
wonderful and Dr. Hinze, oral surgeon, was amazing in repairing the damage
done by Dr. Lashley. Unfortunately for Dr. Lashley, I was the second case in a
week! Another area man was in the hospital at the same time I was, experiencing
the same exact thing!!........... I will say no more about that at this time...

These are now the medications I am on. I take up to 4-7 pills at
a time, 3-4 times a day as well as having to keep my mouth
flushed after I eat. Eating........ya, well, thats not happening!
I've had mainly broth, jello and oatmeal this week and even
that was painful to eat. Needless to say, so far I have lost 8lbs
this week! Great, but not the diet I was wanting to experience!

A big thank you to all my wonderful friends
and family for all of the care and concern!! It
means so much!

I had several visitors and received so many wonderful gifts
and beautiful flowers!! Sister Teresa came to the emergency
room Saturday to see me before I went into surgery and sat
with Bernie while I was in the operating room and was there
when I came out. Sunday, Mom, Dad, Jenny and Becky stopped
by with beautiful red tipped yellow roses and a sack of goodies,
including a new lounge outfit, lotion, book and magazine. They
were shocked to see me, I really did not look like myself. My
friend Tonya also stopped by to see me, and brought me a yummy
fragrance plug in. Sunday evening, Grace brought the boys' up to
see me. I dont think they were quite expecting their Mom to look
so bad. Monday morning when I came out of surgery,
I had 2 deliveries, a beautiful pink rose and balloon from friend
Monica and a beautiful spring basket from my 'friends' and staff at
Paxton schools. Sister-in-law Lisa also stopped by to visit and brought
me some very pretty roses. She said I looked "pretty"....LIAR! Sisters
Jenny and Teresa stopped by again too. Bernie got me some beautiful
flowers and a balloon too. What a trooper he was!!! He missed several
days of work and stayed with me every minute at the hospital, having
to sleep in a very uncomfortable chair and having no sleep right along
with me. He's the greatest!!! THANK YOU honey!

Dr. Hinze released me last evening. Needless
to say, Bernie and I were both glad to be headed
home. When we got home Grace was taking supper
out of the oven and doing laundry! How nice! I really
appreciated that! She held down the fort while we were
gone and helped with the boys'. We hadn't been home15 min.
when neighbor and friend, Dana brought food over! Her husband
lovingly prepared a delicious meal for us that we'll have tonight.
What neighbors! :) We so appreciate everyone's thoughtfulness!!

I go back to Dr. Hinze's office tomorrow for a follow up. Hopefully
things will still look okay and that the infection is going away. I'm
not sure what I would do if I had to go back to the hospital again!
I'm ready to put that behind me and to start feeling better! It's
going to be a long process tho so I'm just trying to take it easy and
take my medicine and do what I'm supose to. This is all certainly
NOT what I expected or ever imagined I'd go through. I will keep
you all updated. Thank you again for prayers and concerns! Love you all!