Day 0

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Hey all, sorry I didn't get anything written up yesterday, the pain, fatigue & chronic headaches have been making things kind of unbearable. I think the fibro fallout is starting to catch up with me as well, and I'm still working during this time. And technically Days 5 & 6 feel like just one, long day. I'll explain more below.

TL;DR: OWCH!, sore on my gum causes me to blackout, salted watermelon smoothies are da bomb, some slight adjustments at the dentist and solid food is an absolute delight and nice change of pace.

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Day 5 was probably one of the worst days I've had for a bit. I got up early, 7AM, to call Aspen about trying to get me in for a least a bit of an adjustment and to make sure I didn't have dry sockets. The chronic headaches, I nearly thought that that's what happened, I had to "suck" my dentures into place so much I created dry sockets and I was not looking forward to the healing process. Last time I had a dry socket was when my wisdom teeth were removed in High School, 20 years ago, and I remember not having a good time then, either.

The Aspen office is supposed to open at 7AM and start taking calls, and I call at 7:10, and their out of office message is still there. I give it a bit and call again around 7:20. They can get me in the next day at 1PM. Otherwise, the next earliest day would be the following Monday. Normally Wednesdays are a bad time. My Manager at my job usually takes Wednesdays off (even though we can still pester her all day with questions) and it would just be my coworker who would be available to our clients and I try not to leave him alone if I can help it. But I am NOT waiting until Monday. Part of me just keeps telling myself that this is normal, it's growing pains, but life is also pretty unbearable. I was able to chew thispast Sunday night and now I can't again because of how the front sores rub against the denture. I message my Manager and she said they'd be fine for an hour or two if I have to do that. She went through dentures with her Mom, so she understands the pain issues. She'll make herself available during that time to help us out.

My husband is up around this time to go to work, he gives me some kisses before he leaves and I have to ask him to lighten up a bit due to the pain. I don't have my teeth in yet, but the main sore spot on the front is still like a lightning bolt into my brain. He heads to work and I head to the bathroom to go ahead and put my teeth in. I trim just one Seabond strip for the bottom again. I thankfully had the foresight the previous day to make myself a cardboard pattern to trim against, since I was finding doing it against the denture itself was kind of annoying. I get that put in and it feels better, back to the one strip vs two, but I'm sure that will change as I heal more.

Now comes the fight for putting the top one in. I use some 20% Benzocaine stuff from Walgreens on the top gum areas. I try to let it sit for a bit and I think it's kinda numb. I put in my tops and the pain is unbearable. I actually black out for a few seconds after I put it in my mouth and try to work to get it to suck into place. Not long enough to fall down but close. I tell myself to start sitting down when I put that one in. Eventually it gets better but things still hurt. I'm desperate to go grab my ice packs to put on my face to help with the pain levels.

I head to the kitchen and I decide I want to try and eat my quarter slice of watermelon that's in the fridge. Watermelon is one of my favorite things come summertime. I'm one of those weirdos that puts salt on it because I think it makes it taste so much better. I cut myself a normal sized chunk to chew. I can't get my teeth to do it due to the pain. I make a much smaller piece, same thing, it hurts too much. And I'm hungry and really needing something to eat, but need a break from yogurt. I then remember my Manager telling me that "Anything can be blended" and I'm like, well, watermelon would be SUPER easy to blend! I think about just doing only the watermelon in the blender but then thought it would be super watery. So I track down a smoothie recipe that called for milk & 1/2 cup of greek yogurt added. I didn't measure anything but just filled the blender cup to the top with watermelon, and then dumped the last little bit of milk we had into it and a large spoonful of yogurt. And then I also added a dash of salt....blended the mofo and OMG it was the best thing ever! I wanted to drink the entire container in one sitting but I made myself wait, since I wanted to see how well it lasts.

Day goes on, work work work, pain pain pain. Ice packs are still a godsend. The salted watermelon smoothie was the absolute height of my day...at least until my husband brought home this chocolate protein shake from Fairlife, one of their Core Power ones with 26g of protein. I'm so tired when I'm finally off the clock at 7PM, that I just want to go to bed. So I drink my new shake, it was extremely tasty, and I make my nightly insomnia cocktail, plus one or two other things, and just crash for the night.______________________________________________________________________________

Day 6 - usual pattern, let the pets out, put on clothes, since I'll need them for going out later. I come very, very close to not wanting to put my dentures in, just leave them out for my appointment, but I'm sure I'll need to get on a call or 3 before I go for my adjustment at 1PM, so I put them in, knowing I do sound a bit better with them than without them. I also happened to take a closer look at my Orajel and realize it expired in 2018. Oops..I need something better anyways. Still blinding pain putting in the top but I'm hoping it's the last day that does that (or close to it). I take two hydros, my last two because I can't deal with the pain that is going on. I drink more of my smoothie (still delicious) and get on for work for the day.

Day goes well, didn't need to be on the phone much. Two hydros seemed to do the job and I can function at normal levels. I multitask a bunch before I have to disconnect and head to get my adjustment. Once there, I show them the sores and their guy who works in the lab making these things comes out and takes a look. I point out on the top exactly where it's hitting me. I'm pretty much told that I'm healing well, no I don't have any dry sockets (yay!) and it's just part of the swelling going down (kind of what I figured they would say). But he goes ahead and takes the top to make a quick adjustment. He also shows me a slightly different way to stick it in my mouth. Put it in at an angle, treating my front gums like a hinge. So you stick it in with the front of it higher than the back, so the top edge touches the gums. And once that is there, push the back up so that it sits in place. I still have pain from that front sore, but it's nowhere near as bad as it had been previously. No blacking out this time. They also give me a bottle of Acclean - Chlorhexidine Gluconate - to use twice a day, on top of the salt rinses I've been doing. I asked them about doing hydrogen peroxide (my usual go-to when I had canker sores) but didn't receive an answer. They talk to the Dentist about my chronic headaches I've had since the extractions. They come back with the prescriptions I just finished up - two antibiotics, a steroid and 16 more hydros. This stuff has been really causing an issue with my stomach, but if they think they'll help, I'll go for it, again. I've already been through 2 rounds of this stuff.

I head out and hit the grocery on my way home. I want more of those Protein shakes and more watermelon. The shakes are a little less than $2.50 a piece and I spend probably $20 on them and I can't be happier. I'm hoping they keep them in stock.

Only other thing of interest during the day, I believe one of you suggested noodles being an easy thing to eat. We only have wheat noodles or Udon in the house. The wheat noodles will still be a little too tough, but my husband is kind enough to make me some garlic butter noodles with the udon. At 10 minutes, they're the normal noodle resilience, a little chewy and still too hard to chew, so he lets them cook 2 minutes longer. They're starchy now but they they're softer. He goes through and turns them into garlic butter noodles. I go to chew them - they're still hard to chew but omg they're the tastiest, best thing I've had in days and it's so nice to get someone solid on my stomach. I'm still not full afterwards and still grab one of the protein shakes to drink. I still head to bed early, not quite as early the previous night, but still early for me, but my tummy is happy, I need the rest and I really just want to get the day over with.