The Bourbon Logs

Day 3 begins with the idea of taking a photo from the same position each day as i go through this miserable experience. Chris took this photo of me.

Day three was the first day that i would be “on my own”. Chris went to work and i spent most of the day in bed, reading Sherlock Holmes mysteries and sleeping a lot. Pain-wise i was feeling pretty good and laid off of the Tylenol-3s. I took my antibiotics on schedule, but the biggest deal was the teeth-cleaning. Chris spoke with the surgeon’s staff and they insisted that I needed to brush my teeth immediately, because the swelling in my lips would get worse, not better, until i got in there with a brush. They said it will bleed, it might hurt, but that it was imperative for my recovery that i did so immediately. I told Chris that i would do so, and, after working up a little courage, made my way to the bathroom.

It was with much trepidation that i moved the electric brush into my mouth, at the low speed. It wasn’t as bad as i expected, although my bottom front teeth proved almost unreachable, as they are tucked in behind the overbite and there is a lot soreness down along the gumline. It was weird when i ran the brush over the wires, kind of a zinger along the lines of fingernails down a chalk-board, but the instruction said i had to brush the wires as well, so i did my best. The sides - molars - weren’t so bad, either, to my surprise. I rinsed and indeed there was some blood and gunk that came out, but i was glad i was able to get in there as well as i did.

Rinsed with salt-water when i was finished, made some soup for lunch, which went down, albeit again with difficulty.

Chris brought a Braun Water-Pic home to aid with the teeth cleaning. We don’t know if it’ll help but it sounds like a good idea. Both my dentist and the surgeon’s help-desk thought so as well. I plugged the thing in to charge overnight. Day 4 will see me giving that a go.

I brushed a few more times during the day. Chris also brought home new heads for the electric tooth brush - another Braun product - these one of the “ultra-soft” variety. I did begin to feel a bit more mobility around the lips as i worked the brushing, not necessarily less swelling, but more ability to move them, which i took to be a good sign.

Supper was a tame affair - more soup. I added some protein to it, and thinned with chicken stock to make it easier to pull through a straw. I made a late-night milkshake, adding banana and protein powder, some cocoa and vanilla, and we watched a Last Detective mystery that i recorded the night previously. DC Dangerous to the rescue. Another sleepless night followed, I believe i was up for the duration from 3:00 on through 6 or so, when Chris gets up to shower for work. I slept from that point until 8:00.