6 weeks post surgery

Well folks, today was quite an eventful day.  Actually, starting Friday morning, everything has been eventful.  Let me tell you about the weekend first, then fill you in on a little good news from today.  As many of you know, I have been suffering with nerve pain that won't go away.  It seems to be spreading now, to my tongue and upper lip, as well as general soreness all around.  Friday morning I woke up with another headache and in pain and I just had had it.  The Darvocet wasn't helping, I was tired, and weak from not eating enough, and I just had it.  So I balled in the shower, and I called Ashley balling.  She calmed me down and comforted me and I knew that I would need to do something come Monday when I went back to the doctor.  Then Ashley told me that dad had been up all night throwing up and Mary was taking him to the ER, thinking it was Norovirus.  I told Ashley to email me if anything happened or she heard anything.  So I went on to work.  Well, at the end of the school day, while waiting for the last few busses, I happened to pull out my phone and saw that Ashley had called.  She left a message for me to call her as soon as I got the message.  Well, when I called, she told me dad had had a stroke.  I was in shock.  He was in the ER still but they were about to take him to ICU.  Well, basically from there I spent most of my weekend at the hospital in the ICU.  It was really scary because he could have died.  He has a clot in an artery going to his brain and it will be there the rest of his life.  The doctors say that his stroke is the best kind of stroke to have, most of his patients recover and live mostly normal lives.  He doesn't have the droopyness or stuff that most people get.  He is dizzy a lot and nauseated because of where it is.  He also will have vertigo issues.  He's going to be in the hospital for at least 5 weeks including rehab. 
I was supposed to go to the beach with Scott, but that of course got cancelled.  Well, Saturday morning, I had another headache and was laying in bed trying to get rid of it before I went to the hospital to see dad.  Scott called me and told me that he was also in the hospital.  At first I was confused and wondered why he went to see dad already.  Then he explained that he was in the ER with kidney stones, again.  So, between running to see dad, I was also trying to check in on Scott, take his car home for him take him some stuff.  I felt really bad that I couldn't be there for him more but I really wanted to be with my dad. 
I am still exhausted from the whole ordeal.  Now dad is moved into a regular room, but he's still kindof loopy and dizzy and nauseated.  I'm not sure what's going on at this moment.
Now onto the actual oral surgery stuff (sorry I haven't written in so long about it).  Today I went back to UNC.  I told my doctors that I was still in terrible pain.  He just couldn't believe it.  He told me that most patients come in to the clinic at week 6 feeling great, no pain, ready to go on.  They decided to go ahead and take out my splint, though, and put me on a nerve blocker (finally!!!).  The splint coming out was kindof gross.  The doctor put on a plastic face mask and had me wear a gown.  I was like, geeze, is it really that bad?  He said, yep, stuff goes flying, a lot of things get trapped in there.  So he cut the wires and told me not to swallow.  Well then he was like, DONT SWALLOW!  So of course, I swallowed.  And I felt something go down.  I told him I swallowed and I was imagining a tiny wire tearing up my insides.  I asked him if that was going to be bad.  Then he was like, oh here it is, was on my finger the whole time.  So what did I swallow? I asked.  Debris, probably.  EWW!!!
Anyway, the assistant came into the room with a tootbrush and toothpaste before he even finished, handed it to me and said, here you probably want to brush your teeth, now.  And I did!  It was nasty.  I brushed for like 8 minutes.  Then I couldn't get over how weird everything felt to be normal again.  Anyway, here is a picture of the splint:

It looks like a retainer, doesn't it?

So my doctor said he was going to keep it in case he needed to put it back in.  (I hope they at least cleaned it before putting it in that bag!) I go back next Thursday.  Lets hope the Neurotin works.  He also said that he wanted my orthodontist to take out my surgical wires and put in lighter wires.  
Well, at my orthodontist appointment, little did I know the torture I was about to face.  When the hygenist went to cut the wire, it hurt so bad I almost passed out.  Imagine twisting and pulling every single one of your teeth one at a time, that's how it felt.  They had to stop and put the chair up.  I seriously thought I was going to die.  When she pulled out the wire, she accidentally cut my upper and lower gums, so I was bleeding everywhere.  Thankfully my orthodontist said to put a hold on the bottom one, cause it hurts to even brush my bottom teeth. 
So right now, I'm licking my wounds and waiting for the Neurotin I just took to kick in.  Here are the after pics of my orthodontist visit. 

 

  

Don't look too close at my teeth, you might see some blood, ha  ha!