A Minor Procedure
And a birthday.
A few things have been going on this month.
To start, I had a gum graft a few weeks ago — a rather painful dental procedure. Technically a surgery, but when I compare it to last year’s surgery, it feels comical to call it that.
I had the same about three years ago, and it was awful. The first time, the periodontist called me at home to check on me, and I was in so much pain that I was crying. She ordered up some stronger pain meds and sent them to the pharmacy.
In fact, it was so painful at times that I often thought about it when I was lying in the hospital last year after brain surgery. At times when my pain was well-controlled, I thought, “The gum graft was worse than this” (however, there were other times when my pain wasn’t controlled, and then brain surgery was much worse).
Needing another gum graft was very bad news. I actually got the news last year on the same day I found out that I had a brain tumor. Dentist in the afternoon, referral to the periodontist. ER that night with an MRI showing the tumor. What a day.
The gum graft was not urgent, so I’d been putting it off until I’d fully recovered. By the time I went to the dentist this year for my cleaning, I no longer had an excuse.
I told the periodontist that I had a lot of pain last time, and that too much pain sets off bad headaches in my post-brain-surgery world. She wrote a prescription for the good pain meds up front. Also, the procedure has changed, and I went home with a plastic mold on the roof of my mouth, protecting the open wound. That made a world of difference in my comfort and pain for the first few days.
But two days after surgery was the annual SHARE Walk to Remember event, honoring babies who died during pregnancy. I’ve attended almost every year since 2016. Even though my mouth was swollen and it was difficult to talk with the plastic mold, we attended as a family. I told myself that if I had an important event for my living children, I wouldn’t miss it. So I couldn’t miss it for Nelle and Iris either.
We skipped the actual walk, but stayed for the ceremony where the babies’ names are read aloud.
Fast forward another week and it’s my birthday weekend. I still have stitches in my mouth and am on a soft foods diet. I didn’t want to go out to dinner or anything, because it felt wasteful since I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the food. Instead, we had a cake from Whole Foods (red velvet) at home.
As I’ve recovered from this relatively minor procedure, it’s brought up a lot of memories of my surgery last year. It was tricky to eat for a few days, and I struggled to eat for several weeks after brain surgery last year because I had some facial paralysis. I had all of my medications lined up in the bathroom: pain meds, antibiotics, anti-swelling meds. I set alarms reminding me to take meds, trying especially to stay on top of the pain meds.
Following the surgery, I spent about 24 hours lying in bed, watching tv. That’s an unnatural feeling for me. I’m a go-go-go person, always doing things for myself and my family. But I knew, since I’d had this procedure before, that the first few days were going to be pretty awful. At least I was prepared. I got Greek yogurt, smoothies, and pudding cups.
Now I’m at the tail end of the experience. The stitches come out later this week.
I thought back to my birthday last year, just three months post-surgery. I still had trouble sleeping comfortably. Sitting upright for long periods of time was hard. My vision was a mess.
Grateful for where I’m at this year. Although my husband said, “Can you NOT have a surgery next year? That would be great.”
Anna Burgess Yang