Tuesday morning, emergency dental procedure "D-Day" and I was awake early, feeling a little bit more human with almost normal speech and with a far less swollen and painful lower face. In Part 1 I omitted to share that my boss, who is full of jokes, had messaged me while I was patiently waiting at casualty stating that he was resisting the urge to call me and hear me mumble; later he asked if we could FaceTime - he should remember that Karma does exist!
I awoke feeling hopeful but anxious. I attended to work e-mails before confronting the consent forms which required completion by me. I attended to the completion and signature of the consent form for the anaesthetist and since it was possible to complete the hospital's pre-admission form online I did just that and felt very virtuous once that had all been attended to. If only I had a crystal ball....!
While I was not scared of the procedure I was scheduled to undergo, I was nervous about the general anaesthetic. Again the spectre of the Great Unknown looming large and it would have been remiss for me to skip off to the day hospital without having a conversation with Johan about where our wills were, giving him my important passwords and telling him how much I love him, Morgan and Tristan. I was not being a Doom and Gloom Prophet rather being pragmatic and realistic. Courtesy of the Uber service I arrived at the Day Hospital just before 1pm and so far I had not had anything to eat or drink since 10.30am. I was informed that there was an issue with the online pre-admission form so I had to sit down and manually complete the form which caused me virtuous bubble to deflate a tad. It was a process which I survived before receiving calls from Morgan and my Mom respectively, prior to being ushered into my curtained section of the ward which was to be my corner of the hospital space until I was wheeled into theatre, put under and go under the dentist's scalpel. I was not happy to see on another form my visual ability was circled as being "poor" with the option for glasses and/or contact lenses not selected! A seemingly minor detail but it could be an issue so I took the liberty of circling "glasses and/or contact lenses" as despite wearing glasses, my eyesight is good and I do not need either a cane, guide dog or other visual seeing aid. The usual blood pressure and temperature checks were done before I had to change into the hospital attire which closely resemble a potato sack; why is hospital attire so exceptionally unflattering? I drew the line at putting on the hospital underwear as there was no need for that whatsoever and settled down to read, listen to a podcast and while away the hours which were at that stage 2 hours so the countdown was on. Again, where was my crystal ball?
I finished listening to a podcast and was contemplating listening to another one when a very loud conversation proved as entertaining and enthralling as one of my podcasts, so setting my earphones aside I lay there in my curtained solitude openly listening to this very loud one side conversation from one of the other patients in the ward. It was akin to a monologue on a podcast or radio drama! This monologue was all about renting a house out to a rehab facility and how it had been trashed with chandeliers broken, drugs being done on the tables and more of the ilk - I was agog with fascination not only as Tristan is an addict on his recovery journey (31 months clean and sober on 25 July 2022, thank God) but he also works for a rehab facility. It was fascinating to listen to and highly entertaining. I was disappointed when she ended her phone call. A walk to the bathroom in the ward revealed that another patient with very long wavy hair and a very deep and masculine voice; who apologised for their loud conversations either with the medical staff or on the phone - all those conversations were loud too but not nearly as dramatic and intriguing as the 'trashed rehab' conversation. I tried to nap but although the hospital is quite calm and tranquil it is noisy; I manage to finish reading my novel and do all the puzzles in my magazine while trying to stay off my cellphone as my battery was lower than I desired it to be. 4pm which was the scheduled time for my theatre appearance came and went and yet I remained in my potato sack, in the bed in the ward with my abscess keeping me company.
It was fast approaching 6pm when I finally started being wheeled into theatre. Right at the threshold of the theatre, the world went black - no I had not been administered the anaesthetic yet; it was loadshedding. The anaesthetist was all full of jokes saying I would sleep there and be operated on first thing in the morning – funny ha ha ha in a day clinic where there is zero night staff etc. The generator thankfully kicked in and I was advised that I would not be administered general anaesthetic – too high risk apparently with teeth and a toxic abscess, my weight, etc (apparently it would be in order for the removal of my appendix but not for teeth) I was administered enough sedation to be very whoozy and dopey in a good way. I also had a ton of injections so emerged from the procedure with really fat pseudo botox lips, funny speech, one tooth extracted and no more annoying abscess and a mouth full of dissolvable stitches. My missing tooth is akin to a postal box mailing slot and I call it my 'hole-in-one'. Courteous of my doctors, apparently if you lose 4 teeth you are from Cape Town, if you lose 2 you are from Kimberley – which is halfway to Cape Town. And hopefully I will remain a hole in one and the tooth that was not removed has been saved. I had to prove I could eat, drink and wee before I was allowed to get dressed and be discharged – I managed to drink a small box of apple juice and a tub of jelly; use the loo and voila, Johan was there to escort me home. Returning home to a beautiful arrangement of flowers from work was a pleasant surprise.
No more abscess with its poison coursing through my body, time to recover and rest, heal and restore is next on the agenda along with my antibiotics, painkillers, anti-inflammatories, soft food diet and my anti-swelling ice pack.
The ice pack which I had to wear for 3 to 4 minutes for the next 24 hour period to help with swelling. Such sexy headgear - NOT!!
An example of my liquid breakfast - tea and yoghurt blended with a small banana, and naartjie (mandarin/clementine).