Sunshine Journal

Here we are again. At 11am on Thursday, December 28th I went in for round two of cavitation surgery. This time, just one wisdom tooth site on my upper jaw. If you're new here - see first post about Cavitations and then my first round of recovery . Going in for surgery! I’m wondering why nitrous oxide isn’t used more for pain control or calming of patients. It’s honestly quite magical. But just think if you’re excruciating pain and you have to wait until pain meds kick in or if you’re having a panic attack. This is instant relaxation and you just want to take a nice little nap. Under medical supervision for short periods of time of course ;)  They haven’t received the results back yet on my tissue sample from the first surgery. This is a bit of a bummer, but I’m guessing the holidays have slowed things a bit. She checked my sites on the right side and said they’re healing very well and to keep doing what I’m doing. I think I flinched more when she poked at the right side than when ...

It's been three glorious weeks since my first cavitation surgery. I'm definitely not fully healed, but there has been progress. The swollen bump on my lower jaw dissipated around the two week mark which I was happy about. It's still a little tender, but not very bothersome. The actual cavitation sites are still sore and the back of my jaw is achy. I can fully open my mouth now, but it turns out if I yell it does hurt. So yelling is off the table I guess. haha  I've still been trying to do red light therapy each day. I have the urge to do ice and heat at times. I can chew on both sides of my mouth, but still favor my left side. So that is going to be fun after this next surgery. I think I've been clenching my jaw again in my sleep these past few nights which does not help matters. I'm going to go on a limb and guess that I'm subconsciously a bit anxious for surgery. I'm going into it preparing for it to be like last time, but also with a side of hope that...

Here are random tidbits from my recovery. When I first found out about dental cavitations I searched and searched for stories from other people and could not find many. So I want to make sure I document as much as I can in case anyone else is looking. I also want to bring awareness to this because I think it could be the answer for so many other people suffering! I’m not on the other side yet, but from the few stories I did find, there were positive outcomes!  My last post I talked about the surgery, here are my thoughts right after… Since I just did the nitrous oxide, I came out of it after a few minutes. Frankly, I would have been fine just laying there with it on for a bit longer. haha The numbing agent was just starting to wear off on the top of my jaw shortly after she was done with the bottom cavitation. For the most part though, my face still felt pretty numb and droopy. The transition while it's wearing off just feels so bizarre. We walked out of there about an hour after w...

I had good intentions of writing some of this post BEFORE my surgery. But that didn't happen and here we are. I have been on the struggle bus... for an eternity it seems. Most days I'd hit a point where I wished I could just fall into a slumber for as long as necessary and magically wake feeling amazing, like Sleeping Beauty. It has taken an insurmountable amount of determination to get through each day. I wish I was being dramatic, but I'm really not. I try to act as normal as possible... just kidding, what is normal? I mean I tried to be myself, but often fell short. I was exhausted, irritable, and my brain was definitely not firing on all cylinders. A few weeks ago I called the dental office and asked them to please call me if anything opened up sooner than December 7th. They called December 1st and said they had an opening on the 4th and I said, "yes, please!". Dental Cavitations: What Are They? This may be confused with a dental cavity, which is a breakdown o...