Sunday 26 October 2014

Coffee and cigarettes

I had my upper wisdom teeth removed on Friday under 'sedation' which is, AFAICS, no different to a general anaesthetic. I can clearly remember him sticking the needle into the back of my hand at the start, at which stage I averted my gaze... and I can vaguely remember them turning off the drip, hoisting me out of The Chair and hoisting me onto a bed in the recovery room, but nothing in between.

You do appear to come round quicker though. I climbed into The Chair at about 9.55 and the first thing I did when I came round was to check the time, it was 10.15. A recovery room nurse once told me that smokers always come round quicker, their systems are used to getting rid of poison.

Her Indoors drove me home and I retired to bed. A couple of hours later, the anaesthetic had worn off and it hurt quite a bit, but no head splitting pain or anything, so I decided to do without the Aspirin I'd bought just in case. Saturday in bed as well, to be on the safe side, this Sunday morning I was right as rain, to be honest.

So far so good.

Problem with all this is, they hand you leaflets telling you not to smoke for at least one day (but preferably two days, but preferably five days) after the operation. They don't say that drinking coffee or booze is discouraged for that long but IMHO drinking coffee or booze without smoking at the same time is just not the same.

Which is all well and good, but I do not function properly without at least six cups of coffee and twenty cigarettes a day. I just remained in a sort of drowsy state all Friday and Saturday with no particular urge to do anything or say anything. Or even complain about anything.

Hence and I why I haven't posted anything since Thursday.

7 comments:

Lola said...

Once you wean yourself off the caffiene fix, and it takes some days cold turkey, the drowsy feeling goes away.

As to ciggies, I couldn't say, never having smoked.

But, booze....yum yum.

A K Haart said...

"I just remain in a sort of drowsy state all day with no particular urge to do anything or say anything."

Sounds like my regular training course symptoms.

benj said...

Nicotine=dry socket=agony.

No amount of over the counter pain relief will do if you get a dry socket.

I've had this. Special measures were necessary.

Lola said...

MW. I got off caffeine after a heart op. In my case I really do feel better for it and I don't miss it at all. Current hot drink of choice is green tea.

Agreed re 'training course' syndrome. I get a very critical version of this called 'chronic professional association meeting fatigue'. (I absolutely loathe all the 'I'm chartered/have extra designatory letters/how can we increase our club exclusivity crap).

FrankC said...

The first thing I recall after having my wisdom teeth out was coming to, face down on a hospital bed and trying to retain my trousers, and dignity, as a nurse tried to give me a jab of something in my buttocks. Weird.

Mark Wadsworth said...

L, interesting.

FC, that's outrageous. I hope you managed to fend her off and regain your trousers.

Lola said...

FC. Max Moseley would probably have paid good money for that experience, allegedly.