This is what I'm thinking right now. And I'm thinking hard, because I'm confused as to what pain is right now. See, let me explain why/how I'm confused.
As you might well have read, I've just had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. The collective "they" had all told me that this was going to hurt, probably pretty badly for the first 48 hours at least.
Well, yesterday, I was at least partially numb until well after dinner. However, I religiously took my oxycodone every 6 hours (along w/ my antibiotic) so that I would stay ahead of the pain.
Around 11:30, I woke up with some discomfort in my jaws, and so took another oxycodone and some peach frozen yogurt to forestall the pain from setting in, and went back to sleep.
Well, today's day two, and no part of my face is the tingly or complete numb that it was yesterday. I took oxycodone and my antibiotic when I woke up, thinking it would could be the last time that I took the oxycodone, as I really hadn't been feeling much pain, and I don't want to over do the taking of it.
Well, then the morning passed, and I had lunch (peach fro yo blended with strawberry yogurt!) and was talking to Beth, when all of a sudden I realized that my jaws felt uncomfortable. I was also a little more puffy in the cheeks than I had been in the morning when Marcelle had been helping me to remember to change my moist heat packs for the 20min on, 20 min off thing to prevent swelling. So I topped and evaluated what my jaws really felt like in an attempt to decide if I needed to take another oxycodone, as it was getting to be that time again.
I sent out my body scout, and he came back TOTALLY confused. My jaws were in discomfort, yes, but were they in pain? The discomfort that I felt, which my body scout labeled as fiery and stabbing, was not pleasant, no, but it wasn't the kind of pain I'm used to with my migraines. The jaw discomfort would rank, what I would imagine a 1/10 or 2/10 migraine would feel like. (I can only imagine, I have never been below a 6/10 in several years basically in migraine pain.)
However, the fiery stabbing sensation was uncomfortable, or at least not pleasant or neutral, and I was worried that it could trigger a spike 'real'(?) migraine pain. So I took any oxycodone (which has not touched my normal [head]pain levels, btw) to forestall that from happening.
But I'm really, honestly confused right now.
Is my brain so embedded in the status migranous that I don't recognize other intrusions on my head as pain?
Is my pain threshold huge and actually I am feeling a lot of 'pain' in my jaws, and it's just dwarfed by my experiences with migraines?
What does "pain" feel like?
I'm so confused and bemused (and slightly discouraged) by this conundrum.
any insight into 'pain'?
Quantum in me fuit,
~Gretchen
As you might well have read, I've just had all 4 wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. The collective "they" had all told me that this was going to hurt, probably pretty badly for the first 48 hours at least.
Well, yesterday, I was at least partially numb until well after dinner. However, I religiously took my oxycodone every 6 hours (along w/ my antibiotic) so that I would stay ahead of the pain.
Around 11:30, I woke up with some discomfort in my jaws, and so took another oxycodone and some peach frozen yogurt to forestall the pain from setting in, and went back to sleep.
Well, today's day two, and no part of my face is the tingly or complete numb that it was yesterday. I took oxycodone and my antibiotic when I woke up, thinking it would could be the last time that I took the oxycodone, as I really hadn't been feeling much pain, and I don't want to over do the taking of it.
Well, then the morning passed, and I had lunch (peach fro yo blended with strawberry yogurt!) and was talking to Beth, when all of a sudden I realized that my jaws felt uncomfortable. I was also a little more puffy in the cheeks than I had been in the morning when Marcelle had been helping me to remember to change my moist heat packs for the 20min on, 20 min off thing to prevent swelling. So I topped and evaluated what my jaws really felt like in an attempt to decide if I needed to take another oxycodone, as it was getting to be that time again.
I sent out my body scout, and he came back TOTALLY confused. My jaws were in discomfort, yes, but were they in pain? The discomfort that I felt, which my body scout labeled as fiery and stabbing, was not pleasant, no, but it wasn't the kind of pain I'm used to with my migraines. The jaw discomfort would rank, what I would imagine a 1/10 or 2/10 migraine would feel like. (I can only imagine, I have never been below a 6/10 in several years basically in migraine pain.)
However, the fiery stabbing sensation was uncomfortable, or at least not pleasant or neutral, and I was worried that it could trigger a spike 'real'(?) migraine pain. So I took any oxycodone (which has not touched my normal [head]pain levels, btw) to forestall that from happening.
But I'm really, honestly confused right now.
Is my brain so embedded in the status migranous that I don't recognize other intrusions on my head as pain?
Is my pain threshold huge and actually I am feeling a lot of 'pain' in my jaws, and it's just dwarfed by my experiences with migraines?
What does "pain" feel like?
I'm so confused and bemused (and slightly discouraged) by this conundrum.
any insight into 'pain'?
Quantum in me fuit,
~Gretchen
you are feeling pain.
ReplyDeleteAt least, I cant begin to image how you would have 4 fully erupted, completely viable teeth yanked from your head and not feel pain.
But yes, I do (sort of, as much as I can) understand why you're confused.
Its a very,... VERY different kind of pain that what you are used to.
As far as describing what pain is, I'd go with "discomfort that is extreme enough to get getting in the way." Which is a lame definition.
But, as you know with your head pain, no two people's perception of pain is the same. And the same thing is true for other types of pain.
I've had time where my legs itched so much that it hurt. Thats pain. It was itching, but so much so that it hurt.
over all though, HUGS!!!!
That's really painful I think. My wisdom teeth are actually not yet extracted. Thanks for sharing your experience.
ReplyDeleteoklahoma dentist
I also experienced the same after the dentist removed two of my wisdom teeth. The after effect of nerves being severed.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's about your pain threshold at all. A lot of factors come into play when it comes to pain. Good health alone can lead to less pain than usual.
ReplyDeleteI had my Wisdom tooth extracted before too. I was severely painful for days. What I did was I just think of positive thoughts and drink my medication to ease the pain.
ReplyDeleteIt is very painful.Thanks for sharing your experience.
ReplyDeleteI keep asking myself the same thing. The perception of pain seems to be a weird thing and it's not something that most people will be eager to discuss with you either because people hate thinking about pain. I got some teeth out (they were under the gumline) including two wisdom teeth for my braces and forgot to take the painkiller once and at the time that was extremely painful for me. A year later I start getting migraines and I wonder what I was complaining about before because it kind of paled in comparison. A more 'normal' example is that I never consider braces painful and people generally find that they are, and I was wondering if that was because I've always had sensitive teeth so probably just didn't take any notice of it.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks you for sharing your experience to me, and I have the same problem too, that is very terrible, when my head is not in a good condition, and I am always out of control. Besides, I have learned enough from this post, wish you next post, have a nice day!!! Intraoral Camera
ReplyDelete