Journeying in Life...

The gory details - part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:57:00 +0000

After the whole thing was stitched up, gauze was put into the mouth to stop the bleeding. Press on it... ok sounds simple enough. So I hold my jaw shut to keep the pressure on. After the anesthetic wears off, however, keeping the pressure on starts to become painful. And it's constant. Hey, after the anesthetic wears off, a lot more things start to hurt. I'm taking painkillers but they don't really deal with all the pain. Agony and pain. This is when you ask... when will it end! It's not the sharp pain but it's a dull radiating pain that doesn't stop. It goes on, hour after hour. You start to ask yourself, when will it end. When? When? WHEN????!!!

You try to take your mind of it. Think happy thoughts, surf the web, watch Tv or distract yourself and it works somewhat, but very little.

I haven't even talked about the swelling. Yes, imagine a golf ball growing slowly out of the side of our face. The jaw starts to swell and the pain and discomfort increases. No chewing, so it's just liquids. (You start to lose a bit of weight... which is a good thing, I guess).

Then fever too! Yup, got a fever.

So can you imagine, 5 days and nights of that? 5 days!!!
Only on the 6th day, things start to improve dramatically. Swelling starts to go down, fever goes down, pain gets less, jaw starts to be more mobile. Solids are easier to chew! (In my mind, for some reason, I'm thinking... KFC, KFC, KFC)

All I can say is... I'm grateful it's all over!!! No holiday. Some people said I'm lucky to be away from the office on medical leave. Right! Why don't you try it? A tooth can cause so much discomfort... so much to learn from this... but the lessons later. Wanna see my tooth? : )

The gory details part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Previously on this blog...
Alex is in the oral surgeon's chair with his mouth open, gums cut open and a drill being used to chip away bone at the back of his mouth, in order to remove a horizontally impacted wisdom tooth...

The surgeon is going at it, drilling, prying, poking and manipulating with all the instruments at his disposal. After removing bone and making enough space. It's the tooth's turn. A rather big tooth, the surgeon sections it. He decides to section it into two. The drill starts again... brrrr... it's cutting up the tooth.

All this while I'm staring at the ceiling and lights. My mind is wondering how much blood is all over my mouth. Can't taste or feel much, everything is numb. Just pressure here and there. Though you don't feel any pain, it's the mental torture of wondering what's happening in your mouth that requires so many pieces of equipment.

After the tooth is sectioned, the surgeon slowly manouvers the first half out. It takes a few minutes but he wants to get it right. The first half is removed. After that, some more instruments go in to probe, prod and manouver the second half of the tooth out. As the the tooth is moved around, you can hear/feel the scratching of the tooth against the bone.

The tooth is out. The surgeon puts some homeostatic compound into the now gaping wound to help the blood (which by this time there must be lots of it!) clot. He then takes this thread and stitches the wound. I think it was 4-5 stitches. It's strange to have someone pull a thread in your mouth and tie it up.

A few more things to clean up the wound and the doctor is done... is this the end? or the beginning?

The gory details...

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:50:00 +0000

The time most feared was here. It had to come out. No other choice. It was causing me trouble, so it had to go.
X-rays showed that the nerve was very close to the tooth. On the X-ray the nerve was just besides the tooth, very close. The surgeon did warn me that there might be nerve damage because of the proximity of the nerve. Oh no... that would mean I wouldn't be able to feel in my lips and chin on the right side... (KISSING WILL BE WEIRD...)

Horizontally impacted lower wisdom tooth, which means my wisdom tooth was facing the tooth in front of it. Yup, not coming out straight upwards but forwards.

As I sat there in the chair, I was praying, God, please, no nerve damage! God please lead the surgeon's hand away from the nerve!

Started with some painful injections into parts of my mouth to numb it out. Ouch! More painful than it looked! Winced with pain. Came back to test it, not numb enough... another round of injections!

When I was ready, the surgeon started to cut through my gums and open it so could get to the tooth. Long cut at the back of lower jaw. Then after opening the gums up, he had to take away bone with his drill. After removing some bone, he could then start to work on the tooth. He had to remove more bone than usual as I'm a bit older so the bone is harder and less flexible. If not, he could have spread the bone a bit more.

All this time while lying there I'm imagining that blood must be all over the place. The nurse has her suction thing in my mouth sucking up whatever. The drill is going at it... with no mercy. But there's nothing I can do. No place to run, no place to hide. Think happy thoughts... think happy thoughts... not with a drill and a suction in your mouth and this bright blinking lights in your eyes. What's going to become of me? (This was not my first wisdom tooth operation, I had the other side removed I think 7 years ago)

All the while the surgeon is reassuring me... "good", "open wider", "turn a little towards me", "painful?"

Is this the end? What will happen of my mouth? Can I kiss normally after this? Why me?

Blogging about dental surgery

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:21:00 +0000

Someone has requested I blog about my experience getting an operation to remove my impacted horizontal wisdom tooth. I'll try, once I get over the pain, fever and swollen jaw/cheek...

tomorrow is the surgery!

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:46:00 +0000

am I making a big deal out of it! You bet I am!!!!

Dental Surgery Cometh...

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:13:00 +0000

I'm only a few days away from getting my wisdom teeth operated on... uurrgghhh!!!

Commando

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:29:00 +0000

Ryan is like a commando... crawling everywhere. Trying to climb up and down surfaces without much fear.

1 bulb

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:19:00 +0000

2 days ago I replaced another bulb in the kitchen...

6 bulbs...

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:35:00 +0000

Today I changed 6 bulbs...

my tooth my tooth...

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Got one of my troublesome wisdom tooth taken out by my dentist. It's the top one, so it's not so bad. Nevertheless, I have a swollen cheek/mouth after the op. Ouch... One tooth can cause such inconvenience.

Anyway, it went smoothly, though it will be a few days before the swelling goes down. Then I'd prepare for the next op which is going to be more complicated. Sigh....

Learning Music

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:18:00 +0000

I'm suddenly interested to learn a couple of tough songs on the guitar. It's hard work! Plus I'm so rusty because I've not been pushing my skills that hard. Wow! Tough tough tough! Plus it takes time too!

It's always hard to be very good at something. It takes effort and hard work. But that's the price we have to pay for excellence. Excellence is rarely achieved just by chance or pure talent. All excellence requires earnest effort.

Being a daddy

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:49:00 +0000

Means after a long day, you still feed your baby at 1230am, despite your exhaustion and wake up at 645am to go to work... :) and still count it all joy...

7th Lunar month...

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:53:00 +0000

This is taken from the the star... interesting read...

Ever wondered what the hungry ghost festival is all about?

"Culturally, the Chinese believe that appeasing the hungry ghosts and their ancestors during the festival would also enable the living ones to accumulate merit that they can use if they are sent to hell upon their death.
As to the origins of the festival, it would depend on which Chinese religion one followed.

According to the Buddhist Chinese, the festival commemorates the deeds of a filial son in ancient China. The story goes that the son, Mu Jian Lien, found out that his mother’s soul was in hell and was being tortured through starvation because of the sins she had committed when she was alive.Mu saw that everytime his mother’s soul put food into her mouth, the food would turn into charcoal.Being very filial, the son turned to Buddha and begged for compassion. Buddha told him that he must find monks and pray with them on the 15th day of the seventh month. Mu began a ritual Buddhist fast and together with the monks chanted the sutras until they finally succeeded in releasing his mother from hell.

Among those of the Taoist faith, the origins of the festival is traced back to an actor by the name of Hua Guang whose duty to his emperor caused him to fail in taking care of his aging mother. Hua was ordered by the Chinese emperor to perform for him. As he was away from home while performing, Hua was unable to look after his aging mother who died. Through some divine help, Hua obtained a third eye to find his mother’s soul and he saw her suffering in hell. When he offered to rescue her, she declined and instead told him to rescue the rest who, like her, were suffering. Hua then started making offerings to all those who had died."

It's also said that it's not a good month for the Chinese to get married or hold other events as it may be bad luck. Although this year, many people held their weddings on 9-9-9, though it fell during the 7th month as the 9-9-9 is believed to be a lucky number for the chinese.

Interesting huh? Well, I don't really have those beliefs, but it's interesting to know what others believe.

GUMMY BEARS

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:40:00 +0000

Since Monday I've been struggling with a painful gum! MY gum somehow got infected near my wisdom tooth. It's swollen and infected! Ouch! Saw the dentist, but it'll still take time to fight the infection and get well. Arrgghh!!! So pain! Jaw also pain! So I've been eating on one side the whole week. Plus it sometimes gives me a headache too!

Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:41:00 +0000

We recently had a church camp where we talked about dreams... It was a great chance to get together, talk about stuff and renew our dreams! I hope everyone enjoyed it as much or more than I did. It's great to spend time with like-minded people!

Quick updates

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:31:00 +0000

Ryan had a few rough night - didn't sleep well. Think he might have been teething. But no teeth leh?
Today he woke up with a cold.
Dad has been up 7am or earlier on the weekends to take care of him as he wakes up early and won't sleep. Poor daddy. :)
As a matter of fact, sleep deprived daddy is now watching him at 730am while he plays.

I now have 4 bulbs that need changing.

Fengster recovering in hospital

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:04:00 +0000

Today I drove to KL Hospital with Shawn to visit Feng. He had his ACL reconstructed and also repaired a tear in his meniscus.
What was great was the amount of support he was getting. Many of the students from church had gone to visit him. Great to hear that! Not only that, but William is also staying with him throughout today to see what he can do to help. As family, we do our best to support each other and be there for each other. That's the kind of thing we should try our best to do. I know everyone is busy, but when we carve the time out of our busy schedules to see how we can support other people, it shows care and concern.
I think that's something that is lacking in today's society. We're so caught up in the rat race. We forget about what really is important. What makes us human. What gives us meaning.
For those who managed to visit Feng, keep it up!
Feng, get well soon!

Two bulbs

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:13:00 +0000

Two bulbs are down... I got to fix them again. :(

Ryan is better

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:09:00 +0000

Thanks for all the smses. Ryan is much better. He's almost well. Still coughing a little and having a bit of phlegm but he's so much better. He had fever up and down.
It also seems that ALL of the infants at the infant care center he goes to got hit by something. Some had it worse that him, so we're thankful. Must have been the same bug. Also thankful to God that Jia Huey and I didn't fall ill as we were caring for him.
We're trying to help him get back on his schedules. He's a bit off schedule now.
It's been tiring taking care of the little one. Jia Huey and I have had to take days off to take care of him while he was ill.
Though we are thankful to God that he's much better now!

Contention with Obsession

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Ryan has found a new obsession... he loves the TV. When it's on, he'll just stare straight at it. Whatever you do, his eyes will be glued to the TV! Anyway, we read somewhere that children blow 2 years old shouldn't be watching TV because it interferes with development. So... sorry, Ryan, no TV.

I think not just Ryan, but many of us have an obsession about TV. WE watch so much TV, whatever channel you watch (or movies) and at the end of the day, a lot of time is wasted there. When you ask yourself what have you gained... arrghh... wasted time!

Not that you shouldn't watch TV at all, but it should be sparingly. There is so much more you can do with your life! Now, if Ic an just find some time to watch TV myself :)

Three Bulbs

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 01:09:00 +0000

I finally changed another 3 bulbs and all the lights are now working! Finally. I decided to invest in more expensive longer lasting bulbs this time. Hopefully, it will signal the end of bulb changing for some time.

Ryan is down with a cold...

It's Sunday night

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:46:00 +0000

We all love the weekends... but how do you feel on Sunday night? Many of us do not feel that fantastic coz Monday is ALMOST here. I just finished washing Ryan's bottles, preparing his milk, ironing clothes, doing some tidying up, packing things for work tomorrow, kept clothes, etc... boy what a busy Sunday night. And I still have another load of clothes in the washing machine.
It's easy to get caught up just in the cycle of our busy lives. So what I do at the end of each week, is to ask myself, what have I achieved this week? Of course, when I ask myself that question, I measure achievement according to what I consider important in life. So, what have you achieved this week?

New Strings

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:43:00 +0000

My guitar has new strings... yummy! It's always nice to have new strings. The last time I changed my strings was 2 years ago! Yes! It's been that long. I spent a bit of money getting some really good strings. Now that the strings are changed, it sounds really really good! Wow! It's not so dull, but bright and punchy!
That got me thinking... what are the strings in my life that might need to be changed or serviced? Yes, perhaps a vision, or a dream, or a desire, or a relationship, or an area of knowledge. They need to be taken care of, if not they'll be dull and they won't be as effective.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's....

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:35:00 +0000

We recently spotted something... looks familiar?

Michael Jackson...

noreply@blogger.com (Alex Teoh) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:18:00 +0000

The TV is on... one of the rare times that it's on in my house :) And there's a Michael Jackson concert on. It's suppose to be a tribute to him. Unless you've missed the news, you'll know he passed away very recently. I was on the way to work when I got the news via sms. I checked out the news on a news portal via 3G and yes, he had passed away (along with Farah Fawcett, but that seems to be a less talked about news).
Anyway, back to the concert. It's amazing to see how devoted and crazy his fans are. They are screaming and just delirious. It's amazing. He's of course doing an amazing performance. It's just insane! (The way people are reacting in his concert). Such was his influence.
There's also sms dedications scrolling across the page on the TV. People just pouring out their thoughts and feeling for MJ. They're paying tribute to him. What an impact he had.
My wife has just stumbled upon a recording of the 911 called made to get him to the hospital. Fancy that.
Malaysia also has a drink called Michael Jackson, or MJ - soya bean milk with black/grass jelly. The ultimate honor in Malaysia!
I can still remember many of his hits. He was an entertainer. He was a star. Yes, he had his problems. Many have written about it. I don't profess to know them in detail. I never knew the man well. But was he a star, yes. No doubt.
I guess many will miss him...