Doped up on anaesthesia and lingering effects of the sedative, I left the dentist on Thursday afternoon in good form, thinking how easy it was to get a nasty wisdom teeth extraction operation done these days (not that I have had one before, but you hear the stories).  Of course, once the said drugs strted to wear off, that's when the real fun begins.  

I'm not really very good with pain.  At the slightest hint of a headache or some such I reach for the panadol and it's pain be gone.  But this is quite something else.  Apparently it peaks around the 48 hour post op period, so I can expect to be in quite a mire about 4:30pm today.

With any extraction (these were my first) there is also this sinister post-op threat of developing a rather hideous sounding condition called "dry socket" where the gum does not heal properly.  To avoid this, all manner of precautions must be observed, because from what I gather from the internet, avoidance and precautions are far, far more preferable than dealing with dry socket.   The only problem is you don't know whther you have it or not until about 3-4 days after the operation.  So either way you live with pain, fear and annoying precautions.

But, as the man once said, this too shall pass.  

My next appointment (for the right side of my mouth - two more extractions and a filling) was booked for this Friday, but I rang yesterday and put it off to the end of April.   This morning I mix my paracetamol and ibuprofen with glee and finally achieve some temporary relief from the affliction.  I'm no Hercules