Althouse: Morning without coffee.

May 10, 2007

Morning without coffee.

Don't eat or drink anything after midnight. That's what they told me. I must surrender a body part today: a hopelessly broken wisdom tooth. It's hard blogging without coffee!

ADDED: Hey, why didn't I know about this?

21 comments:

Bissage said...: If their post-extraction advice is to bite down on a moist teabag, don't do it. Yuk!!!

If their advice is not to take double the dosage of painkillers and wash it down with a beer, well, that's pretty good advice I really should have taken.

There's nothing quite so humbling as laying on your back on the kitchen floor, staring at the ceiling, saying softly to yourself, "Please God, not now, ..., not here, ..., not like this."; 5/10/07, 7:59 AM
Cyrus Pinkerton said...: Ann,

You'll find it harder to blog today without your tooth than you did without your coffee.

Good luck with your op.; 5/10/07, 8:03 AM
MadisonMan said...: You can get caffeine with your anesthesia, too.; 5/10/07, 8:09 AM
Too many jims said...: Did you see Fonda on Colbert last night? Even better than when he baked a pie with Fonda and Steinem.; 5/10/07, 8:11 AM
Bob said...: Oh boy! Vicodin! *laughs*

You won't miss a wisdom tooth. Be sure to follow the dentist's advice about not using straws for drinking afterwards, you do not want a dry socket.

Buy a fresh box of salt on the way home, for making warm-water gargles. It will help.

Hope you feel better, Ann. The Vicodin should help.; 5/10/07, 8:21 AM
vet66 said...: Let's observe Professor Althouse's postings this afternoon and see if their is a postop difference while uder the influence of the local and vicodin.

This too shall pass!; 5/10/07, 8:52 AM
Galvanized said...: Yes, I'm expecting some wonderful, diagonal photos of the oral surgeon's staff and instruments! Seriously, those would be fun ;)

And I'm still chuckling at bissage's comment *snort*

Really, though, hope all goes well. :-/; 5/10/07, 9:14 AM
Tim said...: Yes, good luck - you'll be fine - just stay away from the temptation to go all Bret Favre with the Vicodin - that way trouble lies!; 5/10/07, 9:51 AM
ricpic said...: If it's an impacted wisdom tooth extraction can be rough, get ready for feeling really down for a few days; if not, not.; 5/10/07, 10:05 AM
PeterP said...: There is Hell and there is root canal surgery.

Extracting a broken wisdom tooth should lie somewhere in between; unless it also involves RCS, in which case it is beyond hell and hope.

Take coffee jar, beat yourself over the head and hope to wake up only when it's all over.

Be prepared to dribble a lot in public and have your explanation - preferably counter-signed by your dentist for verification purposes - and handkerchiefs to hand.

If they advise you to gargle with salt water for a week to avoid wound infection, then they are very old fashioned and very sensible.

Learn to control the gag reflex when gargling with salt water. That takes courage and a strong will, but to be preferred to throwing up in public. (They have enough to cope with the dribbling.)

And this just in - I blush but needs must mention it - avoid all oral sex lest you get throat cancer. That's nothing to do with the tooth, but the conclusion from some new research.; 5/10/07, 10:37 AM
Maxine Weiss said...: Caffeine is bad, period.

Caffeine speeds the blood, which is not what you want during surgery. You want to get a good clot, so the bleeding will stop.

Ann is over-caffeinated anyway.

Why has the Althouse family had so many teeth pulled? And, have there been any unexpected (longterm) side effects or other health discrepancies that have cropped up .....shortly after those extractions?; 5/10/07, 11:04 AM
Susan said...: The soap makers are claiming the caffein is absorbed by the skin and what? Enters your bloodstream to give you a caffein rush? Sorry, I don't buy it.; 5/10/07, 12:10 PM
Fen said...: In case our comments have made you paranoid re today's surgery, you should know that an asteroid is due to strike Madison around 2PM.; 5/10/07, 12:30 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I'm back.; 5/10/07, 12:39 PM
Bob said...: Didja photograph the tooth?

Honestly, we all wouldn't mind if you took a nice Vicodin nap this afternoon, it'd probably make you feel a lot better.; 5/10/07, 1:06 PM
Simon said...: All went without incident, one hopes. IIRC, you podcasted about the misnomer of dental "surgery" after the last dental work.; 5/10/07, 1:24 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I took the anaesthesia this time. I felt the needle, felt a little sleepy, and the next thing I was slowly waking up in another room. The part where the doctor yanked the tooth from the jaw was something I missed.; 5/10/07, 1:46 PM
JP said...: Your final may have been worse than the tooth extraction.; 5/10/07, 2:44 PM
Bissage said...: Galvanized, thanks.

That story's true, by the way. On my way down, I crashed through one of those plastic trash cans with the flip-up lids.

Ha!; 5/10/07, 5:05 PM
Agnostic Monk said...: That Sucks! Cant you take a caffeine tablet.
Loved your episode of Bloggingheads with Ann Gotlieb. Hope you do more.; 5/10/07, 5:23 PM
Galvanized said...: Pahahahaaa...no way! Funny stuff!; 5/10/07, 8:54 PM