First post from India. . .

Two days after the scheduled departure date of July 31st, I sit in an empty house trying to eat a banana with a spoon, and no I'm not in India.  Not what you expected to read huh?  Well me either.    You see a week and a half before I was suppose to leave I got in a kayak accident.  My hard side boat rolled and i puckered up to a large stone underneath the water.  The end results was five broken teeth along with a broken alveolar process of the maxilla (the bone that your teeth connect to.)  

After the incident I got the lovely experience of observing medical work from the patient end of the spectrum.  I was whisked up by an ambulance and taken to Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee. As the oxycodone began to deactivate the action potential of my nociceptors and flood my synaptic clefts with dopamine, the reality of this disaster slammed in to me like a giant sunken boulder.  But soon I was out of that ER with a Rx for percocet and doxycycline.  Next stop the dentists office.  I was fortunate enough to get a hold of my dentist on a sunday evening.  He was willing to come in to his office right away, where he proceeded to stand me on my hand grind my teeth down cover them in plastic and attach a wire.  At this point my central incisors are both broken in the middle forming a jagged arch, both lateral incisors were shattered and jammed into the gums so far they were visible.  I could feel the left one somewhere behind my nose giving me lots of pain and discomfort.  The left canine had the front and back completely broken off, and the right canine is in perfect shape.  Wahoo alright done at Dr. Knapp's office, with a face full of marcaine i stumble back to my parents car.  For the amount of shots i took to the gums and/or roof of my mouth you'd think things would be pretty numb, well not the case.  You would also think that their would be a pharmacy open in the columbia basin, also not the case.  So it was to the Ephrata ER for a dental block, shot of Demerol in the ass, and a take home pack of Vicoden.  

Fast forward nine doped up days of sleeping, movies, and PS3.  It was now time to get those lateral incisors out of my face.  Dr. Laney would be the oral surgeon doing the operation, he said that removing the teeth should relieve some of the pain.  In all honestly that was an understatement.  I haven't taken a pain pill since those teeth came out.  

So now im back in ellensburg and sure, things could be worse.  But when the one thing you've been looking forward to, the one thing that got you through the last two quarters of school with all A's is suddenly ripped away, it is hard to deal with.  

The next step is on monday.  I will have two root canalls started on my central incisors.  Whatever starting a root canal means.  Then its a waiting game for the bones to heal.  Eventually the central incisors will be removed and i'll get 4 prosthetic teeth and a crown over the damaged canine.  Dr. Knapp estimated about 1.5 years until everything is done and permanent. 

Check back in a year for a blog thats actually about a trip in India.