This whole business with the wisdom teeth is starting to get really old.  Everyone I’d talked to about the operation has had a horror story to tell about one thing or another.  I originally thought that some of it was probably the usual embellishment that occurs when people relate their personal medical experiences.  But now I’m coming to appreciate the reality of it. 

Today will be one week since the procedure and I’m still experiencing quite a bit of discomfort.  In fact, I’ve experienced an interesting variety of pain over the past week: The deep throbber, which radiates out from the area where the teeth used to be and infuses the rest of my head.  The sharp shooter, which zaps you with a momentary blinding flash at unexpected times.  The burning-itching-sliced sensation which inhabits the area around the sutures and never quite seems to go away.  And last, but definitely not least, is the vice-grip headache that I had for several days, which brings me to the pillow.

For the first few days I was told to sleep in a somewhat upright position (to reduce swelling), which only made the headaches worse.  I’ve never been able to sleep on my back because I would get a nasty headache almost as soon as the back of my head hit the pillow.  Over the years I’d tried a number of things, such as different types of pillows, propping myself up, no pillow, etc, but none of them worked and I resigned myself to sleeping on my stomach.  But even with the painkillers I couldn’t stand the headaches anymore and tried to sleep on my stomach a couple of nights ago.  I managed to find a position that didn’t put pressure on the affected areas, but I ended up with swelling when I got up. 

I did some research yesterday and found that other people who got headaches from sleeping on their backs got relief from using theraputic neck support pillows.  The problem seems to be that improper neck support puts stress on the neck muscles, causing a tension headache (the symptoms of which matched what I’d always experienced).  I looked around and finally decided on the Tempur-Pedic Neck Pillow.  The downside is that it cost $125.  That gave me pause for a little while, but the need for a decent night’s sleep finally won out (although the idea of a $125 pillow might have kept me up…).

I wasn’t sure it would work, but I tried it last night.  Even though I had a little discomfort at first I didn’t get the usual headache.  I had a little bit of one when I first got up this morning, but it quickly went away.

The verdict so far, then, is that even though it seemed expensive it was definitely worth it.  It’s hard to put a price on getting a decent night’s sleep for a change.