Wisdom Teeth

On Friday I had my remaining three wisdom teeth removed. (About two years ago, a fourth had popped through my gumline, but I had to have it removed at that time. My body was 4 for 4 on the wisdom teeth, booyah!)

This time around, one was again erupted from my gumline, while two were still impacted. (These two were on my bottom jaw.) Removing those puppies required some surgery. This was the first time I've had 'surgery' in my life - meaning, having to be put to sleep for an operation. Overall, it went very well. Actually, there was nothing to sweat about it. (Not that there should be - it's wisdom teeth. This surgery is about as common as a kid getting chicken pox. It's like a passage of growing up!)

Slicing the inside of my cheek open, the blood, the digging for the teeth, the swelling, etc. - none of that bothered me. I can take that on. But the anticipation, the being put-to-sleep process, and not having control over my own body...that took some getting used to.

I remember being put to sleep, actually. The laughing gas didn't do squat for me, but I do remember when the IV drip with the anesthesia started. Voices from the attendants standing around me started to sound real s l o w, and far away, and my breathing became very long, drawn-out, and heavy. I didn't pay attention anymore to the heart rate monitor latched onto my index finger, or the sticky things they put on three places on my torso, or the blood pressure wrap on my arm. My eyelids got droopy, but my thinking and stream of consciousness remained clear. I remember joking around with the doctor, saying, "Alright, you guys know which teeth to pull out now, right? My two front teeth??" Muahaha.

And then...POOF...my memory is shut off like a light switch on a wall. I fell asleep.

The next thing I knew, I woke up in the front seat of the car on the ride home. I had pyramids of gauze tucked into my mouth, and I had double-vision. BAD double-vision. I remember freaking out and hugging into the center console of the car each time we'd pass a semi truck on the interstate, because it seemed like the semis were going to collide with us. Poor Zach had to console me and calm me down - he can vouch for the complete drive home! :-)

5 hours of sleep later, and the anesthesia and scary semi trucks were gone from my mind.

I have a few days off of work now to recover. On Thursday, my first day back in the office, I have to go back to the doc to get my stitches removed. Other than that, things have been going very well. I have not bruised at all on my cheeks, which is cool. I swelled up a little bit, and suffered from some lockjaw...I've ingested Advil like they were M&Ms because of this, but I have managed to stay off the Vicodin. :-) This has not been bad at all - I'm beginning to wonder if they didn't even pull out my teeth?! Was this all staged? Sheesh!

I'm glad I got it done - I'm proud that I went through with it, and I'm thankful for taking good care of my dental hygiene. :-)