32 Little Bundles Of Joy

Well, I appear to have survived the great Wisdom Tooth adventure of '08.

I can't say that it was exactly a pleasant experience, but it wasn't really all that bad either. The wait was rather excessive - according to the surgeon, there was some sort of emergency shortly before I arrived, so I got called back about 80 minutes after the nominal scheduled start time.

But, after I was called back, it all went quite quickly. A few minutes of vitals taking, a few minutes of basic chit-chat with the nurses, and then with the doc. I remember getting the IV, and when they put the Versed in. It's such a great feeling when you realize 'well, whatever happens from here on out, I'm probably not going to remember it at all.' A couple minutes more chit-chat. I think I gave the doc some sort of half-assed advice on how to throw a forehand (I was wearing an Ultimate shirt.)

I do have a vague memory of a little drilling - apparently I came up just a bit at some point during the operation itself. But not enough to keep me up at night, I think.

A slow waking up, although significantly faster than usual. For whatever reason, I recover remarkably well from general anaesthesia. The two patients who came out of the office while I was waiting were barely able to keep their eyes open, and were leaning heavily on the nurse who was helping them. After about 10 minutes of waiting, I was able to stand of my own accord after getting some quick take-home directions from the nurse.

The doc did stop in before leaving to explain how things went. He said the bottom two came out very easily, but the top two both broke, meaning there was some drilling involved. He expects that means more pain and swelling for those two. He also claimed that the roots went quite deep, up near the sinuses. So he said don't blow my nose, and also warned me that, if I have to sneeze, I ought to do it through my mouth instead of my nose. He didn't say exactly what would happen if I didn't follow these instructions, but I assume it would be something like this:



Anyhow, after that we were on our way. My ride and caretaker, Sara, very kindly drove me home, including a stop at Safeway to drop off the prescriptions for Amoxicillin and Percoset. And also to pick up a huge mocha Frappuchino at Starbucks.

For those curious, so far I have eaten the following items:

• Large mocha Frappuchino
• Protein shake (1 orange, 1 banana, 3 strawberries, 2 scoops protein powder, 1 tbsp peanut butter)
• Bowl of Breyer's coffee ice cream with chocolate sauce.

I figure that if I alternate vaguely healthy things with vaguely unhealthy things, keeping in mind that for at least another 18 or so hours everything has to be soft and non-chew-requiring, I'm doing alright.

I was hoping to be able to post some humorous photo of me with giant chipmunk cheeks, but sadly my mouth has failed to swell to any sort of inhuman proportions. Instead, the best I can give you is a too-cute picture of man and dog, relaxing on couch.


Right now, we are settled in, just starting disc 2 of the extended cut of 'Fellowship of the Ring.' Pain levels are quite low, but I definitely plan on keeping up with the Percoset for at least another day. My experience with the ACL recoveries was that it's much easier to stay in front of the pain than to catch up to it, once you let it get the lead.

Otherwise, everything appears to be going pretty well. I will keep you updated over the weekend, although I hope to have the energy to post about some more interesting topics than my oozing mouth wounds...