Going under-Wisdom teeth removal

I got my wisdom teeth out and all I got was this lousy blanket. 

I had Friday off to go to the oral surgeon for their 1st surgery of the day to have my two bottom wisdom teeth removed. I'd already had the top two pulled on different occasions by dentists. At the time they told me I should get them all out, but my bottom two were impacted, meaning under the gums. They couldn't simply be pulled (not that there's anything 'simple' about it), they needed to be surgically removed. One was horizontal, at a right angle to my other teeth. 

Kind of like this

I'd never had any kind of surgery where I had to 'go under.' I was deathly afraid of that part. Going under. Being sedated while someone cut into me. I wanted no part of it, and delayed the procedure as long as I could. Recently I noticed pain in my jaw, and knew the pesky wisdom teeth were the culprit. I also knew it wasn't going to go away, or get better on its own. I had to do it. I made the appointment for surgery to have them cut out.

The week of surgery I woke up around 3:00am every morning and couldn't fall back asleep because I couldn't stop obsessing about surgery. I wasn't even scared of the recovery. I knew that was a given; I just couldn't get over the fact that I was going to be knocked out. I talked to people about it to try and calm me down a bit. 

Most people were very sweet and kind, telling me that they went through it and there's nothing to worry about. It happens really fast. And then there were some who only told me about their horror stories. They went under for surgery on their eye lid, and could smell burning flesh. They were still awake during surgery! One guy had his wisdom teeth out, and now half of his bottom jaw is always numb. The doctor damaged his nerves. 

I posted on Facebook about my anxiety asking for kind words, and everyone was really positive. One of my friends even called me on the phone to tell me about when he had all four of his out, and how going under was a breeze. He said I also wouldn't see anything, which made me feel better. And then things came into perspective when we talked about how he'd recently had brain surgery. I was feeling better little by little. 

Friday morning rolled around. Again I woke up at 3:00am and obsessed about surgery one last time. Megan was my ride. We dropped Ozzie off at daycare, and went straight to the oral surgeon for my 7:30 surgery. We checked in at the desk, and my hands started to visibly shake. Surgery was literally minutes away. I was called back, and brought into a room with a dentist chair. I told the nurse how I was nervous, and she said a lot of people are, but there's nothing to worry about. 

She put a few monitors on my chest, took my blood pressure that was 158/98. I told her that it was nerves. And then the dentist came in. I'd never met this guy before. I saw a different guy for my consultation; a guy who doesn't work on Fridays. This dentist was kind of a dick, but he was about to go into my mouth with knives. 

He put the IV in my arm and said that was the most pain I was going to experience. I was waiting for the "count backwards from (number)," but it never came. He told me that things were going to get fuzzy in about 10 seconds. AND THEN THEY WERE WAKING ME UP. It was that fast. I recall a nice nurse waking me from the dentist chair. My mouth was stuffed with gauze, and dry as the Sahara. I wanted a drink of water. 

As far as I remember, I walked myself to a small recovery room that felt like a coat closet. They had me lie down on what felt like a bench and brought Megan in. She later told me that it was a closet, and I was on a bench. I was covered with the tiny black blanket pictured above. I don't remember a lot from that closet, but Megan said the dentist came in and told both of us that surgery went well, and gave pain pill prescriptions. She later told me that she thought he seemed like a dick too. 

I remember being thirstier than I've ever been, and my tongue and jaw were completely numb. My next memory is sitting in Megan's car in the Target parking lot while she was in to get my pills. I was sipping from a small McDonald's cup of water. Megan later told me that we drove through to get the water, and she got breakfast. She hadn't eaten anything while she waited during my surgery. I don't recall that pit-stop. 

As the novocaine wore off throughout the day, I had small bites of pudding, apple sauce, yogurt, and ice cream. I could start to feel the pain and trauma my jaw had been through. There are (what seems like) large parts of my jaw missing where the teeth were inside my gums, replaced my stringy stitches. It's painful to move my jaw to chew or talk, but I know that will get better day-by-day.

They let me keep that black blanket, and it wasn't on the bill. I'm glad it's over, and it really was a piece of cake. I look forward to drinking from a straw again, and taking adult-sized bites of food. Maybe I'll lose a couple of pounds. I think we can all agree that I can stand to.