Wisdom Extracted

On top of taking care of our sick kitty over the past week, I also had three of my wisdom teeth taken out.  Either alone would have been bad enough, but having to do both made things particularly overwhelming.  I've known for years that my wisdom teeth needed to come out---as you can see in the picture, the bottom two were impacted and coming in sideways, while there was one on the top that was out, but crowding the rest of my teeth.  I guess I wasn't wise enough to have a fourth.  You can also forget all of those cavities that you see there...by the way, why do wisdom teeth come in sideways???  What purpose does that serve???  That seems like a pretty bad design...I don't see how anything good can come out of it...

Still, I tried to ignore the problem.  After all, everyone was telling me horror stories about getting their wisdom teeth out.  Some people ended up swollen and literally black and blue.  Most people had to lie sick in bed for days if not weeks.  One person had projectile vomit (which actually sounded kind of cool).  Other people ended up permanently losing some of the nerve endings on their face!  One of my coworkers even mentioned that they tried to put him under but he ended up staying awake during the whole ordeal---at one point the surgeon had his head in a headlock trying to wrench the tooth out.  As much fun as that sounded, I decided to wait.

Sadly, about a month ago, the gum around one of my wisdom teeth got inflamed and infected and I could barely eat or even open my mouth.  The wisdom teeth were starting to "erupt" and come out (I think they deliberately pick the most pleasant sounding names).  So that's when I finally got pushed over the edge and scheduled a date with my oral surgeon.  I eagerly opted for going under (I fear pain, but that will have to wait for another story...).  I was shocked at how fast the procedure was.  It lasted only half an hour and then I was done.  Apparently, the surgeon does about 6-7 procedures a day.  I had no idea there were that many people getting their wisdom teeth out.  It sounds like a pretty lucrative business.

So far, luckily I've been one of the good cases.  I didn't get black or blue or even that swollen.  As far as I can tell, I can still feel most of my face.  It was pretty painful for the first day or two, but then it wasn't too bad.  The worst part was feeling weak from just eating a liquid diet for several days.  But a week later, the stitches have dissolved and I can eat solid food again.  I ate a hamburger as my first meal after days of soup and oatmeal and it was the most delicious thing that I've ever eaten.  Overall, it wasn't that bad and I probably should have done it sooner.  Oh well.