Wisdom Teeth

This Monday my wisdom teeth got pulled out. Despite hearing from other people about how much it hurts to get wisdom teeth pulled and seeing one of my friends endure chubby cheeks and eating juk for a week, I really didn’t think that getting wisdom teeth pulled would be so bad. The last time I got teeth pulled was when I was five. My dentist removed my two front bottom teeth and I only needed gas and a shot to numb my gums. It wasn’t until the morning of, when I was talking with the dentist that I realized that getting wisdom teeth pulled is surgery. Eek! I didn’t want to be awake for any of it so I got an IV to put me to sleep. Kind of like getting a blood test. Turns out the guy couldn’t my veins in either of my arms but he stuck me with the needle in my right arm just to see if he could find one. He didn’t. In the end he had to inject the needle into one of the veins into the top of my hand. That was great. Much more painful than the injection in the arm, but not as painful as I thought it’d be. The extraction seemed to pass by within a second. The IV was put into my hand, I closed my eyes, and the next moment I was being woken by one of the nurses. My mouth couldn’t close and it felt uncomfortable despite the numbing medication from the IV. I had three gauze pads in both sides of my mouth to soak up the blood. At the time, I didn’t know that those gauze pads were for the blood because I couldn’t taste the blood, although when they had me spit them out they were soaked in a bright red. The car ride home was tortuous. I fell asleep but kept waking up because of the discomfort from the gauze pads, the taste of blood, and the pain from the swelling and where my teeth were removed. Also, my throat was burning from being so dry. But I didn’t even bother asking my Mom for water because one of the nurses told her that I might ask for something to drink, but that my Mom should wait until we got home because I might vomit it up. My Mom wanted to stop at Longs so she could pick up my pain medication and antibiotics. Waiting in the car, unable to sleep, I knew that my Mom had gone to pick up other unnecessary items because if she had just gone in to get the medication she would have been out much quicker. Frustrated, but still groggy, all I remember is trying to stay calm, but ended up stamping my feet on the car floor to show my anxiety. Finally, my Mom came out and we headed for home. I silently cursed every red light. Once home my Mom and sister helped me to lie down in front of the T.V. and propped me up with pillows. The first thing I asked for was to change the gauze pads because the salty taste of blood and the feeling of the soggy pads in my mouth was disgusting. My Mom helped me to wrap new gauze pads and I stuck them in my mouth collapsing back onto the pillows groaning in pain. After another hour and another set of gauze pads my Mom brought me a cup of some pink liquid. She told me that it was strawberry Ensure that she bought while at Longs. It tasted so good! After having the blood soaked gauze pads in my mouth the Ensure tasted wonderful. My sister tried it and she said it didn’t taste good, but to me it was almost like having a strawberry milkshake. I was so grateful that my Mom had spent the extra time to pick up the Ensure. Yay for Mom! Now I can't wait to eat regular food and actually BITE into something.