mirth

Let's go through the pros and cons, thus far today.

Pros:

It's cloudy and foggy.
I have an appointment to have this (wisdom) tooth removed.
I have vicodin.

Cons:

I'm cold.
My appointment isn't for a few hours yet.
The vicodin isn't helping as much as it should.
In the past 6 hours, half of my face has become quite swollen.
I can't eat.
I'm in pain.

I can't wait for this tooth to be pulled. Having teeth removed (even wisdom teeth) doesn't hurt at all really. I'm some kind of freak of nature in that respect. I remember, when I was 11, having 8 molars removed. They removed four that were "baby teeth", then cut open the gums beneath those teeth, and removed the four that would have grown in to replace them. It didn't hurt at all. But I pretended it hurt so that I could get a few days off school. Three years ago, when I had my bottom two wisdom teeth removed I was in agony prior to the surgery. I couldn't eat, and hadn't been able to for a week. I was running really high fevers because they'd become infected and had, in turn, infected my throat. I went to the emergency room, where they had to give me antibiotic shots, and prescribe some really strong pain killer. I don't remember what type of painkiller it was, just that I couldn't take it, because every time I did, I'd start vomiting, which is no good when you're already fairly dehydrated. Anyhow, I went to the dentist, and they're like, "Let's pull out the top ones!" Brilliant idea of the century? No. Which is what I told them; you're going to pull out the bottom ones. So they gave me two shots of Novocaine around each tooth, then took a dental chisel (no idea what's actually called) and pried my teeth and my gums apart (it was quite surreal being completely awake through it all, and kinda cool). They then took the dental equivalent of a pair of pliers and yanked until my teeth came out. It was great. I went home, and I slept for two hours, then I got up, and made pizza. It was the first time I'd eaten in about week. I was sitting down, eating my pizza, when Tyler came home, he was like, "You're not supposed to be eating that! Shouldn't you be in pain?" I wasn't--not even a little bit. I didn't bother taking any of the painkillers they'd prescribed, because I didn't need them. My mouth felt great, my face didn't swell or anything. There was absolutely no recovery period.

I'm anticipating this surgery going just as easily, unless they insist upon giving me a general anesthetic-- I'll try to talk them out of it, but who knows if I'll be able to. I'd rather have novicaine. General anesthetics make me feel shitty. I'm not allergic to them, but whenever I've had one I come out of it feeling really depressed and/or crying. Anyhow, I'm still not anticipating any sort of pain.