oh where has my wisdom gone?!

upon my return from vacation, i had immediately scheduled a few more days off work so i could have my wisdom teeth removed. yes, all 4 teeth needed to come out....my mouth was getting overcrowded and i wasn't cleaning the teeth properly. i had been putting off the inevitible for the past 3 years. it started out as a general comment form my dentist, followed by the occasional pain once or twice a year, but then this past year, the pain was more persistent, so i finally caved in and admitted defeat.

i have this tremendous fear of pain (i have been known to pop pills regularly for any possible ache/pain), i'm afraid of needles (mostly because my veins are hard to find when they're actually needed), and i'm just a plain old chicken of the unknown. i had warned my oral surgeon about all of this, and he just laughed at me.

anyways, all my worrying was for nothing. on monday morning, i arrived right on time for my appointment, and 30 minutes later, i was back on my feet and on my way. i started off with the laughing gas (which ironically doesn't make you laugh), and then the iv was inserted into my arm (just a small pinch, which seemed a lot worse at the time), and then i was off to la-la-land. afterwards i was in such a hurry to get out of the dentist's office that i completely forgot to grab my newly extracted teeth. oh well. at that point all i could think about was getting my tylenol 3 prescription filled up to the max. i didn't want to know what possible pain i could possibly face.

all-in-all, i have to say that i lucked out - no facial bruising, not a lot of pain, just some wooziness from the all prescriptions :-) and now i'm almost back to normal eating...whoo-hoo!