Set Your Mind at Rest...I'm Alive

Well, I thought that I would set your mind at ease. I think that you've probably woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat often enough, and it's telling on your health. Well, yes, to come to the point, I survived having my wisdom teeth removed. Just, maybe?


Do you want to hear the story? Well you're going to, whether you want to or not.


William and I slept over at Sean and Cassandra's on Wednesday night since they were home late from the tennis. Cassandra gave me her left over Apricot Delights for breakfast as a last hurrah. I mean they have "apricot" in the title, they've got to be a healthy breakfast. Healthy breakfast? BAR. HUMBUG.


I spent the morning settling my nerves, hungry, and crying over Angie Smith's book "I Will Carry You." I mean at least I wasn't going to die, or was I?


Finally, the time of my fate comes and we arrive at the surgicentre, bucket, towels, and tissues in hand. We're shown into the consultation room and while we wait to see 5 different people, so I can tell each one my name and date of birth and what I was willingly going to let them do to me, we watch "Ready, Steady, Cook.' You'd think they'd think to put a different style of show on, rather than showing the hungry, the thing they most desire-food.


The anaesthetist comes in wearing his bright red square glasses and shakes my hand, until it hurts and I think that it's going to fall off. Meanwhile, I feel like a dork in my beautiful smock, booties, and shower cap. And finally, I'm shown into the lovely operating room, complete with lovely operating gadgets. And I lie on the bed, and they put oxygen in my nose, and I wonder if they'll clean it before they put it up the next person's nose, and I get to wear groovy sunglasses, and the anaesthetist talks while he's inserting the drip (painful), and my eyesight goes fuzzy, and I tell myself, "don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep," and THEN...


I wake up. I feel like they've given me Mick Jagger's lips and that my tongue is 3cm thick, but other than that strangely refreshed, realising that the most painful part of the whole operation was having the drip inserted.

I was expecting to come home, with my mouth so numb that I couldn't close it and with blood pouring out, but as it turned out I was able to shut my mouth, and thankfully not look too dopey, and I didn't really have any bleeding afterwards.

And I tell you, having a large family is totally awesome, especially when you're an invalid. I arrived home, lay on the couch, watched tennis, always had someone around to replenish my chocolate milk addiction, and Mum who kept track of my painkiller instalments. For the first 12 hours my mouth was so sore I could only fit a straw in it, so I drank 1 1/2 litres of milk in about 10 hours. Thankfully the next day I could fit a teaspoon in my mouth so ice cream and chocolate custard were on the menu.


It took a lot longer than I expected to be able to start on more substantial food. It really wasn't until Monday that I was able to start eating lumpy food, and by then tinned spaghetti and soup weren't really all that tasty anymore. It also took me a lot longer to recover than I expected. Still on Tuesday, I was easily fatigued, but a theatre nurse friend told me that a general anaesthetic usually knocks you about for around a week, so then I felt the right to be invalided again. Today was my first day without taking painkillers and it feels nice to finally be off the stuff.


And now I can't believe this time last week I was hungry and nervous. I'm glad it's behind me, but now I've actually experienced a general anaesthetic, I don't think I'll feel as nervous about it if there is a next time. I might do it again sometime, or maybe not. I mean there's the cost, the humility of looking like a chipmunk with two acorns in my left and one in my right cheek, the pain, and the loss of points in Andrea's learning ladder parties. Also, I don't have anymore wisdom teeth. Hmmm, there's a problem. Oh, and no I wasn't even tempted to sign legal documents, drive, or accept a marriage proposal in the 24 hours following my operations. Shame. And so far, I don't think I have any eye, heart, liver, or kidney damage following the operations. That's a good thing too.

Oh, and the photo are of my special new friends. Max (the meerkat) is my souvenir from Taronga Zoo, Leopold (the rabbit) arrived in a lovely spotty parcel from friends as a get well present, and Raine (tag name "Raining Cats and Dogs") came from Mum. If you didn't know I love soft toys.

Oh, and just in case you've never had your wisdom teeth removed, I thought that I had better clarify, that regarding signing of legal documents, driving, etc, they were things in the paperwork, that I was told not to do 24 hours following surgery.