The losing of wisdom

(teeth)
(c'mon, you all saw that one coming!)

So yesterday I became a hospital patient for the first time since I was born. Actually, that's not true, in 2002 I went to emergency for a few hours when I couldn't breathe properly one night due to a cough that wouldn't go away for three months.

Apart from a lot of filling in forms and waiting around it was an okay experience. The prep nurse asked me a series of questions about my health, the usual stuff about smoking and diabetes etc, and then she asked me about having my period, which was the first time it'd been mentioned in all the prep documents or by any of the interviewers. As it happened, I did have my period so I had to explain that I was wearing a cup so then the nurse made me remove it and use a pad instead.

Being under anaesthetic was like a really deep sleep. I did dream something, I think it was about horses, but I can't remember much else. It does worry me that you can just drop out of consciousness in a few seconds and then wake up an hour later without knowing what's happened to you in between. I mean, I know the dental surgeon took out my three remaining wisdom teeth but the whole transferring me back onto the wheelie bed and parking me in the recovery bay, shoving gauze in my mouth and putting an icepack around my head happened as well without my knowledge.

I was wheeled back to the day patients' room where my parents were waiting (my dad had pretty much read the parts of the SMH he was interested in, my mother had almost finished knitting a scarf). I felt groggy so drifted in and out of nap mode. Every time I cleared my throat I had to spit it out into a tissue and I ended up with handfuls of blood.

Some time later I ate a four course meal of ice cream, yoghurt, custard and jelly (I should have had the ice cream last, as it was the best-tasting). Some time after that a nurse detached me from the IV drip and discharged me. The whole process took around six hours.

At home I mooched around still with an ice pack around my head and read the paper. My tongue was active and receptive when I first woke up, my lips were a bit tingly coming back to life and my cheeks felt numb for the rest of the day.

I have to take antibiotics and painkillers for the rest of the weekend. I'm not in any pain or discomfort but I thought preventative painkilling isn't a bad thing. Everything seems to be going pretty well, actually. I'm lucid and I look like a jowly version of myself and am still waiting for the catch...