Friday Night Wisdom...Teeth

고운 had been experiencing pain for the past couple of weeks. It turned out to be her bottom left wisdom tooth. When we first met, she had noticed that my mouth was small and that I didn't appear to have the same number of teeth that most people have. Ha! I don't actually. I was blessed with a small mouth that only allows 24 teeth. I've gotten eight permanent teeth pulled in my day. Between that and my other dental "opportunities", we can all agree that I'm not a fan of much that goes on at the dentist.



고 and I would tease each other about teeth and I would obviously lose because I only have 24 teeth and she had 31. (She had already had one removed.) I went to work this morning and she had mentioned getting it removed today, but I wasn't sure what she would do. About 30 minutes into the day she called and told me that she was on the subway and on her way to get it out. She was nervous about the shot mostly, but was really not anticipating much besides a simple extraction.



I wished her luck and expected to hear back from her in about twenty minutes or so. Over an hour later I got a text message.



"Just finished. It was surgery."



She was still in high spirits, but I could tell it wasn't that great for her. I remember when I had mine removed I got to go home and be waited on. Poor 고 had to get on a subway and go to an empty apartment. I felt horrible for not being with her. I came home on my break and she told me the story.



The dentist had taken X-Rays and concluded that it would be no problem. That, of course, calmed her down. They gave her the unpleasant shot and started the extraction. They pulled and pulled, but nothing. That tooth would not budge. 고운 heard the tooth cracking and loosening, but nothing. After several failed attempts the dentist was becoming noticeably agitated. He called in four more nurses. Two to help him and the other two to hold 고운 's hands.



The dentist started vocalizing his frustration. He kept trying a scooping method that was just not working and with each failed scoop he verbalized it more and more. Finally, they brought out the drill and started drilling away at her stubborn tooth. Still nothing.



They had to get out the knife, cut back the gums and surgically remove that thing. They never put her to sleep though. She was up through the whole thing! What a brave girl! I'm so proud of her!!



She has been recovering well though. She's far from how bad Kristin was, but she did not have it as easy as me. Here's some of her favorite moments.

Sleeping 고고...

They gave her some weak medication that did not seem to do anything, so she took some Tylenol and seems to be feeling less pain.

The bad part about all of this is that she has an exam tomorrow and this, obviously, has hampered any attempt to get in any beneficial studying. She'll do fine though.

I'll let you know how she's feeling as the weekend progresses...

By the way, it was only 22 dollars...