T3 Creativity

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Wisdom Teeth–the Follow-up

 

So after much (fearful) anticipation, the moment finally came when I had to walk down a long hallway to the operating room.  I must have been at least a little bit calm because I noted the intricate wood design covering both walls and the shiny marble (or maybe granite) floor as I walked along the corridor.

 

I finally arrived in the operating room were there were all kinds of sharp looking things, tubes, and four different people who looked like they were very busy.  “I’m only getting teeth removed",”  I thought to myself, “Four people are necessary?????  Uh oh….”  I was pretty nervous at this point.  But as I was told to sit down on this plastic chair in the middle of the room and a plastic bag was put over my head (in case I started vomiting apparently) I started praying.  After all, this may be scary to me (however insignificant removing wisdom teeth may seem in the grand scheme of things), but God’s got it under control.

 

I mention, twice, my fear of needles and how the last time they missed numerous times as various different tubes began to be laid across my body.  Twice I asked for laughing gas and twice they responded, “That’s only for little kids.”  “Don’t worry,” they said.  Ya…. that helped.  Haha.  So a few seconds later with me looking away and bracing for pain it was announced that the IV had been inserted into my arm.  I was confused.  “Did they really get it or are they just lying and are going to surprise stab me?”  They did surprise me… it was already in.  Apparently I was so focussed on preparing for the pain that I had completely missed the fact that the pain (of the needle) was already over.

 

“When are you going to use that general anaesthetic stuff?” I asked.  It will hit you in about sixty seconds.  I started singing in my head.  I was a little bit scattered in my thinking at that point so I think I sang the first verse of about four different songs and went over a short memory verse.

 

BAM!  I woke up to a lady pulling a tube out of my nose in a completely different room.  I was in the recovery position, not even on the same chair or bed as I had been in the operating room.  Wow.  Weird.  My tongue felt as if it was expanding in my mouth, barely able to fit inside.  Oh, my tongue is outside my mouth.  Good I looked down, because I couldn’t feel a thing and if I hadn’t, it may have been there for a while.  My entire face is without feeling.  That’s good though, they just removed 4 bones from my mouth.  To feel would not be good.

 

The nurse left after asking if I was ok.  I tried to respond but couldn’t.  Between the numbness and the massive wadding in my mouth my efforts were futile.  I gave her the thumbs up and smiled as best I could.  For all I know when I thought smile, she saw drool.  I lay there for almost an hour enraptured by this device at the foot of my bed.  Blood pressure, oxygen something or other, and heart rate.  I was surprisingly calm.  Blood pressure was optimal, the oxygen thingy showed 100% (I have no idea what that means), my heart rate was averaging around 52 bpm.  Occasionally I would drift off to sleep only to be woken up by the heart monitor yelling at me for allowing my heart rate to drop below 50 bpm.  Apparently that’s not good.  I should get that checked, my heart rate is always right around there.  Anyways, I would try to move a little bit and my heart rate would climb up to 60 or 65 bpm and begin to drop back down as I stopped moving.

 

Then I realized something quite exciting to me.  While I could not feel my face I could tell that I was not wet!  This was very good!  Haha

 

After getting ‘briefed’ on what to do and not to do I was allowed to go home.  Thankfully I have taken a few pictures of the experience.  They aren’t too spectacular but I figured I could post picture updates on how I’m doing.  (That’s for you, my worried mother)  The pain is supposed to peak near the 72 hour mark so we will see how it goes!

 

Hopefully this didn’t bore you too much!  Thanks for reading and check out the picture updates! 

Wisdom Teeth–Timeline Pictures (IMPORTANT UPDATE)

- What I normally look like

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Day - 11:00 am - Sadly I wasn’t able to take pictures of the operating room, so instead I drew a diagram.  It’s bad, I know, but I’m on drugs.  Give me a break!  You can click on the picture if you want a bigger view!

 

 

12:45 pm -  Right after the operation… A little pale and some swelling but not too bad otherwise

                                                                    

1:15 pm  -  They told me to have ice on 24/7 and this is the attractive thing they gave me to put it in!  A bit more swelling here

4:00 pm  -  I’m starting (and look) to feel more an more bloated by this point.  I just changed the ice to find that I was unknowingly drooling on myself.  Can’t feel my entire face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Day – 6:00pm – Thankfully I’m not quite as swollen today.  I must say that I feel weirder right now than I have ever felt in my life.  Writing these three sentences took way too much effort!!!  T3 is hardcore!  (The doctor prescribed two every three hours!)

Wisdom Teeth

I wish it meant you that the more wisdom teeth you have, the wiser you are.  Apparently I’m a rather unusual person with six wisdom teeth.  Sadly, the fact that I have six wisdom teeth and likely a lot less wisdom than the average person with four, it doesn’t seem to work out.

Tomorrow morning I am getting my wisdom teeth removed.  In one single day I will be conquering two of my greatest fears; needless and being unconscious.

I have always had a dislike of needless, but my hatred and fear of them was solidified a while back when I had to go for some blood tests at the local hospital.  Three times they stabbed my arm to no avail so they tried the other arm.  Once…. fail.  Twice…. fail.  Three times????  Finally!!!  But with only half of a single vile needing to be filled it seemed that my vein had had enough.  The blood simply stopped coming.  Period.  The nurses solution?  Twisting the needle around in my arm to try to coax the uncooperative vein into yielding some more of its blood.  It hurt, a lot.  That wasn’t the worst part.  What really did the trick was seeing this foreign object stab and contort my flesh underneath my skin.  All I was thinking was, “That’s not supposed to be in there!!!”  The only time I want my muscles to move is when I tell them too, not when some foreign sharp object decides to go searching around for the nearest vein.  Since this point all objects that the medical field inserts into my body have gained an intense distrust.

My second fear, being unconscious, is not quite as intimidating.  Only once have I been unconscious and it was by no choice of my own.  It just happened.  There was no realization it was going to happen until it had already happened.  I didn’t even know until afterwards.  Now is entirely different.  I know I will be forced to become unconscious through the injection of some unknown drug through a large flippin’ needle (commonly referred to as an IV) at an unknown point after which I will be repeatedly stabbed and parts of my body removed.  I will have no control over the damage people may be doing to me.  I have also heard that I will have no control over my own bladder, which I find even more unnerving.  I like bladder control.  I have stayed away from food and liquid so I should be good.  Hopefully my body doesn’t magically come up with some liquids to expel during the surgery.  I would find that awkward.  Anyways, back from the rabbit trail, I don’t like being unconscious.  I guess, really, when I look at it, I want to be in control.  I don’t like putting my life into someone else’s hands.  I don’t know that surgeon.

Anyways, I’m sure I’ll be fine apart from psychological trauma.  Maybe I should ask for laughing gas as well.  That’s a thought!

Big Fan

Owl City, a electronica music project of the American Adam Young, was made famous by the quadruple-platinum hit single “Fireflies”.  In my conversation with friends and family I have encountered a wide variety opinions on his music.  Many have described the tune as catchy and fun but add that the words seem, well, completely erratic and without reason.  For many, the tune itself more than makes up for the lack of content in the words while for others the tune is empty and pointless without real heart and soul, words.

First of all, I must say that Adam Young is not only a extremely talented musician, he is also gifted in photography, videography, and blogging(which I have found to be an extremely difficult and time consuming art myself).  Secondly, I have found that I, contrary to most, see Adam Young as being as talented as a lyricist as he is as a musician.    I once thought that the words seemed empty, but as I listened carefully I began to draw some lines.  Almost all of his lyrics, particularly his latest album All Thing Bright and Beautiful, hold serious significance.  What I found most remarkable about his lyrics is his ability to weave in significant meaning through bold imagery and symbols.  These images and symbols, the deeper meaning of his songs, stand out clearly against the backdrop of his blog, Owl City Blog.  Blog posts such as Truth and Love as well as What It All Comes Down To and Jesus Will Come Again are obvious examples.
 
Among his various themed posts are blog entries like the ones above that assert that mankind, the human race, needs saving.  I won’t get into details but I will encourage you to go read the blog for yourself!  Listening to his music after being exposed to the blog was like hearing them for the first time all over again, but better.  Give it a shot.  Maybe start with Galaxies.  He is perhaps more obvious meaning.  Then move on to Kamikaze, which, when translated from Japanese, means spirit-wind.  As catchy as they are musically, I enjoy listening to these songs for the challenge of picking out Adam Young’s meaning.  Nearly every time I find one more image that I had missed every time prior!

So, Adam Young, all this to say that your music (and lyrics) are awesome!  Keep writing!  And please, come up to Canada!  I haven’t gone to an Owl City concert yet!