Update: Wisdom Teeth

I was cocky. I bragged that I led a charmed life. Well, it all came back to bite me on the butt, big time. (Or the TOOTH, as it were.)

Monday I had my post-surgery consult with the oral surgeon, as I reported it was fine, great. That night, I started feeling nauseous and out of nowhere, just started puking my guts out. AGONY. I could feel my mouth trying to stretch wide and I tried, I really did, to keep it closed but puke doesn't care. The body can't help what it wants to do. It felt like something wrenched in my jaw area on that one side and it was like an explosion of the most intense pain I've ever felt.

The nauseous-ness continued on to Tuesday. After that first time, I was so paranoid of my jaw doing that wrenching-thing again that I was frantic to stave off future vomiting episodes. Plus I really needed something for the pain. So I took a couple of percocet and ate a yogurt, hoping the food would calm the nausea that usually accompanies the taking of the percocet. But no, that just fed the fire, excuse the pun.

And so began a vicious circle; puking, taking a pain pill with food and water, then puking it all back out again, and so on. I wasted a TON of my precious percs.

Finally, by Tuesday night whatever 24-hour bug I picked up ran its course. Blessed relief.

Early Wednesday morning: as I'm packing the kids' lunches, I bent down to give Ryder his good-morning-hug and the little DICK (no 'ens' on that one) rammed his big ole rockhead right into my jaw, RIGHT on that one painful spot. On purpose!

I just about blacked out from the pain. I thought what I felt during that first puke episode was the epitome of pain, well. That was nothing compared to this. Instantly I was hunched over, waves of nausea, light-headed, jaw THROBBING. It felt like the inside of my mouth had exploded. Immediately I popped two percs, pulled up my big girl panties, and finished the morning routine of packing lunches, getting breakfasts ready, hustling the kids through their routines of brushing teeth, getting dressed, etc. All on autopilot, all done while waiting for the meds to kick in.

Which they did, for a brief hour. An hour! And then the pain returned. And it was horrific. I wanted to take more pills but I only had two left, so I waited as long as I dared, made it to noon. Took those last two pills with a prayer that the relief would be longer this time. And they definitely did take the edge off but there was still that constant throb.

And what a day for visitors. My cousin Kim called out of the blue and asked if she could come over for a visit as it was her lunch break. I'd mentioned in the past that she should come over for coffee and a chat, so I WAS happy that she took me up on the offer. Most people just say 'sure!' and then you never hear from them. So I said yes, come on over. But part of me was like, 'Really, today of all days?' When I was wandering around in a perc-and-pain daze, looked like absolute SHIT, greasy hair, unwashed body, wearing dirty clothes? Because of the pain, I was in that mood where I just didn't care. And I told her that on the phone, that I was a complete mess, so she was forewarned.

And of course, being a hair stylist, she was dressed all snazzy, awesome hair, looking friggin' GREAT (she's lost at least 20 pounds since I last saw her, I swear!). So we had our coffee and somewhat-awkward chitchat -- being that we don't have a whole lot in common beside kids and husbands and messy houses. Lol! But those DO make great topics of conversation, so it was all good.

Later that night, Levi and Amber stopped by to drop off a movie for the kids and cookies. Levi could tell that I wasn't myself, he noticed it at once just by the way I opened the door! Hah.

So yeah, not a very good night. And not a very good Thursday (today) either. I knew, I knew, that something was very wrong with my mouth. I called the surgeon's office and she said to come in right away and they'd fit me in. Ryder and I arrived at the office and were there probably a good half hour before they called us back to the doctor's room. He took a look and of all the things I'd braced myself to hear (infection, dry sockets, exposed nerve, abscess) it was NOT this:

"There's some food impacted in the site."

Uh, what now? Friggin' FOOD?! You mean to say that the source of all this agony was some bits of G-D food? I felt like a beast, a slobbish pig of a beast!

He assured me that that was very common and it was definitely a good thing I came in because it would have turned to an infection in a day or two. He used a cool little water-pick looking thing, basically a syringe with a long curved tip, to flush the food out and it was GROSS! I was just so, so embarrassed. He gave me one of those syringes to take home and advised that I use it after each meal to keep the site clean. So now I'm paranoid about it happening again and I've been flushing the area constantly.

So yeah. Brought down from my charmed-life pedestal by a piece of food. Niiiice.

And so it begins... *GROAN*

I thought I'd get lucky, I thought it would be at least another couple years before I had to start worrying about this.

What's that saying? Dad would know it off the top of his head, for sure. Something like, "With a son, you only have to worry about one prick. With a daughter, you have to worry about ALL of them."

So Lena came home today and informed us that her friend-that-is-a-boy, Kyler, really wants to be her 'for-REAL-boyfriend'. Thankfully, her response was that no, she only wants to be friends, she doesn't want boyfriends.

PHEW! Good reply, little girl.

Then she told me that she added, "My mom said I'm not allowed to 'date' until I'm married." (Which I DID in fact say just the other day.) I hope the teacher wasn't listening!

Powerful words: "I call it living"

I found this article on a website I frequently browse (Celebitchy), I was going to skip over it because its about Jamie Foxx and I don't like him, but when I saw the content, I paused and then just had to read it.

Here's the link  but the gist of the article, from ET Online (watch the video through their website), is this:

Jamie Foxx on his sister with Downs Syndrome: "I don't call it a condition, I call it living."

We’ve seen Jamie Foxx with his sister DeOndra Dixon on the red carpet but now he’s putting her in the spotlight and opening up about caring for a sibling with down syndrome.


“This little lady right here lives with me along with my other sister, along with my father and my mother. So, we’re one big happy family,” Foxx said while seated next to DeOndra.

On Saturday night, DeOndra and her peers participated in the Be Beautiful, Be Yourself Jet Set Fashion Show where music great Quincy Jones and “Survivor” host Jeff Probst were both in attendance. The event went to benefit Global Down Syndrome Foundation.

The actor couldn’t help but dote on his sister, telling ET, “I don’t call it a condition. I just call it living. … When she loves, she loves. When she’s mad, she’s mad. When she cries, she cries. When she’s happy, she’s happy, but she always tells the truth.”

He said the message of this event was to be yourself and to recognize that there’s “beautiful everywhere.”

Does this mean I'm 4x dumber?

I had oral surgery (I love saying that) last Wednesday to remove my four wisdom teeth. The oral surgeon said three of the teeth would be easy but the one on the bottom had an abscess behind it and was pretty close to both a nerve and bone, so it would be a bit tricky.

Surgery day came, I was "nervous and allergic", but everything went smooth and I was sent home to recover. The pain wasn't near as bad as I was expecting (thanks in part to the wonderful percocet!) but I could've done without all the gloopy blood and saliva. Ewww, TMI! Sorry.

I followed the after-care instructions to the letter. Well, except for the "no smoking" part. I lasted almost a day smoke-free, then thought Screw it and lit up. I figured as long as I was keeping my mouth clean and being careful, I'd be okay.

Then I read in the pamphlet about how smoking creates "dry sockets", whatever those are. Started to worry that I'd messed up my mouth. Still didn't stop smoking, though.

Well, anyways, long story short: I had my post-surgery consultation today and everything is fine! The visit literally took less than five minutes. He said my face looked great, no bruising or swelling. He was surprised because the surgery had been "intense", what with that one problem tooth and abscess. He shone a light in my mouth, looked around, praised me for "keeping my teeth and mouth so clean!", said everything is healing wonderfully, then sent me home! Obviously he couldn't even tell I'd been smoking (because I certainly didn't volunteer that info). So hah! No, but seriously, I'm very lucky because I've heard nothing but horror stories from people about their wisdom teeth surgery.

I tell ya, I lead a charmed life!

Remember my obsession with this?

I was watching The 40 Year Old Virgin tonight (great movie!) and I'd totally forgotten that at the very end, there's an Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In musical number by the cast! So of course, this reminded me of my HUGE obsession with the movie/musical Hair. Had to search youtube for the clip I wanted, and here it is!

LOVE IT!!



I could watch this all day. Seriously. Yes, I'm a dork.

Five Question Friday

1. Did you have a pen pal when you were little (or now)? Where were/are they from?

I had totally forgotten until just now that I DID have a penpal, two actually! The school started a penpal program and we could choose one from a long list; I chose a girl from Thailand. I must admit she was better at the whole penpal thing than I was -- she would send me letters with little gifts enclosed, usually origami animals or beautifully decorated bookmarks that she made herself. I was always in awe that she made those things! And her letters were always so neatly printed and full of really interesting things about her daily life. Mine were utterly boring, I'm sure; talk about school and friends, life on an acreage, boys. Maybe to her they were interesting, just because our lives were so different, who knows. I would recieve a letter from her probably about once every couple of months or so. My letters in return were more sporadic, usually when I finally remembered to reply. Bad me! The other penpal I had was from Australia, I think. Only corresponded with her a couple of times then I think we both sort of lost interest. Eventually my Thai penpal quit corresponding, I think because she graduated (she was older than me, obviously), but we had a good two-or-three year run.



2. If you could do a different job for one day, what would it be?
Sometimes I think I'd like to try nursing. This is usually brought on by being on the recieving end of a really special nurse who has made an impact on me. When I was in labor with Gunnar, I had a Scottish nurse who took me under her wing, I was a scared-shitless eighteen year old going through this scary process and she comforted me like I was her own daughter; and yet she wasn't afraid to scold me when I said "I can't do this!" or to give me tough-love encouragement ("You got yourself into this, you can darn well finish it!" and that was exactly what I needed to hear). Something about nurses like that make one think that if you have those qualities of empathy and encouragement, that you could help someone else like that. Of course, then I remember that I don't take demands very well and that people start to annoy me after a while. Nurses are a very special breed and I honestly don't think I have the capacity to be a truly good one.

3. Do you remember your biggest fear from when you were little?
Being kidnapped or else having my mom or brothers die. I used to have nightmares about that all the time.



4. What do you think is a waste of time? Why?
Trying to reason with a bratty kid. I know that sounds harsh, but its true. I always see kids having meltdowns and the parent is practically kissing their ass to get them to behave. I call that a "first-time parent thing", haha. And yes, I do remember doing that as well. When we just had Gunnar and I had it in my head that I would be the best parent ever, I would do everything the child-rearing books said, try to reason with him, calm him down, promise this and that, try to talk it out with him. Once I had more kids, I realized that's all just a waste of time. What a kid in melt-down mode really needs is for the parent to step in, set firm guidelines and then follow through.
In most cases, the child's emotions are raging out of control, they don't know how to process what they're feeling, usually they can't even identify what exactly it is they're feeling. I remember teaching Gunnar the difference between feeling angry, confused, sad, jealous, nervous (remember? "nervous and allergic"?? lol), so that when he did get overwhelmed with emotion, he could use his words to describe why he was upset. So I'm a big advocate of taking a firm hand during tantrums. And I don't mean beating the child or anything like that. I just mean, recognizing that the situation has gotten out of hand, that no amount of talking or reasoning is going to help, and that sometimes you just have to say "Enough!", take the child to a quiet place, tell them you will come back when they have calmed down enough to talk, and then follow through. I do not believe in spanking during tantrums. A tantrum is usually just an overflow of confusing emotions being expressed the only way a child knows how; I would never punish the child for that. Spanking is saved for situations when its called for, like intentionally hurting someone, doing something self-harmful like running into the street when a car is coming, etc.



5. What is the oldest item you have in your closet?
I have a pair of white jeans, size 30, from before I had Gunnar. I remember buying them for the start of grade 12 and they were my absolute favorite pair of jeans. I looked hot in them. So I've kept them for all these years because they're my "one day" jeans. One day I'll be able to wear them again, hahah. I also have a really cute jean jacket from those days as well.