The first person I knew that had their wisdom teeth pulled had it done 2 1/2 years ago. She was the sweetest girl, but the first time she was ever irritatable toward me was after her procedure.

The second person, a friend from high school, had it done before I was back in touch with him, and I only heard about how miserable he looked second-hand from another friend.

The other person also said it was a miserable experience.

In case you hadn't realized it, I had my wisdom teeth pulled. While it was scheduled to be all four, I reconsidered at the last possible moment after these stories floated around in my head.

I entered it with the approach that things aren't going to be as bad as I think. It always works. I think it's a combination of my threshold of pain, and I do a great job of building something up in my head that it can never fully measure up to. That's good in a case like this, of course.

I think I'll go into the details later, but I'll mention that I've had to keep this crazy ice pack on my head for twelve hours to keep down the swelling, with the need to change it every hour or so, do to it being small and not retaining its coldness very well. I don't have a picture of it yet, but it looks like the bandage Van Gogh wore in his famous self-portrait:

I've already gone to my mom's work with it on (twice) and Wal-Mart but didn't feel as ridiculous as I did when I walked into the Wal-Mart a second time with it covered up by my hood on my hoodie and felt far more ridicuilous.

I had a big ball of gauze in my mouth for four or five hours (when I was supposed to change it every half hour for two hours) that can best be described as a giant wad of paper. It wasn't fun. Combined with the tightness of the cloth ice pack mechanism, it really made my jaw hurt.

They told me to limit my activity. To grab a movie and lounge for three days. Easier said than done. I jogged *and* drove multiple times today, both things they frown upon.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that my lip stays numb for a long time. The last time I was at the dentist, I was numb for a few days. Today, my numbness has just started to wear off in the last hour, which means no food or drink for at least another twelve hours or so. That'll make it two days between meals. It's tempting me to make something to eat tonight, but I'm really looking forward to getting as much sleep as I can. On the plus side with the food thing, it was mentioned in the 10 Do's and 500 Don't's of my recovery booklet that mac and cheese was a "recommended soft food." Score! They're actually encouraging me to eat the food I last ate before surgery.

Finally, I have a *pill* to *swallow* every six hours. Let me repeat. I have a *pill* to *swallow* every six hours! Do you how big of a deal this is? The last pill I've taken of any kind was a Tylenol when I was twelve. That was 1991 or 1992! This is the first pill I've ever had to swallow, so imagine the fun of my mom telling me how to do so, and her reaction when I dropped the pill in water, watched it sink to the bottom, and *then* tried to swallow it. It sounds like something straight out of a sitcom, but it's true.

I'm telling you that the one thing I'm clueless with is medicine. But coming back to my original point, I've had no problems, not an ounce of pain, and want to get back to doing something active. So once again, I was worried over nothing.

And I hear I'm missing out on some killer painkillers.

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