Wisdom teeth

Evan had his wisdom teeth pulled this past Leap Day. All four came out. I took off the morning from work to take him in and he was in for the procedure a little after 8:30 a.m. Sean showed up from her office about an hour later before Evan was put in recovery. When we first saw him he was in a recliner and looked to be completely out. But he came to briefly and asked us if his teeth had been pulled yet. After we indicated yes his teeth were out, he went back to sleep for about 20 minutes. I brought him home and he promptly took some meds and hit the sack.

I remembered two things from the past from this. First was a doctor's visit I took Evan to when he was about a year old. It was to have his ears drained. He was crying and miserable from the pain, and I was there only as a substitute because the more qualified pediatric nurse mom was working. The doctor explained briefly what was to happen with me and started to take Evan to the back rooms to work on him. I was told to stay in the waiting room. As I handed Evan over he began to reach back to me and ratcheted up the crying a few notches. He looked horrified. I don't like that memory much. But he was put in a "papoose board", they drained his ears and he was happy on the way home and that night.

My own wisdom teeth came out in 1979 during the summer. I was working as unskilled labor in an oil refinery in Sulphur, LA and developed a blue ribbon toothache in my right lower jaw. I couldn't work and I had the feeling our supervisor thought I was faking. X-rays were taken - and the doctor tells me I have a serious bacterial abscess under my wisdom tooth on the right, but he can't understand why the left side does not hurt because it is worse. The surgery was scheduled, but the night before the pain was so bad that my mother took me to an ER for the pain. I got my first shot of demerol, but being in the ER with a toothache is little embarrassing. I remember seeing a fellow that had rammed a screwdriver into his hand, and one or two other real looking ER victims so that I felt silly with my toothache. Surgery was routine - for the doctor anyway - all 4 wisdom teeth were removed and I went home to spend the next few days having the abscesses cured. A good friend of mine came over while I was recovering and wanted to play gin rummy - penny a point.