The Last One

Today my youngest child had his wisdom teeth pulled. He was one of the lucky ones, like his just older sister, who only had 2 wisdom teeth instead of 4. That makes removing them a little easier. At least it seems like it should. The same oral surgeon has taken out all my kids wisdom teeth (plus a few extra from the oldest daughter) and I think he is going to miss us now that we have run out of children to grow new teeth.
The son decided to not be sedated for the extractions. Some of my kids were, some weren't. I personally think waking up from surgery and not having a clue what has just happened in your life is a horrible feeling so I would prefer to be awake if possible. Actually, back in the dark ages when I had my wisdom teeth removed sedation wasn't even an option. What I remember most about the experience was that it was very loud and the worst part was that the dentist pulled the 2 teeth on the left and then I had to go back 2 weeks later to have the 2 on the right pulled. I was not at all excited about that 2nd visit and I am glad they do it all at once now.
The boy did use the laughing gas today and that seemed to make the experience more enjoyable (maybe a little too enjoyable since on the way home he was asking me if you could buy nitrous oxide on EBay).
Since this kid has a manly image to uphold, he also insisted that he didn't want to take any painkillers so I didn't bother to get his pain prescription filled ahead of time. His brother had a full bottle that hadn't been touched from his surgery 2 weeks ago that I felt we could use in an emergency. I know it's illegal o.k. I know. Well, as the shots began to wear off and feeling returned the son became more and more irritable. It didn't take long for him to decide to heck with the image. Apparently having your wisdom teeth pulled hurts a lot more than a broken nose. I offered the brother's medicine and was read the riot act. I am surprised that the police were not called immediately and that I escaped being hauled off to jail. What was I thinking??? I drove to the store, filled the prescription, paid my $8.00 and returned home as quickly as possible. The oldest daughter took Percocet when she had her wisdom teeth pulled and she was comatose for 2 days. Unfortunately Percocet didn't have the same effect on my youngest child. He wanted to be asleep, but couldn't seem to figure out how to do it. Everyone was way too loud for his liking and he made sure to let me know about it. Finally I decided to take him for a ride. That use to be how I got him to take a nap every day when he was a baby. I would drive his sister to Kindergarten and then go around the neighborhood until he fell asleep and then we would come home, I would put him in his crib, and he would be out until all his siblings arrived home from school a few hours later. It was rather nice. I was hoping for the same effect tonight. He did drift off while I drove and I found a nice hillside close to our house to park on and enjoyed the full moon, the city lights and watching the planes appear on the horizon, grow larger and then disappear as they landed. It was very peaceful. Eventually I drove home and we dozed in the driveway for a while longer. He woke up a lot less irritable and determined to never take another painkiller in his entire life. Now I have 2 almost untouched bottles of pills in my cupboard. Too bad I'm a law abiding citizen or I could sell them to the highest bidder. I just hate having addictive medicine sitting around my house and there's so much controversy surrounding proper pill disposal anymore that I don't know how to get rid of it. Don't flush it, throw it away, or bury it, that's for sure. Maybe there needs to be a medicine recycling program. Oh, but that would be illegal too. I think it would be nice if you could just return it to the pharmacy and get a refund on the unused portion or a credit toward your next purchase.

Today I am grateful for

no more wisdom teeth.
kids that don't like to take pain killers.
beautiful Spring weather.