Did I ever tell you guys about my wisdom teeth debacle? I got them removed when I was a freshman in high school. The procedure itself wasn’t painful—I was under full anesthesia—but when I started to come out of the drug-induced fog, I had the uncontrollable urge to cry. I wasn’t sad, or upset, just physically needed to cry. My mom told me she experienced something similar when she’d had general anesthesia for her tonsils, so I didn’t panic too much. Actually, I was still way too drugged up to experience any strong emotions.
Recovery sucked. I couldn’t eat solid foods and quickly got tired of herbed mashed potatoes. I was in a lot of pain, and the painkillers I was prescribed made me extremely nauseated and I had to resort to Advil or something, which did NOT cut it. Eventually I healed up a bit, my face wasn’t swollen anymore, and no one else could tell that I had big stitched up wounds inside my mouth. I went back to school; things seemed to be going well. Then, at least a week after the surgery, when I felt great and pretty much healed and everything…
I was on stage rehearsing our fall play, “Charlotte’s Web”. I hadn’t done anything unusual—hadn’t gargled acid or gotten punched in the face—I was just standing there on my marks. And then. My mouth FILLED WITH BLOOD. A gushing stream of warm blood was coming out of one of the upper wounds (which I had thought was healed). I had to run off-stage to the bathroom to spit out my mouthful of blood and shove some toilet paper up in the oozing hole and wait it out.
I don’t really remember the immediate fallout of the mouth o’ blood incident, but I do remember that for months afterwards, when I sneezed or inhaled with my mouth just so, I could feel cold air going in my mouth, up through the hole in my gums and jaw, through my sinuses and out my nose.
Everything is fine now (well, mostly – have I mentioned the possible problem with one of the nerves in my face?), but when Ellen sent me this animation, I couldn’t help but experience some very strong sense memories. Maybe next time I’ll tell you about the other time I ended up with a mouth (and throat) full of blood. Fun times!
