Monday, January 23, 2006 at 10:55 PM

To the 4 little white pieces, good riddance. Unlike their name, wisdom teeth never gave me much wisdom, ironically. Or is it sarcasm that lies within the name? Let's hope I'll be wiser now, without these awful teeth that shouldn't be there in the first place.

Now still can't feel much pain.. Amazed at the effects of the anaesthetics. Can last 10 hrs leh... I can't bring myself to imagine the situation when the effects wear off... Though there are painkillers, I'm still afraid of pain... Made a laughing stock of myself, grimacing at every chance I had at the surgery centre today... But I scared mah! Psychological fears at work, and I got a somewhat low threshold of pain ='(

Initially I was very set on asking my doctor to just remove 2 teeth first, but the doctor in the ward (not the doctor who did my surgery, I think...) ended up persuading me to take all 4 out -_- Re-assured me of all my worries. Told me I can still eat happily during CNY lah, and that although the pain intensity will be higher than just taking out 2 teeth, the healing time is the same... Also, if I take out 2 by 2 by GA (means fully unconscious), the implications will be higher. Better to risk once than twice, that was what the doctor meant...

After waiting for a while in the ward, it was my turn to be examined by dozens of eyes in the operating theatre.. I didn't even know who is who, neither did I know who was my surgeon. That's why I said above, the doctor in the ward probably wasn't the surgeon. An older man around his 50s was attending to me, but not sure if he was the anaesthesist or surgeon. Should be the anaesthesist lah... Coz' he made me unconscious. Luckily he could tell that I'm scared and only inserted the tube into my nostril and throat, as well as gave me the jabs after I was unconscious. I breathed in some gas with a medicated smell and at first I was thinking, how come after so many breaths, I'm still awake. But I didn't even know when I knocked out. Things happened too fast.

The next time I opened my eyes, I was back in the ward. A nurse woke me up, I think. Was in a delirious state, so didn't really know what was happening. Only remembered the nurse telling me I'm back in the ward already. The first thought that flashed through my mind was, "I'm still alive..... Great..." Then I fell asleep. I was really glad that I'm still alive! Haha I thought too much lah, but I kiasi mah =p Didn't really have a very good sleep there though. Kept coughing due to throat irritation. The tube they inserted irritated my throat so I have some phlegm or what. When I coughed out the so-called phlegm at night, I realised it was blood! Or blood-stained phlegm. Whatever. Eeks... Lucky not painful. Now I can feel the anaesthetics effects wearing off more or less le. When I was still at the ward, my left side felt super numb and swollen. Felt as though my left side was heavier too.

But at least up to now, still not very painful.. Hopefully it'll be like that for the next one week until I fully recover =) Haha wishful thinking... I'm just too scared to imagine myself rolling on the floor in pain O_o Ok, I think I shouldn't be scaring other people... Don't worry if you're going to extract wisdom teeth. Still can eat ;-) I was eating fish porridge just now. Just got to eat much more gently and slowly, and no meat in case you can't bite too hard on it yet. Face will be a bit swollen after extraction. I was told not to be surprised/shocked/depressed when I see my swollen face on the 2nd-4th day, coz' that's when the swelling will be at its maximum. Usually that's the worse it can get liao... And CNY eve is in like, 5 days? WTH... Don't need to go get angbao liao lah. Reunion dinner can only go and drink steamboat soup -_- But 1st day of CNY I got excuse to stay at home :D Haha I just don't fancy going visiting my dad's side of relatives. Mum's side not as bad.. Hope I will recover fast so that 3rd day I can go Seoul Garden with the LEPers! Though I doubt I can eat the meat lah... The doctor assured me I can eat bak kwa during CNY but I don't believe lor..

And I feel so cheated. They quoted me $716 last year when I set the date for the surgery on 8/12. Then today when I went the receptionist told me it has gone up a bit to $758. Guess how much it was when my mum paid... $900+ close to $1000!!! Without the expensive painkillers and mouthwash leh! Wah lao!! I know the price won't be standard and exactly $700+ lah, coz' they probably charged me for some other tests they carried out. But an addition of about $200 is outrageous leh! And I thought I could pay off more than half of my $700+ fees using my 1 month salary! Now I'm on MC until Feb (coz' CNY rest) so no work=no money. Great lah, charged me so high... Then braces also... NUH charged me more after I was told it was $2000, as stated on the brochure they gave. Then I heard $3000+ and I had to wait 1.5 years coz' my case not urgent. WTH. I'm very poor liao they still want to suck my dry! If not for the stupid wisdom teeth that pushed my other teeth out of alignment, I don't even have to do braces lor... If by 1.5 years my teeth shift back, I'll tell them I don't want the braces liao.

Eck, blood is oozing out now.... Can taste it... OMG...

rhapsody in blue.