Wisdom Teeth and Working on a New Smile!

Wisdom Teeth and Working on a New Smile!

Hello everybody! This post isn’t exactly about writing, but it IS a story about The Storyteller… I had my wisdom teeth out this past Monday, and it left me in bed for a few days. Not only did I have my teeth out, but I also had my implant and bone graft. Yes, you read that right. Implant as in put in a new tooth. If I could go back and tell my 12-year-old self a thing or two… Oh well, I guess I just need to explain.

Basically, what happened was I sprang off the bottom of a three-foot pool and hit the wall when I was 12. I will let you use your imagination, but I learned that day that in a showdown with a concrete wall and your teeth, you have few chances of winning. It was a messy, messy way to end the day. In the end, I lost one of my front bottom teeth. Alas! The past four years I have missed it! Last year I did Invisalign to straighten things out and prepare for implant. Now, this January, it happened. No, I do not have a tooth in there yet, they had to do the bone graft and surgical part of the implant first. They had to do a bone graft because I completely lost the tooth and root, nothing left for them to work with. In several months, they’ll come back and put the tooth on, and I will have my smile back!!!

So, that was the history. This is how the week went. From Friday to Sunday, I was valiantly fighting off a cold, thinking about how miserable it would be if I had a sore throat, congested nose and a healing mouth all at the same time. On Sunday, I put up my last blog post, took every nasty cold concoction I could think of and went to bed. Early the next morning my dad drove me to the oral surgeon. I feel a little bad for the nurses, because the previous week of stressing and being nervous about the surgery caught up with me as they prepared to put me under. I am generally not afraid of things, but I do have one little fear… Needles. I hate needles. I can fall on top of a barbed wire fence, pincushion my leg, and then grin about it, but still bawl like a baby over an IV. I will spare you the whole story, but I don’t think it was exactly easy for these two patient nurses to prick my arm. The past week of being nervous seemed to have caught up with me while they had laughing gas on me, and I was afraid of the needle, and not quite in my sharpest state of mind, therefore I went into surgery sobbing and woke up in the same way. The first day I was numb, and the next day I was sore. The implant, which is right in the front of my mouth has hurt quite a bit, and my back teeth have been sore, but it hasn’t been too bad just so long as I’m being careful and taking my pain meds. As far as my cold, apple cider vinegar and lots of prayer have really helped, and I have been so thankful that I haven’t felt so badly in that respect. Then, with my mother and sister Elaine, I have been treated like a princess. I came home to pretty flowers on my dresser, and have been waited on hand and foot. Whether it’s breakfast in bed, to reading with me at night, changing my ice packs, or even surprising me with an adorable new mug for my constant tea drinking, I couldn’t have asked for a sweeter treatment.

So, while I’ve been out, what did I get done? I’ve done some writing, gotten to read the first chapter of a friend’s book she is letting me proofread, and thought a lot about my second book and where I am going with it. Reading Mind Soul Ink Paper, by Rachel Starr Thomson was great. I would totally recommend to any young writers, especially fiction writers. She quotes a lot of Amy Carmichael, and I find myself wanting to read her writings. I’ve also been reading Kisses from Katie. I worked quite a bit on sorting out some difficult parts in my first book, finding out what I need to write in some of the secondary plots, and what needs to be rounded out or finished. I came to the conclusion that writing in my reading chair is more comfortable than sitting beside my bed after several hours of work on Friday.

Anything else I wanted to mention? Well, perhaps I had a little bit of a patience/gratefulness practice opportunity! Remembering to focus on the good, and not the bad is important. Being grateful for jello, even when it’s not your favorite, and to think about how I am inconveniencing others when I find pain and drowsiness or anything inconvenient.  When your sister attempts to make you mashed potatoes, and they remind you more of white glue than what they were intended to be, just remember to laugh with her (well, not too hard because it hurts) and to encourage her for trying. When I want to get up and do something, but I’m hurting too much, just remember that I’m not the only person in the world who isn’t 100% at that point. Reading Kisses from Katie is great for the American teenager who thinks they are in bad pain. In fact, it’s a great read for any American teenager to read about what is really happening right now and thinking hard about the hardest things that we face. We are living like kings and queens outwardly, and seem to have a mentality that we have life so bad. I would love it if teenagers would read some missionary/martyr books. Help us realize everything we don’t have to face. 

Anyway, I thought I would go ahead and post this to give a review on the whole ordeal, thank you to all of you who have been praying for me!! Lots of Love, Erica