Today was a day like any other. I woke up. I didn't take a drink of water. I got onto the toilet, and did the normal morning routine - except it wasn't a normal routine.
I jumped into a ride share service vehicle, with 219,000+ KM on the clock, and a defective seatbelt which wouldn't retract. I didn't die on the way to the hospital, and I didn't die during the surgery that removed my left wisdom teeth. The right descended perfectly, and didn't need intervention, thankfully.
I made what I thought was a funny joke to the man with the blowdart who was meant to be put me to sleep for the surgery "How often does a plane crash?" - he spoiled the joke by immediately responding "Once".
I got a cannula put in my left arm, got told to breathe in a mask, and was told goodnight. Sometime later, which was probably just a moment as far as my cognitive load was concerned, I opened my eyes and was breathing through an oxygen mask; with some gauze in my mouth.
I felt like I wanted to give everyone in the area a hug, but I feel about as numb now as I did in those moments, and that urge to hug everyone in sight has certainly subsided, replaced with a forceful, upwards ache in my left mouth, which is swelling slightly.
I've eaten - if you can call it that, two icey poles, lemonade flavoured, a small thingy of custard, and about a further 600-900 calories of frozen fruit juice. I also got given what I've dubbed to be an "ice hijab", which I can wrap around my face in order to use as make shift pain relief. Right now, it feels foolish to use that, given the temperature of the house is in the neighbourhood of the low double digits.
That's probably helpful.
I've been given painkillers and antibiotics, and one of them I must use every 6 hours (I don't want an infected face, blood stream, or mouth!) - and the other is on an as required basis. I haven't taken any pain relief since I left the hospital, because really, it isn't that bad - and eating frozen fruit juice tends to numb the site enough for me to not care.
I'll probably take some painkiller before bed so that I can get some sleep. Lucky it also causes drowsiness and is labelled as a "controlled drug".
Look at me, I'm rambling all these words while fading in and out of post-anaesthesia day dreams.
I had a vasovagel incident as the nurse was supplying discharge instructions, and I got the pleasure of being surrounded by several helpful and concerned nurses all at once. At least I knew what it was, and told them before it happened, so it could be dealt with in a matter of seconds. It was. I came to, a bit sweaty, with seconds having passed.
I'm fine now, other than the throbbing pain in my face.
I have delegated some HP to @rickonthemoun10 for the time that I will take to recover, and I've also delegated some HP to @strega.azure who is one of the finest users on this platform.
Enjoy your ability to reward authors with reckless abandon until I feel up for manual curation once more.
In the interim here is a shitty selfie. My hair is outstandingly messy. Note the slight swelling on the left hand side of the image.