Fear of the Unknown

I've been away from Blogger for a few days, and tried to turn my lack of inspiration into perspiration. I did get a lot done, and I'll share a few of my accomplishments next week. Part the lack of inspiration may have stemmed from my mind dwelling on my upcoming oral surgery, which I had this morning.


I realized something about myself. I deal with adversity very well. I can overcome problems, withstand pain and when there's a battle, I'll form a detailed battle plan. What I don't deal with very well is uncertainty. It's best for me to get unpleasantness done and out of the way rather than postpone it, because I can work myself up into a real tizzy imagining and wondering. This surgery is a perfect example.


I've had surgery twice in my life, both of which had unpleasant side effects unrelated to the cause of the surgery. I had my impacted wisdom teeth extracted which resulted in nerve damage. The right side of my tongue was numb for about six months. I also had a c-section. I had an allergy to the adhesive on the bandage which left painful burns. I spent a fair amount of my first week at home with frozen peas in my pants to numb the pain. The incision itself wasn't painful much at all, and all I took was ibuprofen.

So these experiences left me a little apprehensive about surgery. I had an 8mm lump on the roof of my mouth on the border of the hard and soft palate. My dentist wanted me to see an oral surgeon, who ultimately thought it should come off even though it didn't look like a scary kind of lump. "Even though it doesn't bother me?" I asked incredulously. He sagely stated," High blood pressure doesn't bother anyone until they have a stroke, and then it's a little late." It's hard to argue with that kind of reasoning, and Sweetie backed him up with, "At our age, we have to get these kinds of things taken care of." (I hate being at the age, where you can use the phrase "at our age".)

I wasn't worried about the pain, I can take it. I didn't like the idea of a "mush and gruel" menu for a few days, but hey, maybe I'll lose weight. What nagged my brain was what else might happen... something that I might night be prepared for.

So far, all seems normal. The surgery was done before I knew he started. Putting the stitches in made me gag, but he told me I was a great patient. I get to eat all the popsicles I want, because the cold is good for pain and swelling. I've already had eight. The novocain wore off a couple of hours ago, and now it feels now it feel like I burned the roof of my mouth on really hot pizza. The stitches feel like I have a dog hair in my throat. Could it be possible that I just had pleasant surgery? (I'll be back on Monday.)