Wisdom Teeth Oh Wisdom Teeth

I've got 4 wisdom teeth. Guess that means I'm smart? Either that or a cash cow for oral surgeons in the Ottawa area.

I'm going under the knife in late February. Gonna get all 4 suckers taken out - in 45 minutes apparently. God speed doctor! I'm actually happy about this 45 minute time frame. Means minimal chances of jaws locking up, etc. I hope it's quick and easy. That it be painless, I can't wish for that. But I think I can take it. What with Advil Hercules Strengths and all - have they not patented those yet? : )

But yeah it'll be good. Since I'm a diabetic I'll be going into the hospital. But that also means that Ontario health pays for it. Not a bad thing.

I'm not looking forward to it, I don't think anyone ever looks forward to surgery. But if you look at the fact that you are on this Earth for up to 100 years, chances are something will go wrong at some point in that amazing body of yours. Colons, cataracts, ulcers, cysts, this and that. A little date with the scalpel never hurt anyone. Or did it? I don't want to hear the bad stories!

No doubt I'm a little anxious about going under general, but it's only for an hour or two. Also, the drugs they use in those anasthesias are apparently much less worrisome than they were 30, 40 years ago. Heck ol' Jean Chretien was put out for 4 hours when he got heart surgery a year or two ago.

I'd be more concerned for people from the Ottawa valley. Many residents in this neck of the woods (my girlfriend included) are suspected to be carrying a gene for Malignant Hyperthermia, MH. MH basically is some sort of immuno reaction to the anaesthetic. The body says, nope don't like this, and for some reason shuts itself down = death. This happened to a distant cousin of my girlfriend's back in '74. As for myself, unless my Quebecois ancestors from around Montreal mixed with the people from the Valley, I should be in the clear. It's a one in a million thing. And no, I'm not going to go on to Google and start reading about bad reactions to anaesthesia. I don't want to know.

I asked the surgeon at my consultation today. What did people do 100 years ago? They must have had wisdom teeth too? Well apparently "their jaws were bigger" - I don't really buy that, humans don't evolve that much in 100 years - that's only like 4 generations. He also said that alot of teeth back then would have simply rotted out and thus there was most likely room for the wisdom teeth. Who knows. All I know is I wish I had only had 2 of them. : )

Alright folks. More on this later. Take 'er easy. Hope your shopping is all done.