Kat’s Pause 

Yesterday my sister helped me hobble down to the dentist’s office for an emergency visit. Nothing dramatic happened, we were just following the instructions to contact them if the pain and swelling didn’t decrease after x amount of days and they said to come in. Turns out all that stuff doesn’t really apply to me — something about the position of my upper wisdom teeth being extra-bad. Thanks once again, body. Sure this won’t be the last time.

They gave me some antibiotics (finally) and stronger painkillers as well as a note excusing me from work for a good while. Hopefully it’ll be long enough. My family tells me I’m doing better and I’ve decided to believe them.

Later that night, my other sister registered me for some courses at Mac because apparently it closed at midnight. She struggled through the system and I struggled through my confusion and now I am mostly registered. Finishing that is one of those things that I’m just going to have to worry about later (again). My brain is too busy dealing with pain and drug-induced stupidity right now.

This has been the worst day of my life.

In between vomiting, confusion and hysteria, there is constant constant constant pain. I can’t wait another two hours to take more Tylenol. I just can’t. But I have to. And I have to stay awake until then because I can’t sleep, but if I do fall asleep I’ll wake up to so much more pain.

It took a call to the pharmacist to convince my mom that I would survive some Gravol on top of all my prescriptions. Since taking that this afternoon, I have not thrown up, which has been very nice.

They want me to work tomorrow.

Hahahahaha.

More pain today and a lot more swelling. They say I probably won’t start to feel better until the fourth day. Joy.

The surgery went very well, with not a lot of post-op bleeding, so I got to take the gauze out as soon as I got home. Always nice.

I arrived a bit early, as they advised, and after waiting a short while I was directed downstairs and told to gargle with what tasted like regular ol’ mouthwash. After that I lay in the familiar Dentist Chair while three people (the surgeon and two nurses) bustled around me, sticking on this and strapping on that and finally injecting me with three syringes of what I assume was anaesthetic, because the next thing I remember is waking up with a mouth full of gauze.

The nurses were surprised by how alert I was when I woke up — the first thing I did was sit up and send a (coherent) text message to Ren. A little while later I got up and walked out with minimal help. The downside to that speedy return to consciousness was a moderate amount of pain from the anaesthetic wearing off. But my father got me my T3s from the nearest pharmacy and the pain was reduced to merely annoying, which is how it’s stayed all day.

A numb tongue and lower lip meant I communicated with my dad via paper and pen for a while. Unfortunately this meant I couldn’t ask the nurses if I’d said anything funny while I was on drugs. Perhaps it’s better this way.

My father was going to pick up my mom from work so that she could stay with me because he had to go back to his shortstaffed office, but I was feeling a bit nauseated so he took me straight home. She joined me there about an hour later. Thankfully the nausea passed quickly and I’ve had a good appetite all day, though opening my mouth hurts, as does talking, touching my cheeks, and sitting and doing nothing. I’m rather swollen, which I hope won’t get too much worse so that I don’t scare the customers away at work Sunday. I figure if worse comes to worse, I can always wear a scarf.

Thus far I have received several excellent and wonderful gifts: Zelda: Twilight Princess and a wireless guitar for GH2, as well as a guilt-inducingly large sum of money from my grandparents. I was antisocial this year and didn’t have a friends-party, so I didn’t maximize my potential earnings, but I had a lovely birthday regardless, and, come on, ZELDA. ZELDA ZELDA ZELDA.

I’m only allowed to eat for another 10 minutes. Tomorrow it’s fare-thee-well to my wisdom teeth.

Give me presents and alcohol.

The drugs didn’t work. I was up for about 3 hours after taking them and woke up for work feeling even more like a zombie than before. Last night I didn’t bother taking one I and managed to sleep for about 10 hours with only one interruption from my kitty. WTF, body? Why do you hate me? Can’t you just cooperate with the nice doctor?

After many failed attempts including an in-person visit to the Registrar’s Office (the system was down), I’m finally able to register for my courses. Tuition was due last week. Thanks, McMaster, I can see just how much you value my place in your institution.

I cancelled my WoW subscription. I can play until September 8, just in time to go back to school. Kattryn hit 38 today and will have enough gold for a mount when my current AH stuff sells.

Have I mentioned yet that I’m getting my wisdom teeth out on the 23rd? All four of them. Should be a blast. I get three days off work, then I’m scheduled to do a 6-hour shift alone — no break. Yes, that is illegal, and no, I don’t think anyone cares, least of all Mariposa.

The nice doctor gave me a prescription for a tranquilizer to help me sleep — same family of drugs as Valium. Kinda scary, but I’ve had enough of insomnia, and to be honest I hate drugs much less now that they’ve drastically improved my existence.

I’m also upping my dosage of Cipralex, just a little bit, because lately I’ve been feeling down every night and given the complete lack of side effects I’ve experienced so far, I think it’ll be alright. The higher dosage should help with anxiety too, which is always nice. Mine seems to be rather stubborn.

This one right here, by Jeff Jacques.

Going to see the shrink again Thursday. He said before that the medication I’m on might help with some of my OCD symptoms. It has not, but they aren’t a huge problem.

You won’t get the best of me, mailboxes.

Day off, wooo. I wasted enough time yesterday playing WoW that doing so today would feel like an overdose. So I played some Wii Sports and gave my sister a birthday list for when I turn alcohol-legal next week. Said list includes Zelda: Twilight Princess, an alarm clock that works, rollerblades, and true love.

I really didn’t know what to ask for this year. Being employed means I’m capable of making many purchases now, and rather than becoming a ravenous material monster, I find myself pretty content with my current possessions. Particularly after buying a Wii. The things I DO want are far too expensive to seriously request — a camera, a laptop, two more complete Wii controllers, my own apartment. (I miss my independence.) Maybe I should just ask for deposits into my ING savings account. Interest makes me giddy.

In other news, New Girl got fired. I hate my job significantly less now.

Today I encountered my very first traffic light. I bowed down to its awesome red power.

(Speaking of red… I tried something different.)

I am becoming versed in the fine art of stopping — I always stop too short and then have to creep a long way out into traffic in order to see. Then when I try to compensate, whoops, I’m halfway out into the road and my dad is calmly telling me to what degree we would resemble mashed potatoes if a car had come.

I understand that that degree is high.

I took some silly pictures just for fun.

All day long I’ve felt close to tears, and I couldn’t figure out why. Then I remembered I missed taking my happy pill yesterday. D’oh.

Last night I saw Muse in concert, an event that can best be described as wicked awesome. Much excitement was had, much jumping was done, many horns were thrown up. They played all my favourite songs, including the beloved “Unintended,” during which I was about 10 feet from Matt Bellamy. It was an incredible experience. He is now my hero.

They opened with “Knights of Cydonia” and got off to an exciting start. The a cappella middle section was everything I’d hoped it would be. The biggest surprise of the night for me was “Invincible.” I never much enjoyed that song, but it’s a hundred times better live, especially with swaying lighters and a passionate crowd. Half the time I could barely hear Matt above their voices. Something like “Starlight” you expect to be wonderful, and it was, but “Invincible” was a really nice bonus. Also excellent were “Plug In Baby,” “Sunburn,” “Stockholm Syndrome” and “Time is Running Out,” along with (of course) everything from the latest album. I didn’t expect to hear “Feeling Good,” so that was another great surprise.

I put my germophobia aside for the night: we left the hall soaked to our bones in our own and others’ sweat, which was disgusting but well worth it. I’m not as sore today as I’d feared, just a little bruised — again, well worth it.

Notes for the next concert:
- wear a lot less clothing to reduce that being-cooked-in-an-oven feeling (jeans = NO)
- wear high heels to spare neck from excess craning
- do not carry ANYTHING if it can be at all helped. No purse for all those little luxuries, no sweater in case it gets cold.
- be prepared to spend a fortune on bottled water to follow the above advice

I have a new boyfriend, Ben. He was my very first love; I was hung up on him for a few years back in high school. Then not long ago, he instant messaged me out of the blue and we started hanging out. We went about the relationship sort of backwards but we’re in a good place now.

By the way, I didn’t end up submitting a short story to the contest. Looks like my last year as a participant will be a quiet one.