A Foolish Thought

On Wednesday morning at 10:45am, I headed to the office of Dr Crossin to get my wisdom teeth extracted. This simple surgery that normally lasts 20-30 minutes took 2 hours to complete because God decided to make my wisdom teeth very difficult to remove (the fact that I'm 24 just now having them extracted didn't help matters). As I was gently guided to the car by wonderful brother people's comments of, "you'll be better a couple of days" played through my head.

So I parked myself in a recliner at my parent's house and didn't move for 2 days (except to use the bathroom). Some of you may think I'm joking, but I'm not. I quite literally stayed put in that recliner for 2 days while my family (namely my mother) played nurse, I'm spoiled, I know.

It's early Sunday morning and I've progressed from the recliner to the couch =). Those hopeful remarks of, "you'll feel better after 48 hours" have faded as I cross off one more night of sleeping with my head at a 45 degree angle above my heart.

Okay, onto the story. See, my mom had been the one who kept me on track on when to take the pain medication and when to take the antibiotics, including in the middle of the night (I have an INCREDIBLE mom). However, since I had progressed to the couch, I also thought this meant I could wake myself up for my medication. A couple of things you need to know about me for this to be important

1. I don't really like medicine all that much, in fact, if I can avoid taking medicine, I will.
   
2. I think I have this inner need to be independent and often a "I can do it on my own" mentality.
   
3. God likes to remind me that I can't do it all on my own and need others...hopefully the lesson will stick this time.

After deciding my mom should sleep through the night, I got comfortable on the couch (head at a 45 degree angle), set my alarm and went to sleep. However, when my alarm went off this morning indicating the time to take my pain medication I thought, "I'm not in pain yet, I bet I can go another couple of hours." I know, I'm a foolish girl!! As I'm sure you're already guessing, I woke up in pain. In fact, I didn't know my jaw was capable of causing such severe pain.

Here's what I learned:

• I make a very bad patient/nurse combination
• I'm VERY thankful for my family's care, especially my mom's
• Though my body would eventually heal itself without the pain medication, the meds help the process be much more enjoyable
• I can't do it on my own and I need others help.

My alarm's set again for my next dose of pain meds, I don't think I'll be skipping out =)