Out of Here

This summer the dentist informed us that Cal would need his wisdom teeth out.  I was a little surprised by the news as he has never complained about them.  They said he would need them out soon, but it was not an emergency.  Their thought was that we could do it over Christmas break.  Cal was sceptical about it.  Since they didn't bother him he felt that they could stay in.  I was more worried about when we could schedule it and how much recovery it would take.  Since Cal participates in three sports it is challenging to schedule dentist and doctor appointments.  We knew Christmas break would never work if he played basketball and fall break is football sectionals and he will want to be at that.  

Thus, we decided today was the day.  Cal was in between sports, the football game was in Elkhart, and he would have enough time to recover before basketball practice officially started.  Cal didn't want to miss strength training so I chose the 10:15 a.m. slot.  He couldn't eat or drink after midnight, but he doesn't do much of either in the morning, so that didn't worry me.  Everything was set until last night.  I started having second thoughts - "maybe he will be out longer than the three days they said, maybe he would have an adverse reaction to the anesthesia, maybe I should wait until summer to have him do it . . . "  Doug talked me out of being anxious and rescheduling, so Cal, my Mom and I were at the oral surgeon's at 10:15 this morning as planned.

I had to sign a lot of paperwork and they had to check his blood pressure and fill out a health survey with him.  My favorite was when the nurse asked him if he smoked.  He said, "Yes!" in a dead serious voice.  The procedure went very well and within 20 minutes they had called us back to the recovery room.  The teeth were impacted, so I am glad that I didn't change his appointment.  They needed to come out and would have only gotten worse.  When we saw Cal he had ice packs on his cheeks and wasn't wanting to wake up.  We kept talking to him and within fifteen minutes he was sitting up ready to go.  

I was impressed with how well he did, but I guess it doesn't surprise me.  He is used to doctors, surgeries, injuries and pain.  It didn't really slow him down much.  The worst part for him was the gauze that we kept having to change.  Once that was over he was more than ready to move on to the next activity on his agenda.  The doctor said no to going back to school, but he said if he felt like it Cal could go the football game tonight if he didn't drive.  I wonder if when the doctor said that he figured there was no way Cal would want to go, but of course he did.  I decided not to worry about him.  I gave him all of the instructions for what he could and could not do.  I know he doesn't want to go back and will follow the instructions.  

Thus, Doug took him to Jeremy's at 6 p.m. for the hour drive.  He had just taken pain medication and took Ibuprofen for when it wore off.  According to everyone who saw him at the game you would have never know that he had surgery earlier in that day.  Cal lead the cheer block and looked like he always does at the games - full of school spirit.  He said his mouth was sore when he got back, but not enough to slow him down.  Cal is definitely one of the toughest people I know.  He gets it honestly as Doug is tough as nails.  It takes a lot to knock them down, but very little keeps them down.  It is a great trait to have.