Ha Ha

As of about three this afternoon, I no longer have wisdom teeth. A few reflections:

Nitrous Oxide: Ug. no euphoria, just a sense of things being distant and muted, and of feeling lethargic. I was telling this to my mom, who then told me nitrous oxide belonged to the “dissociative” class of drugs. Appropriate. It’s there along with ketamine. Wow, lots of fun. The whole experience only reinforced the whole “it’s hip to be drug free” mentality in my mind. I felt like I could still think pretty clearly during what I was awake for. I think. I really don’t like the idea of being separated from yourself. I wouldn’t want to ever intentionally mute how I think or, well, just my sense of being me.

One of my biggest fears about this whole thing was saying stupid things under anesthesia. When I woke up, I wanted to ask the nurse if I had said anything. I also wanted to ask how long I had been out. I went with the latter first. My mouth was numbed and stuffed full of gauze, so after a few moments of concentration of yes, I am thinking clearly, and then of a few silent practice runs of forming words with a mouth that wouldn’t move, I came out with, “Howlonaibo?”

“Yes, it went just fine, dear,” said the nurse kindly. She must go home with a lot of funny stories.