Finding Tatum’s Purpose: Wisdom Teeth

Everyone has seen a funny wisdom teeth removal video at some point in their life. It usually consists of a person with a very swollen face jabbering on about things that make no sense to anyone.

My wisdom teeth experience, however, was not like the videos.

I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed. Going into the surgery, I was nervous. I had never had any sort of surgery before and had never been put under anesthesia. That fact alone made me extremely worried for my wisdom teeth surgery. For those of you who don’t know, I tend to overthink things, so I had all of these fears running through my mind days before the surgery even took place.

Soon after that the surgeon came back, I said my goodbye to my mom, and they brought me into the operation room. By this time, I hadn’t fallen asleep yet, and I saw all of the big lights and the table so I started to get nervous. They helped me move from the bed onto the table and gave me blankets so I wouldn’t be cold. The anesthesiologist then sprayed something in my nose to clear my airway, and after that, the next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room.

As soon as I woke up, I knew that none of the funny stuff that happens to other people after wisdom teeth removal would happen to me because I instantly knew where I was and what happened. My mouth didn’t hurt when I woke up – instead I couldn’t feel it at all. My entire jaw was numb.

The healing process takes quite a while, and it is pretty painful. I spent the next week lying on the couch, watching movies, and drinking all of my food. I’m very proud of myself because I got through something that terrified me without having a panic attack!

Keep up with my summer and the rest of my GCU experience on the GCU Blogs Network and GCU YouTube channel.