Wisdom

"How are you?"

How I learned to love that question. 
I mean, what does it look like? I am pressing an ice bag against my swollen cheek, I look like a hamster and cannot talk.
"Fine, thanks?" Hm.

I had the incredible luck to inherit my mother's impacted wisdom tooth. Looked like the one on the x-ray up there.

Alright, it was not as bad as I had imagined it and it took them only half an hour to get the thing out, but... that was Friday morning. A jaw which doesn't hurt every time I move it would be quite nice around now.

But then, that didn't come as a shock, I knew what was going to happen, and my incredibly nice oral surgeon told me exactly what he was going to do beforehand as well.
Which was oh so very reassuring. Well, he really thought it was. Maybe it's me, and everybody else would have been emboldened by his kind words:
Dr. Bock was standing above me, scalpel casually raised and told me in a friendly voice:

"Look, don't worry - we are going to cut open your cheek, then I will grind away a part of your bone to be able to access your molar directly, then I will bore it into three pieces which I will extract seperately. Oh - and after that, we're only going to sew the wound. That's all. Ready?"

Yeah, sure, go ahead. 
His assistant then drilled a syringe into my jaw, and five minutes later he did what he had described.

Alright, it was over really soon, and I was allowed to escape with a monstrously swollen cheek, an ice bag and three swabs in my mouth.
Alright, I WAS lucky - luckier than all other members of my family who had four molars and had to have all four removed subsequently, but but but... It was not nice all the same. I really loathe all dentists, oral surgeons, orthodontists and other remnants of the inquisition.
Alright. Will stop whining now. I'm really lucky I had only one, after all.

Granny had to have hers removed during WWII, around Christmas, two days before her marriage. Her sensitive, loving husband only looked her up and down and said:
"Oh, don't worry about the cheek. You can stuff a few sweets into the other - then both will look just the same."

Cool map thing

I've visited the counties in yellow. Which counties have you visited? made by marnanel map reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of the Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright 2001.