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From Hank Zill, Assistant System Administrator:

OK, with less than 53 weeks in a year, and more than 53 employees, each employee gets to write less than one Letter From Tripod a year. So what's the chance that mine would be scheduled for perhaps that most eventful week I've had all summer? Beats me. And even though I got to go to two concerts (Tori Amos in Boston and Gravity Kills in Northampton) and won a disposable camera at the Lycos Fiscal Year '99 Kickoff by staying awake during the BisDev talk, I'm not going to write about all that. Instead, I'm going to tell you about the least fun thing that happened this week, my wisdom teeth extraction.

Actually, I'd already had two of the four removed in March, so I knew what to expect. I knew it wasn't going to be fun. But it's something you gotta do, right? So anyway, here's the play-by-play:

08:00 Wake up, have some breakfast and a pain-killer so that it will be in effect during the extraction and afterwards

09:00 Show up at Dr. Klemm's office, which is right next door to my house.

09:15 See the Dr. After some discussion we decide that one of the teeth is lodged in really tight so we're just going to leave that since it's not causing any problems. "Fine with me," I say.

09:30 I accept the offer of Nitrous Oxide to help me relax while the local anesthetic is administered. I hate shots, but nitrous is wonderful stuff so I don't mind so much. I get three shots, two in the back of my mouth, and one in the roof. That's the only one that really hurts.

09:35 The nitrous is removed and I slip on my headphones while the Dr. goes to work. I can't feel a thing, but I can hear the drilling, feel the grinding and smell something that's much like burnt rubber, but not. After some drilling, he reaches in with the pliers and pulls out the tooth.

09:42 Since I've now got a gaping hole in my mouth, the Dr. starts stitching. This actually takes longer than the extraction and hurts a bit more since I have to open my mouth wider and I'm getting tired and occasionally my tongue gets poked by the stitching needle, but eventually it's all over and the nurse starts wiping the blood off my face and I sit up.

10:00 After scheduling the appointment to have the stitches removed I walk back home holding an ice pack on my face. I fully expect to be in great pain for the next few weeks, but luckily I have a perscription for some strong pain killers and so I think I'll be ok.

I spent the rest of the day in bed, but by Saturday I was OK, and I haven't taken a pain killer in 36 hours; I think this time I got off lucky. I just hope that last remaining tooth doesn't start acting up.

So that's that. Those of you who have already experienced this probably think I got off easy, and you're right, so I'm not going to complain. I'm just glad it's over with.

—Hank
Assistant System Administrator
Tripod, Inc.
(8/14/98)

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Read more "Letters from Tripod" in the archive.