The Loss of Teeth & News from Mint-Loving Sydney

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

[18:26pm] Two days later, Collette was able to look back on Monday morning satisfactorily. And, actually, even right after surgery, she had found everything to be quite good. And so to replay:

The day began in a fine manner, even with the sun peering out above the horizon, which was not always an unwelcome thing. For that particular day, Collette was actually pleased to see it. And when Mom, Frances, and Linnea picked her up at 7:40, she was prepared for a day of considerable pain.

Dr. Ivey was in a bank building right on the corner of Mid Rivers Mall Drive and Highway 70. It was in the very same place where she had her two little teeth pulled several years before. And there was something quieting about entering a bank building to have one’s teeth pulled, seeing as the bank was not even open by that time and all was rather quiet.

“Much better than going to the barber like they did in the old days,” Mom said, commenting on the pleasant location. “That’s what they did – cut hair and pulled teeth.”

Upstairs, things moved quickly. While Frances and Linnea unpacked their school bags, Mom and Collette watched a quick film on the potential hazards, side effects, and procedures of the surgery while Mom sipped her mocha. And Collette paid the shallow $127, signed several papers, and chatted with Mom while she found her stomach beginning to turn slightly over the prospects.

However, all the assistants, nurses, and Dr. Ivey himself were very pleasant. Collette had no complaints; they were all very kind. Mom took Collette’s bag and went back into the waiting room with a smile for Collette, while Collette followed the nurse to the surgical room. Much to her pleasure, there was not only one wall of windows, but two. And just beyond them were tree branches with (if Collette was not mistaken) green leaves still shimmering in its boughs in the sunlight.

The nurse attached several monitors after taking off the stick peels, one on her left arm and one on her right, including a clip on her right index finger. Dr. Ivey came in no later than one minute after the nurse went to fetch him while Collette was thinking about how glorious Heaven’s shores would be, should she not make it through the operation, while simultaneously thinking how funny it was to think of such a thing over pulled teeth. And Dr. Ivey sat down, asking her about her degree and her work as he put the IV into her arm. She looked out the window as he did so, answering his questions.

“Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” He asked kindly, looking over his glasses.

“No, not at all,” Collette agreed, feeling no more than a needle prick, “I’ve never had IV before.”

“Ah, so I get to use my new joke,” Dr. Ivey chuckled. “You can always say that you were given your first IV by Dr. Ivey.”

Collette laughed with him.

“Not bad, eh? For an old man anyway,” he laughed at himself as the nurse put an oxygen tube over Collette’s nose.

And that was all she remembered.

At around nine thirty, she awoke and vaguely remembered getting out of the chair and following the nurse to another room, where she was helped into a comfortable leather chair. The nurse had just strapped a harness of ice packs around her head, which felt lovely and cooling, although she could not feel the left side of her face. And Mom was there with Frances and Linnea while the nurse talked with Mom.

Collette saw Frances and Linnea peeking around the corner to watch her. Frances waved to her, but she was too incoherent still to wave back. There was a slight ache in her arm where a cotton ball and bandage was taped over the IV mark. And both sides of her mouth held gauze. After sitting there a few minutes, she recalled somehow thanking the nurse (at least, she thought her thanks, if not aloud) while the nurse was helping her on with her coat. But she did not remember anything about leaving the office or entering the elevator. The walk into the fresh air momentarily revived her as she held on to Mom’s arm, and she felt herself sit down in the front seat of the car. But the drive home, she remembered not a thing – only getting out of the car and pushing open the garage door, thinking of how Carrie, Joe, and Rose would all be waiting around to see how their sister might look after having spent too much time at an Irish pub.

And true to her expectations, she was greeted with a roar of laugher from all three, waiting in the living room. Joe already had his camera trained on her. She walked back to take a look in the mirror, surprised that her face was hardly swelled. Mom took her coat and she somehow managed to get onto the couch. Time left her for a short spell, and she gathered her bearings. She lay down for a few minutes. She heard several beeps of Frances’ camera and giggles as she lay on the couch with her eyes closed, not bothering to open them. She knew the pictures and film would be passed around to friends later, and she was not surprised.

But within a short spell, as Mom took off to get her pain reliever from the pharmacy and a chocolate milkshake from McDonald’s (a free coupon from the office), she got up and walked around. She graded Joe’s and Rose’s math homework from the week before and handed out new class assignments. She took some arnica and Mom soon returned after the dog had thrown up all over the living room rug and Joe had rolled it up, taken it outside to wash with the rubber liner and had vacuumed and mopped the floor.

After the left side of her jaw began to ache, she switched ice packs, read her Bible, and dozed off for about half an hour. And upon waking, she had an especially beautiful peace come over her, just a lovely content.

Meanwhile, she asked Carrie-Bri about the concert she had attended at the Creepy Crawl the night before. Apparently all had gone well. Crystabelle and Perchik were there with the other two dudes who played in the band (one being named Arnold, a 22 year-old) and the name of the band being “Hand in Heart.” Paige Popp and Elizabeth had also been there. And apparently, while they were eating dinner at a restaurant that evening, Arnold, upon seeing a picture of a salt shaker taken while the camera had blurred past, had said,

“Dude, that looks like a ghost salt shaker. I am so freaked out right now.”

Of course, Collette was still rather groggy, and likely lost most of the retelling of the story due to her lack of coherence. But there was also news about Crystabelle’s brother, Giuseppe, who also had a slight form of Krone’s disease. And Crystabelle now had thirty piano students. Apparently, to top it all off, she had grown into an especially kind person since Carrie had seen her last, which of course, sounded like a rather rude thing to say. But people changed after marriage and after disease and illness, such things. It brought one’s Christian life into a better perspective.

And so there were vacation films to watch the rest of the day – of riding the carousel in Michigan, Carrie digging huge hearts in the sand of “I love Jesse” (a character from “Diagnosis Murder”) and “I love George” (on whom she had the greatest crush, and still did to some degree, ten years later). And the outfits they wore really were horrendous in the late 90’s on film. Atrocious khaki overalls, striped sleeves, tiny silver hoop earrings, and flops of greasy bangs… Yes, the good old days.

Collette found that as the day wore on, she began feeling nauseous upon rising from the couch and walking around, attributing it to the pain killer. But she managed to down some iron when she felt her lower left arm become numb, interspacing the day with water, arnica, pain killer, ice packs, and 1/3 of a chocolate shake. OLeif brought her another that evening which contributed to that 1/3 of shake. And there was a cup of ham and bean broth which Carrie strained for her before she fell asleep and after Elizabeth had left for the evening. OLeif stayed a spell before leaving himself, as Collette would spend the night. He drove up to Walgreen’s with Joe to get Collette a tooth brush and returned it with Joe before he headed back to the apartment. He would have to leave too early for work for him to stay with Collette. But Mom and Carrie both slept on the floor in the living room with Collette during the night and they chatted some together. Mom woke Collette every two hours for more pain killer and ice packs – talk about loyal family members. And she awoke soundly rested the next morning to a breakfast of scrambled eggs, peanut butter, and a little raspberry yogurt.

Mom was planning to head to a ladies’ tea party for the home school women that evening, and gave Rose permission to have her own tea party with Frances and Linnea while she was gone. (Instead, they laughed their guts out over old home videos). But, anticipating another Rose Tea Party, Frances exclaimed:

“We’ll have a mashed potato party!”

“And we’ll leave more markings on the wall,” Linnea giggled. “Frances! We’ll have to do more of our tea party warm-up exercises!”

And all three began singing the Mashed Potatoes song, introduced to them by OLeif.

Later, everyone got about their work while Linnea brought in a bowl of cream of wheat and prayed over it for awhile on the coffee table before digging in.

And there was news of Dad that day. He had, indeed, enjoyed his visit with the Mosses. He would also be spending Friday evening with them, once again. And he was mighty impressed with the friendliness and hospitality of the Australian people. They also loved to put mint on everything – on his lamb at the Mosses along with sour cream on his potato, mint on his steak at dinner. He also met up with Judah for lunch, where he had an avocado chicken sandwich. Judah’s apartment was 2/3 the size of OLeif’s and Collette’s own abode. And the cost was $140 per week, apiece, for all four guys living there. Sydney real estate was enormous in cost. He took the train to work and there were Gatorade-like drinks and scones for breakfasts. Collette couldn’t wait to hear more upon his arrival back in the States Saturday night.

Tuesday night also saw Linnea loose her second top front tooth. She was pretty disappointed to have it come out before Dad arrived home, as he loved pulling their teeth – a dad’s pastime. However, she was still happy because:

“Now I can really sing, ‘All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!’” She grinned.