Wisdom Teeth

This past Thursday, I got my wisdom teeth taken out. A little recounting for ya’ll:

A couple of weeks ago I was told that I would need to get my impacted wisdom teeth taken out since they were messing with the newly acquired straightness of my teeth. This straightness was gotten only through hundreds of dollars and a few years of braces, so my parents were all too hasty to sign the papers to get the teeth taken out. When they told me that I was getting them taken out, I wasn’t too concerned. Figured a little numbing and some funny times were ahead. But then they told me it was an actual surgery. I’m sure all of you know that I want to go to med school and maybe pursue a surgeon’s career, but when they said I needed surgery, I sort of freaked out. A lot. I’m a bad liar and everyone could tell that I was a bit nervous for what was to happen.

So Thursday finally rolled around and I was ready. I felt starving because you aren’t allowed to eat 6 hours before the surgery. Of course, I didn’t eat for longer than that because if I did that I would have to eat at like 4 in the morning, and I was not prepared to sacrifice sleep time. So I had a Last Supper of sorts at Buffalo Wild Wings with some friends, leaving 16 hours before surgery time. I’m an American and eat pretty much every 4 hours with my pampered lifestyle. 16 hours felt like a century.  Waiting in the waiting room my tummy growled and my lips were begging for water. 

But most of all I was nervous. I kept worrying that I would not go under after the medicine. That somehow I would feel the surgery itself.

Finally, I was called back. The nurse went through a checklist of things to put on me: Blood pressure cuff, heart rate monitors, oxygen monitor, and an IV. The heart rate monitor was at a standard 70; not too bad for someone as nervous as I was. The blood pressure cuff would go off every four minutes. The lady exclaimed how wonderful my blood pressure was, that maybe I wasn’t too nervous or something. Little did she know that I have notoriously low blood pressure, so my mother and I shared a little private laugh.

Then the doctor came in. Heart rate came up to 80. The doctor started giving a spiel over what was going to happen.  Heart rate came up to 90. Doctor pulled out the needle and put the stuff in the IV. Heart rate was above 100. All I remember is waiting 30 seconds and exclaiming that the stuff works fast, but apparently my heart rate kept going up to 120. I don’t remember anything after this, but apparently the doctor felt the need to give me another dose of the stuff to knock you out. He said it was the equivalent to an elephant tranquilizer. As a 135 pound teenage girl, this definitely made me stay out for ever. I don’t remember even leaving the building, but my mum claims that they threw me in a wheelchair and just kind of kicked me out as soon as they could. I wasn’t even awake and functioning.

I do remember waking up a few times the day of the surgery though, but every time I did I thought I could walk and ended up falling down. I had to be carried pretty much everywhere and was force fed. I tried refusing medicine and food but my mother, stern as ever, was not going to stray from doctors orders in the least. I slept pretty much all day and ate icecream. Sounds like the life, huh? My mother said I looked like a drunk girl who was too disoriented to even realize she had just puked in her own hair. I was pretty out of it. I had the best medicine in the world though, including Ibuprofen 800 (prescription strength), Penicillin, an acidic mouthwash, and Vicodin.

Vicodin is by far the strongest, and whenever I take it I get tipsy and say pretty much everything that comes to mind. My boyfriend drove me to the movie store and the people there definitely believed I was inebriated. Finally off of Vicodin (hopefully for good), though still faithfully taking all other medications, I am fully functioning and just fine now. This is obviously the first “dramatic” thing that has happened to me, and I felt the story had to be shared, if not to assure others that have to have Oral Surgery that it is very mild. Just make sure to allot yourself enough recovery time.  I live a very charmed life, and please do not think I’m a drama queen by my retelling. I do like to add a bit of spice to my stories.

 Sincerely Sydney

sxephil is the best way to get news

I am not quite sure if you guys are familiar with a youtuber called sxephil. He does the Phillip DeFranco show, which is just him giving you about 10 minutes of news two times a week. It is very popular, funny, and overall a great way to get exposed to what is out there. I highly recommend it, as it, along with the Daily Show, is the way I generally get introduced to the topics I write about. Otherwise I am writing about things that have been happening in my own private life. The show that I am posting here is just his Thursday show, talks about some interesting things to give you a preview of what they are like. Usually there are a few questionable stories, so warning: these stories may be pg-13. But if you ask me, almost all news these days is pg-13, since I would not want my 7 year old brother knowing about shootings or famines. He also focuses a handful of stories on the positive, giving me a nice refresher from NBC or ABC or any other source I use. The titles of his shows are dirty to attract young viewers, the content isn’t all bad. Just watch :)

Sincerely Sydney

Finals Week

Finals week has come again. As high school students on a trimester schedule, there are three times a year that we all feel so overwhelmed with school that our stress levels are at a dangerous high. We all lock ourselves in the house, pull all-nighters, and try to learn chapters of material in one night. Not that we are all exactly alike. Some are stress eaters while other s turn anorexic.  Some exercise, socialize, and work while others completely shut down every part of their lives besides school.  Some study while others just try to finish up late work and final projects. In the end though, all high schoolers are at the same minimal level of tolerance at the same time.

Many teachers also do not announce final projects until that last weekend before finals. No room to have plans or actually study when you are trying to pull together last second speeches and portfolios. Not that is totally our teachers fault for the all-night cramming; we students do love to procrastinate. Yes, I know I have known what my final is going to be all trimester for German, but in  the beginning of the trimester you don’t really think that a class can go by so fast.

Nevertheless, time for some sweatpants and 1am flashcard runs. Thankgoodness I live near a Wal-Mart.

Sincerely Sydney

We are Young.

I know these past few weeks have been posts about my fears of the future. But in the end, all I need to remember that I am still young.

Sincerely Sydney

Wishing

11:11! Whenever I see that on my clock I feel like my body subconsciously knew I needed a wish. Sometimes you just need a wish. I know I am a very blessed girl. My house accommodates my needs. My family is loving, supportive, and shows me just what unconditional love means. My boyfriend is probably one of the better men in this world and makes me very happy. I have the best friends; the kind who go to lifting with me even when they don’t have time or drive me to the City employment office so I can become a lifeguard over the summer. I have every material object I need to live a happy life, and I have the emotional support needed for me to grow into a woman who makes a difference. So before I start my wishing talk, I want all of you to know that I am aware I have more than most and that I am truly grateful for all I have.

But something is just fun about wishing! About deciding what you want and feeling like somehow it just HAS to come true.  I pray before I go to sleep and “wish I may… wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight” my way through the stars in the sky until I’m too exhausted to wish any longer. I wish for little things, like a new bow for my hair or a chance to go to Orange Leaf with friends over the weekend. I wish for bigger things, like permission to go on a ski trip my friends have been planning for a while or a pretty necklace from my boyfriend for my birthday.  I wish for grand things, like to have a clue about where I want to go to college or to be able to be enlightened about how I can best serve the human race. I wish for everything and anything, material and non-.

Someday I hope that I can get a clue where all these wishes have gone. A lot of the time they come true surprisingly, but that may just be through my very persuasive ways and won’t-take-no-for-an-answer-demeanor. But even if that is the case, and wishes don’t come true by some magical force or fairy godmother, I still believe wishing holds some very serious value. It is kind of like a blog-diary, only purely in your head. You can ask for anything you want and just put it out there for the world to know you want it. It is a goal for you. Maybe it helps show you that you need to build up some good karma to get all those wishes to come true. After all, don’t good things happen to good people? Put good out in the world and you will receive good in return? The Secret ™?  I don’t know if it all quite works that way, but it would sure be nice if it did. Good is a bit vague though. Too bad all those who prophesize about how to have a great life didn’t bother to tell us just what “good” is and how we should go about it. Minor flaw, but hopefully someday someone will figure it out. And if they do, how happy I will be.  I have quite a few wishes going out on those stars and I need a little good karma to get the wish granting process a flowing.

Any thoughts on good out there? Please feel free to share.

Sincerely Sydney

"Active" Video Games

Working Out?

I’m not so sure that I am buying into the whole active video game idea. The American fixation on getting kids excited to do cardiovascular activities to combat childhood obesity is a fantastic one. But promoting indoor gaming as a way to get that done seems like a ridiculous way to get at the root of the problem. Which is that kids are no longer playing creatively, make believing, like they used to. I remember riding my scooter up and down the block like there was no tomorrow when I was young, pretending I was driving a car and that I was trying to get home from work. I would play house until the sun went down, and even then we would just say we were pausing the game. Kick the can and flashlight tag were standards, even on snowy days because then you could tackle the kids as they ran since there was an assurance of a cushy landing. I would sled almost every day in the winter and go to the public pool ever day in the summer. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t occasionally stay inside all day and watch television, but I wouldn’t do it consecutively. And my dad says I was even worse than he was! He says his parents pushed him out the door at breakfast with some sunscreen and told him to only come back for meals. He was not allowed to be in the house, especially during summer time. He and his friends would play army and ninja and who knows what else, always pretending to be something new.

But eventually we outgrow it. We become people who need constant stimulation, with games set up for us and movie nights galore. I don’t hang out with my friends and say, “let’s play house!”.  It seems childish and I don’t know if I would even find any enjoyment out of it. I’d probably something about how it is a waste of my time because it is not real, not something that will help me in the real world. But that is the thing: maybe it would. Who knows what the average human could accomplish if they let themselves play make-believe every once in a while. Get an idea of something that would be ideal and act it out, see how it turns out. That is what fascinates me about science: the endless possibilities. There is a setting, a theme, and it’s the scientist’s job to make-believe a possible outcome and how to get there. Then they get to act it out and see if it works! It is just amazing. You look at the present and find a future.

The problem with children these days is that adults are stifling their children’s creativity by telling them to act their age, giving them too many responsibilities, or putting in their possession things that give them permission to not have to use any creativity. Which brings me full circle to active video games. Don’t get me wrong, structured workouts are great for those with obesity problems, to help them get back on their feet. But children don’t need that, they need creative activity, ways for them to express themselves and find what interests them. The best way for this to happen is for them to have to make their own situations, rather than do all preprogrammed things. This also allows them to find a way to stay fit without needing a structured routine and costly equipment, getting them ready for real life.

I guess I’m just not a fan of “active” video games.

Sincerely Sydney