Laughing Through Surgery

Don't smile!  Stop it.  I'm serious.  Smiling is hazardous to your health!  You'll end up like me, needing surgery.

You think I'm kidding?  Nope.  I just came back from having my frenum detached and my gums cut up.  If you followed me a year ago, you might remember that I had some surgery on my gums to remove some odd scar tissue.  We didn't know what caused it, but we hoped that it wouldn't ever be a problem, again.  Well, it came back. 

"Sherry," the oral surgeon said, "I think the problem is that every time you smile, your frenum irritates your gum and causes blistering and scaring."

"Great," I said.  "So you're saying that every time I smile, I'm hurting myself?"

He nodded.  "Pretty much."

So that's like every three seconds.

He felt that detaching the frenum would correct the problem.  So I went in to have that little procedure done.  I opted for a shot in the gums to numb the area, rather than be put to sleep, which meant I was fully aware of what was going on.

My upper lip was pulled back so far that it literally covered my nostrils.  I thought that was hilarious.  Then my bottom lip started quivering. 

"Sorry, I have tickle your bottom lip," said the surgeon.

He had to?

Well, that did it.  I couldn't help it. I just started cracking up.

"Why are you laughing?" the surgeon asked.  "This isn't funny!"

I tried real hard to control myself, because I didn't want him to mess up.  When he was done, he wiped the blood off my face.  I started cracking up again.

He shook his head.   "Sherry, I've never had a patient laugh through surgery."

I tried to grin with my swollen, numb lips.  "Yeah, I'm a one-of-a-kind!"

So here I am, typing away, looking like a super model with swollen lips.  Okay.  Maybe not a super model, but I definitely have the swollen lip thing going on.  The good news is, the surgeon says in two weeks, I'll be able to smile without hurting myself.  I hope!