Getting wiser - Day 2

Day 2 saw a spew of blood-tinted saliva on my pillowcase. Yucks. The effect of anaesthesia, a swollen cheek and leaking saliva.

But on the brighter side of things, I actually survived Day 2 without painkillers! It has to be a combination of one or more of these factors: (1) a wonderful God, (2) a wonderful highly skilled surgeon, (3) wonderfully high platelet count, (4) wonderfully high threshold of pain.

In any case, given that I'm not as 'impaired' as I imagined I would be (I mean just think about sawing bones, cutting gums, drilling teeth...it ain't pretty right?) - I got around to thinking about loads of stuff today. One of which was about life and career etc.

It dawned upon me that the notion that one can do anything is clearly liberating. But life without constraints has also proved a recipe for endless searching, endless questioning of aspirations. It has made our generation obsessed with self-development but eventually, living is as much about closing possibilities as it is about creating them.

I came up with the 3 things important to job satisfaction in a job:

1) Clear relationship between effort and reward
2) Complexity/ Steep learning curve
3) Autonomy

Do you agree? Do you not? Am I missing anything?

Not so 'wise' anymore - Day 1

Since it's not everyday that we move wisdom tooth, I decided to blog abt it. I had watched crazy videos about it on youtube:

So I kinda knew what I was getting in to, only the night before the surgery. Thankfully, my experience was quite ok. AT LEAST FOR NOW since I'm still numb. I changed my appt from 9am to 2pm so I could go stuff myself full and not have to eat dinner after the operation. That didn't know our and thank God for friends like Ger who brought me preserved egg porridge!~ :-)

Anyway, I got to the clinic. First, I was pasted with stickers that monitored the heart beat, blood pressure etc. then they used a (strawberry flavored!) gel to numb the gums. Then I was sedated via jabs to the right hand. That one was a little painful when Dr. Elliot tried to inject the anaesthetic. However, my hand soon got swollen as she found out that the anaesthetic was going into other veins and not the main one (!!!), and I got ANOTHER jab this time on my right inner wrist. GrRrRr... anyway, I almost don't know what happened because I don't recall them asking me to open my mouth or to tell me that they were going to inject the anaesthetic into my gums...I must have already been konked out.

By the time I regained consciousness (yes, I must have zonked out since I don't remember my inquisitive mind asking them any question about what they were doing..LOL), I heard some funny sounds (drilling? / sewing?) and I was told that my surgery was completed. Crazy fast - like 40mins or something.

Dr. Elliot had a SAW ...apparently she does facial reconstruction at Mount E - which was why Dr. Lee Hsien Loong recommended me to her. :-) For the top dollars I was paying, I must say she did a great job! :) at least for now. Post surgery, I was able to eat an egg tart, and also finish Ger's porridge. =) The bleeding has also stopped/ lessened. Good job, Platelets!

I was told the pain and swelling will probably set in on the 2nd day... so I'll write tomorrow and we'll see! :) I guess when you SAW THROUGH A BONE, RIP OPEN GUMS and DRILL THROUGH TEETH, it would be unbelievable to believe that there's no pain! :(