I’m the first in my family to have my wisdom extracted. You see, I’m an immigrant. So this was more of a cosmetic surgery than a required one. True, the wisdom teeth were quite painful especially in the last couple of weeks, but I suspect the pain would have diminished if I waited another few days.

As you may know, I once walked the hills of the Himalayas. Barefoot. Just to see how it feels.

But the truth is I couldn’t afford sandals.

Anyhow, this extraction event was rather embarrassing for me. I felt like a wuss for embracing Western culture and ideals. Wisdom tooth extraction in Nepal is (or at least was) unheard of. You deal with the pain. It’s part of the initiation process of becoming an adult.

But since I’m lucky enough to have dental coverage, I went ahead with the extraction.

I decided to get all 4 without consulting anyone other than the dentist. It made sense to get all 4 done at the same time since I’d only experience the pain once. Or so I thought.

The process took 10 minutes. Other than the blood, the 4 stitches and the extreme pain, it was okay. Maybe I deserved the pain for acting like a wuss. Local anesthesia takes at least 5 minutes to work. Point well-noted.

The pain only lasted for another 10 minutes. I stayed in the operation room initially because I thought I was supposed to. My ears were ringing and the nurse asked me to leave the gauge in my mouth for another 30 minutes. I thought this also implied I should stay in the operating room for another 30 minutes. After 5 minutes and being weird-ed out by the fact that I was still there, she asked me to leave.

I left. Now I was totally feeling like a wuss.

The rest of the afternoon was rather insignificant. No pain. It could’ve been because I was still under the influence of the late reacting local anesthesia and yeah, I took about 10 pain-killers as soon as I got home.

The next day… I got up afraid to look at myself in the mirror. But this was different from every other morning. I thought I’d look like a chipmunk, miss my playoff game and start my miserable weekend.

None of that stuff happened though. I did not have much pain. No swelling.

I hit a few crucial free throws in the playoff game.

And for the first time in more than 18 hours, I felt good about myself. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a wuss but not in traditional I’m-out-for-the-weekend-after-a-wisdom-teeth-extraction kind of wuss.

Okay, yeah…