Kimball Gets His Wisdom Teeth Out

In the fall of 2022, Kimball’s dentist…who is our stake president at church…told us that it was time to get his wisdom teeth out. His teeth were in the perfect place to get them out with minimal trouble. So, we scheduled his wisdom teeth removal for Christmas break. Kimball was adamant that he didn’t want to miss any school so he didn’t have to take the exams at the end of the semester (a bizarre perk of our schools). 

Over Christmas break, we headed to Albuquerque for the BYU vs SMU bowl game and hurried back so we would be home in time for Kimball’s surgery. The day before his surgery, I was in line at the pharmacy to pick up his prescriptions and my phone rang. It was the dentists office needing to reschedule because our dentist had the flu.

I was so frustrated that we had scheduled our whole break around this surgery, and Kimball was super mad because he had already mentally prepared for it. Though, we do understand that people get sick.

The one positive side to it being cancelled is that there was a storm the next day and the roads were a bit dangerous, so I was thankful I didn’t have to drive an hour and a half on icy roads.

So, we rescheduled for January…just in time for a winter storm to hit. I called and rescheduled because there was no way I could comfortably make that drive with the roads as bad as they were. 

We rescheduled for February…which turned out to be a week before the band had contest. Kimball’s band director asked him if there was a way for us to postpone surgery, and since Kimball is one of only 2 tuba players, we agreed to do it.

We rescheduled for March…and it became a running joke that he wasn’t ever going to actually have this surgery! But, it was perfect because it was scheduled over spring break! Thankfully, everything worked out this time. Cameron was able to watch Lily and Becca. Kimball got to drive for an hour before he had to take the medication that makes him relax/sleepy. 

Surgery took maybe an hour. He woke up pretty quickly and they wheeled him out to the van in a wheelchair. When he got in the car, he told me through a mouthful of gauze that he was mad because they wouldn’t let him drive the wheelchair. It really bothered him because he mentioned it several times. 

As we drove home, Kimball asked repeatedly if he could drive. Then when I said no, he would get upset and claim he was fine to drive. He Facetimed some of his friends who got a kick out of seeing him with ice packs wrapped around his head and his speech all mumbled. 

We had to stop a couple times so I could help him with the gauze in his mouth and taking pain meds. I wouldn’t recommend driving for an hour and a half with someone after they just had oral surgery!

Some funny moments from the drive: 

• One of them asked if he recommends the surgery and he said no, he gives it a 2 out of 10. 
• He told this friend his tongue was so swollen it could be a sumo wrestler. 
• At one point he said “I want to eat chili at Chili’s in the country Chile when it’s chilly.
• His friend asked “what’s 15 divided by 3” to which he emphatically responded “5! And 9 times 9 is 81 divided by 4 is 20.25. I’ve got my math!”
• He really, really wanted to go through the Chik-fil-A drive through, and especially to be the one driving as we went through. He kept asking for Chik-fil-A chocolate milk and a grilled chicken sandwich. 

The first day was rough, with lots of pain and a bout of nausea/vomiting. He only slept maybe 2 hours that night…just watched TV. The next day his pain level was much less thankfully and he didn’t get nauseous at all. Here’s hoping day 3 goes better!