Getting Drugged and Drilled and Meditation on Sleep

The countdown to oblivion has begun. In less that 12 hours I expect to be getting drugged up a good bit. For tomorrow is the day that I undergo invasive oral surgery. So invasive that I expect there will be five bleeding wounds in my mouth before long. Ouch.

In case you haven't figured it out, I am getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow. This has been something the experts have been advising for some time, but I have put it off. Why? For one, it's quite expensive. Those who think that teachers get great dental coverage can think again. At least it isn't the case in my school district. I will be paying hundreds of dollars out of pocket on this one, I'm afraid.

Scheduling has been the other factor in the delay. Who wants to get their wisdom teeth out in the middle of the school year? You do if you're a student, but not if you're a possessive teacher who likes their students enough to not want to plan an extended absence from them. Not to mention the work it would take to prepare lessons for some possibly incompetent sub... And earlier in the summer didn't work too well either, given various schedules. So it's happening eight days before I return to school!

So tomorrow I'm going under the drill, or knife, or whatever instruments they'll be using on my mouth. And since it was only a few bucks more, I'm opting for IV sedation, which will make me somewhat less aware of my surroundings than other anesthesia options. I was basically told it's the next best thing to getting knocked out (it's hard to do that with dental work because usually you have an oxygen mask on you when that happens, but that's difficult if the surgeon wants to work in the mouth!) Call me a baby, but I decided I wanted to be as unaware of what's going on as possible. Actually, part of it has to do with this phobia I have about swallowing when I'm not supposed to swallow. I seem to have a very sensitive, sometimes involuntary swallowing mechanism that tends to make things interesting whenever I go to the dentist and they poke around in my mouth for more than a minute without giving me a chance to rinse out. I really didn't want to be conscious enough to be swallowing at all sorts of complicated times, so I'm hoping I'll be knocked out enough not to bother the surgeon.

I've been wondering if this whole drug thing will be similar to taking illegal drugs and getting high, but I have a sneaking suspicion it won't be anything nearly as exciting. Of course, I will never know if it's AS exciting as illegal drugs. But will it be any exciting? Probably not. Oh well. At least I shouldn't feel anything during the surgery.

In case you're wondering about the fifth wound, I'm also having something removed from my mouth that's not supposed to be there. It's one of those possibly-cancerous-but-most-likely-not-but-we-might-as-well-get-it-out-of-there-to-test-it things. Since the surgeon will be digging in my mouth a fair amount on his quest for my teeth, it makes sense to have him remove the other thing at the same time.

Since I expect to be sleeping somewhat more than usual tomorrow, it makes sense to digress a little and give some thoughts on sleep. I've thought a bit about the reason why we need it. Have you ever wondered why it is that we've been designed to spend nearly a third of our lives in an unconscious state? At first it seems there might be a flaw in our bodily design. Wouldn't it have been much more efficient of God to have created humans without the need for sleep? I suspect He could have done it. In fact, we all could accomplish a lot more if we didn't have to sleep. If you rebell against such a thought, and think "But I love sleep! I'm so glad we need it!" consider this: you love it in part because you need it. If you didn't it would seem silly to spend time sleeping. Now don't get me wrong, I love sleep as much as the next person, probably even a little more. But it is a bodily function that seems inefficient.

That God didn't design us to operate 24 hours a day leads me to think there's a lesson in it somewhere. I've concluded that it's a daily reminder set in nature by the Creator that we are not as independent as we'd sometimes like to think ourselves to be. We can't be supermen. We're needy. We're so fragile that we'd quickly fall apart without constantly stopping for at least a few hours in every 24. Like the rainbow and its reminder concerning floodwaters, the need for sleep is like a big fat message emblazoned across the sky and given daily that says "You are dependent upon my design! No matter how smart you think you may be, no matter how much you may displace Me, the need for rest shows your intrinsic neediness!" Such dependence runs counter to the basic message of the serpent, and continues to be a warning against any who would be inclined to be proudful.

Another good thing about sleep, methinks, is the metaphor it provides for how we should trust God. You can't really do anything when you're sleeping. The work of bodily rejuvenation is not up to any conscious effort on your part. Similarly, we need to trust the Father with total reliance with whatever our needs may be. You are in a good spot if you have come to trust God so completely about something that it is as if the need itself has "gone to sleep." And if you are "asleep" to worrying about such need, so much the better.