Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

Padawan Learner had his braces adjusted yesterday and the orthodontist upgraded him to the heavy wire. [...]]]> Mace Windu:   “What is it?”
Yoda:              ”Pain, suffering, death I feel. Something terrible has happened. Young Skywalker is in pain. Terrible pain.”

              Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

Padawan Learner had his braces adjusted yesterday and the orthodontist upgraded him to the heavy wire. He’s been sucking down acetaminophen since that point and is in bed trying to sleep it out. He actually got up in the middle of the night to get more pain killers, and his day-to-day ability to sleep through anything is frankly inspiring. I’m glad that I had braces just a couple of years ago, because I wholly remember how exhausted you feel after a major adjustment. To be honest, I know that I wouldn’t have been at all empathetic if I hadn’t just experienced it myself. It isn’t just that your teeth hurt, your entire body feels drained of energy, devoid, culled.

Luckily, his piano teacher called this morning and requested a later lesson time so he has no immediate reason to get up and get moving pronto like most Friday mornings. He argued with himself a bit about needing to get started on his lessons but I reminded him that they’ll still be there later today and over the weekend. He seemed relieved at the memory that there wasn’t a fixed time frame he had to fit his day into.

The Padawan Learner is struggling with hate right now. A vicious hatred. A life altering hatred. Hatred of his braces. Sunday night, the bottom wire snapped in half while he was sitting down, watching a movie. Just sitting [...]]]> “Don’t give in to hate. That leads to the Dark Side.”  Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars IV: A New Hope

The Padawan Learner is struggling with hate right now. A vicious hatred. A life altering hatred. Hatred of his braces. Sunday night, the bottom wire snapped in half while he was sitting down, watching a movie. Just sitting there. Snap. So I called the orthodontist’s office first thing Monday morning and they can’t get him in until Tuesday at 11:30 am. Ok, fine. The wire is still being held back by the bracket elastics so it’s not really a problem to wait a day longer.

Chaos must be settling in his mouth, however, since one of the top rear brackets popped off while he was playing with his marble run just last night. Just like that. Pop. And there’s nothing to hold the wire away from his cheek. He ended up using a whole stick of brace wax to wrap his back teeth completely, which did appear to work although he was just about gagging from the wax taste.