I had held off going into these details for a little while, but for posterity's sake I think this story needs to be told. As I have mentioned in passing already, Graham got his wisdom teeth out a few weeks ago. The process did not pass without drama.
Graham has never been a fan of needles and having blood taken. Who really is, after all? With him this aversion is a little stronger than average. So when the assistant to the oral surgeon asked whether Graham would rather have his blood sampled before or after he went under general anesthesia for the procedure, he was agitated. Then they put him under and did their thing on his mouth.
When he awoke, he was not in good shape. Mary had taken him, and when they brought her into the room when he was coming out from under the drugs his mouth was all bloody because he was pulling the gauze out (it had evoked a reaction from his choking aversion) and he was banging his head against the back of the dental chair.
Then he sprang into action. When the assistant leaned over him to unhook something he grabbed her, pulling her closer to him. He said he had wanted to grab the pens in her pockets to use them as weapons (which makes me doubt the wisdom of watching all those John Wyck films with him). They called in the whole team to restrain him -- it was Mary and four members of the team.
Somewhere in there Mary texted frantically that I needed to come help her get him out of there. Then she changed her mind. Then again when they were in the parking lot (though had rolled him out there in a wheelchair. He refused to get in the car, later saying that he was thinking it was cold and he wanted them to be cold). Eventually he got in the car and came home.
When he was walking in the house he looked like a zombie. Very pale with blood caked around his mouth. When we were asking him about what he was thinking he said something like: "I just wanted justice. They had hurt me so I wanted to hurt them.".
We were all gathered in the kitchen, all four of us plus Mary's brother Rob. Shortly after Graham made the above statement, Natalie was walking between the kitchen island and cubbard cabinets when she fell to the ground. She was on her back and her eyes were moving back and forth as her whole body shuddered. I freaked right the fuck out. We were all afraid she was having a seizure. I got up and ran to my phone to call 911 when she came to. Apparently she had fainted.
Whew. What a morning. Apparently what happened to Graham wasn't crazy uncommon. Maybe 15-20% of people have short-term adverse reactions to general anesthesia. I think it didn't interface well with his autism and anxiety about having blood taken, so his reaction was pretty extreme.
Mary and I talked and decided not to discuss it with him for a few days, but when she did, he said he recognized that he had been in an altered state and had behaved badly.
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