On Monday I had to have an infected wisdom tooth extracted. And, to be honest, I was terrified.
Why? Well... I've always been scared of dental work to begin with, but then then 2 years ago I had a dentist really mess up several of my teeth.
To make matters worse I have both a fear of anesthesia (when I was a kid I had some minor surgery and I remember being on the operating table and trying to tell the doctor that I wasn't out yet while he was getting ready to start) AND I have a fear of oral surgery (I woke up from anesthesia while the dentist was struggling to find one of my wisdom teeth and was awake while he removed my last tooth).
So I spent the weekend a wreck. Sunday I had to keep busy because every time I stopped to think I had panic attacks. I read 4 Harry Potter books Sunday afternoon after one panic attack led to an asthma attack. Oh the drama. I was so nervous that I even made poor Ian nervous.
On Monday morning we drove to Buckhead and I was shaking. I was the first appointment, so the dentist took me back and, after some struggle, they got the IV line in. Next thing I knew I was waking up. Just like that. He managed, in 30 minutes, to put me under, extract the tooth, and get me into the recovery room. 15 minutes later the nurse and Ian walked me to the car and I was on my way home. Wow.
This morning my jaw is a little sore but I feel mostly OK.
The only hitch... apparently while under anesthesia I asked the dentist to keep the tooth... Eeew.
4 comments:
hooray... now you can work yourself up to more and more complicated elective surgery :)
L
Holy cow! No wonder you were dreading the dental surgery after what you've experienced. So glad that it went so well and smoothly.
I am so glad to hear that you found the surgeon who can actually extract the right tooth.
Olga
Scaredy-cat! :-)
Today dentists have an arsenal of feel-good stuff to make us nervous nellies feel at ease and no pain....aaaah.
Still and all, going to the dentist still rates for me at about the same level as getting audited while someone whacks me on the head with a hammer over and over!
Post a Comment