18 Feb 2009

Here’s the whole rundown:

M made arraignments on Monday night for a friend of hers to come out and pick me up for my dentist appointment. M had not been able to get the whole day off from work so I had planned on driving myself and forgetting about the Valium.  However I know this friend and wasn’t really counting on her anyway.

So I slept like chit Monday night. I guess I got maybe 1 or a bit more hours of sleep total through the night. And I went to bed early. Let’s just say I was a LITTLE stressed and my mind simply would not slow down long enough for me to sleep.

Then to add to the stress, Tuesday morning the ride didn’t show up until the absolute last second. I had gone out and started my car to warm it up and I was in the middle of putting on my jacket to leave when she pulled in the driveway. I could’ve screamed at her, but I didn’t. But I did mention kinda strongly that a phone call would have helped. She mumbled something about being in a “dead zone” and her cell wouldn’t work.  I’m sorry, but the only slightly weak area between where she lives and where I live is about 2 miles from my house. What a load of cow manure.

So at 8:45am I popped my first Valium. By 9:45 I hadn’t felt anything so I loaded up a second one (I had been told that I should feel the effects in 20-30 minutes after taking one). Then I was called in. At this point the stress levels were very near the “fight or flight” area so I wasn’t being a very nice fella. I was being polite, but in as few words as possible.

The dentist came in and we talked for a few minutes. I explained about the Valium and he said I may want to take another half of one. I said that we just needed to get it over with! He poked around in my mouth for a minute or two loading me up with enough Novocain to make my ear go numb. Then he looked at my charts, back in my mouth, back at the charts and told me that there was a “small problem.”

The medication must have been kicking in by this point because I took that little announcement pretty well. The problem was that the tooth next to the one that needed to be crowned had one of those old silver fillings in it and it was so large that it was almost a crown in its own right. That meant that it was unsuitable for attaching the first crown to and meant that it too would need to be crowned. Oh, Joy.

Everything actually went fairly well until he was nearing the end of the drilling and filing of the two teeth that needed a crown. I started getting some pretty sharp pains so I made sure I told him. He pulled out the old Novocain needle and loaded me up again. After a few minutes I was numb from the tip of my nose to my ear lobe and down to a spot on the side of my neck! Well, there was no more pain after that.

Well they finished up and put the temporary crown in and sent me home. M got out of work early and came and got me so I wasn’t going to be a menace out on the streets. I don’t think I was all that high from the meds, but I was awfully tired from getting only a little sleep, and the stress of the actual dentistry.

I got home and popped several Tylenol to help take care of the ache in my jaw and promptly went straight to bed. I slept for about 4 hours and then had to get up to make it to the gun carry class that I was helping with. My jaw was aching still pretty bad so I popped a couple more Tylenol and picked up a roast beef sandwich at Arby’s to fill my belly. It was soft enough that it only hurt a little to eat it.

In conclusion, I have to say that while the time spent at the dentist was NOT a good one, at least it wasn’t a bad experience. I still tend to freak a bit about going to the dentist, but maybe if there’s a next time I won’t be in such bad shape and will have a bit more confidence. Oh yeah, in three weeks I have to go back and get the permanent crown put in and I have no idea what all is involved with that, so I’m keeping a few Valium in reserve for that.

I’m Alive… So Far…