Subj : *heavy sigh* To : All From : Daemon Date : Wed Oct 05 2005 08:17 pm Wow. This last week's been one heck of a lesson learned: don't underestimate the impact one bad tooth can have on your over-all health and well-being. My wisdom teeth started coming in when I was around 12 yrs old, and my dentist at the time told me flat-out that they'd have to be pulled. Something about the roots not having enough room or something. It's been too long to remember exactly why. He was right, though. Over the years, despite regular (maybe borderline obsessive-compulsive) dental care, as of last week I only had 1 left, the other 3 having been pulled along the way over the years, and the one that was left was in REALLY bad shape. I have this STUPID and absolutely uncontrollable phobia of needles (though popping a screwdriver through my hand while working on a car or something like that tends to strike me as being no big deal), so I'd put off getting it taken care of for - oh, maybe a year after it first started fracturing. I had it pulled the other day, though, finally, because the nerve was exposed and couldn't stand the throbbing of it anymore. Fun-wow. The oral surgeon only uses novacaine; no nitrous, etc. So I was already having a hard time holding still, but unconsciously squirming a bit in the chair. Now... I didn't know this, but I guess there are more than one "kind" of novacaine? I remember him saying to the nurse that he was going to switch to this other kind as he went deeper into my jaw. Don't remember much after that, though. I reacted to it really badly - blood pressure went through the roof and oxygen level dropped to almost nothing. So I was using up ALL KINDS of cellular energy really quickly with almost zero repleneshment. Tunnel vision went really quickly to this small ball of blurred vision, and a tingling sensation that started in my chest spread like mad until I was laying in the chair, mouth numb, jaw propped open, trying like hell to stay conscious and unable to move because the only feeling I had left was pins and needles in my fingers and toes. Which took MAYBE 10 seconds. I was still thinking, "wow - that feels kind of weird" and thinking I might just be breathing too fast or something out of sheer anxiety when I realized the whole body was trying to shut completely down, and by then it was too late to try to react to it in any significant way. And you wouldn't BELIEVE how ill I felt at that point. I don't think I'll ever forget it. The kind of sick feeling that you just KNOW will follow you right into unconsciousness, so escaping by just nodding out isn't an option. Mentally alert, though, and cursing like a truck driver in my own head because it seemed like forever before I could anyone to realize there was something wrong. Anyway, like I said, don't remember much after that until being kind of half carried out of the office to my truck to go home and pass out for about 11 hours on the couch as soon as I got through the door. All of which sucked, don't get me wrong. But, weirdly, I'm actually happy to have gone through it. Man, but I didn't realize I had such a constant migraine headache until it was gone, didn't realize the constant ball of nausea in my gut from THAT until IT was gone. I'm just completely amazed at how much of a difference getting that tooth out made, complications or no. I haven't felt this good in years. [daemon] In the shuffling madness... --- þ Synchronet þ Necropolis - necropolisbbs.darktech.org .