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Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Giving birth is easy, I learnt

“Relax,” said the surgeon, as my wet palms grabbed his wrist the fourth time.

I idled. Half-lying, half-sitting, gaping at the roof attempting to pray for it to be all over without my knowledge and all the same petrified I would pass out, so much so I mumbled: “How long will this take.”

“Few minutes more.” He waited for me to chill as I counted deep breaths, when I heard. “What you are feeling is pressure. Not pain. Relax. We are almost there…”

The last time I laid helplessly listening to these words was in the delivery room. But then, I vividly remember the feeling was pressure and that pressure was pain.

“Let loose”, he said, pulling my cheek apart as if gutting a fish and I felt the hammer come down on my wisdom tooth. I shut my eyes tight, fooling my hyper-working brain that if I don’t see the armoury over my head, it would not hurt. But my hands once again attacked him. 

He stopped for the third break in the 15-min procedure, trying to pacify me. “You are numb. I cut your jaw bone. Did you feel?” I grunted. I drilled around. Did you even know?” I grunted again. “It’s not pain. It’s just a sensation you are feeling. Nothing to fear. All I need to do is extract it out. The major part is over…”

Two days after the procedure...a 'swollen' selfie
Yeah, I thought to myself. The major part was, indeed, over. It had all begun the previous day, with a casual visit to our dentist to clean my teeth, when I mentioned that one of my wisdom teeth acts up once a while. After examination, he revealed that half of that tooth is still embedded inside and has no space to pop out. “It's better to remove it.”

And before I knew, a wire with a black square peg went on rampage inside my mouth clicking X-Ray. “Let the tongue loose. I need to place this beside the tooth", the dentist said, thrusting the peg almost into the epiglottis and I wrenched. “Don’t do that, you’ll hurt yourself,” he cautioned.  

"Let me place it," I volunteered. Graciously he agreed and waited patiently checking the monitor screen. “No. I need your tooth,” he said, pulling at my cheek, maneuvering the wire back and pushing it deep within…all at once and I jumped up. "Please! I’m petrified of puking." He smiled, "okay, we'll make do with this." 

What a gem of a dentist! 

"So, we'll fix it tomorrow. How about 2pm?"

"Fine by me."

"Good.  I'll pass on the X-Ray to the surgeon..."

"Surgeon!!!"

“This is not a normal procedure. Your jaw bone needs to be operated upon to extract the tooth…” 

What did I get myself into! 

“Now I felt my alive cheek being slapped. Relax,” I heard the surgeon say the nth time, when my gem-of-a-dentist said, “Maybe she’s in pain, it’s not numb...”

“No way. I’ve injected the [some name I can’t remember now] nerve. This is phobia, doctor…” Then he turned to me, “the only other option is to give you general anesthesia. But why go for such a step, when we have come this far. It’s almost over.”

I gripped the armrest with both hands and squeezed my eyelids tighter, as I felt the jaw almost rip apart from my face. Tapping me again, he stopped: “Open your eyes. Now I'm going to try moving the tooth. You'll feel the pressure. Okay. It's just pressure.” I took a deep breath. "Relax. Keep your eyes open. Just a couple of minutes more."

Was he afraid I'll pass out?

Forced to keep my eyes open, I saw a heavy-looking tool go inside my mouth and I tensed. "Relax" he said and I decided to look elsewhere. That's when for the first time that noon I looked at him.

Damn it! Thick shapely brows, unusual for a man, set on light skin above dark eyes shaded inside long lashes…His gelled hair gleaming under the surgical light, with two thick strands hopping over to the side brushing his broad clear forehead made me trace his chiselled nose from under the mask. His fingers were long within the off-white glove going to and fro from inside my mouth to the assistant to his right. The coffee-brown button on the carelessly-rolled-up white linen sleeves, made me squint down to check and lo! he was in denims!

“It’s over!” he said, dropping the mask down on his neck. 

"Really?"  Tall men in white-denim combination have always distracted me.

"Yes ma'am" 

Me, ma’am!! Why… 

“I’ll prescribe a painkiller. Don’t worry, You’ll be fine.” 

Uh! Fine!! That night, I tossed in bed popping painkillers. I was on baby food for the next few days. A month later, I’m still cautious on using my right molars… And I thought giving birth was the most traumatic experience.

However, am yet to figure out the consequences of the two experiences… The other day my baby said, “You know what mamma, now you should stop advising me because your average wisdom is less than mine!”

22 comments:

  1. I can connect to the experience as I had 3 surgeries of the similar kind. My surgeon said that I need extra dosage of anaesthesia than normal person, (Is she trying to say that, I am abnormal??) because my body takes longer time to react to any foreign liquid also a stronger dose. So in my case getting injection in gum and around the teeth is more painful than the surgery. Like your daughter said about average wisdom, I always have my husband saying that I have only 1/4th wisdom left.

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    1. Family is the best isn't it? Making us laugh it all of.... And oh yea, I did feel awkward when I was told its phobia in me :)

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  2. Oh those wretched wisdom teeth. Had 2 of mine pulled out. One came out easy peasy and the other one was a nightmare. Hope you are well now.

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  3. oh my, what a graphic description...Aweful... Can feel your pain, and relate... Hahaha - had to laugh- those kids sure knows how to give it to you... Mine did too- when I had my one wisdom tooth removed.

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  4. ohhh god that's really painful!!! Hope you are feeling better.
    I got no wisdom teeth ... I hope they never come up.

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    1. That's the best Rajlakshmi. You are lucky I would say!

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  5. Oh man. That's bad. I have one surgery like this one and I never went back for the others. My wisdom teeth are exact same way. no space to grow. I am okay with no wisdom :P

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  6. Those wisdom teeth though, they are awful! Mine all decided to act up at once....so much pain! I had them all out at once when I was in my early twenties and they knocked me out. There is no way I could of been awake for it like you were. You were mighty brave!

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  7. Those wisdom teeth though, they are awful! Mine all decided to act up at once....so much pain! I had them all out at once when I was in my early twenties and they knocked me out. There is no way I could of been awake for it like you were. You were mighty brave!

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    1. Omy! All at once??? That should have been awful!!

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    2. Omy! All at once??? That should have been awful!!

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  8. I dread going to the dentist! :( This is my worst fear, what you described! Hope you are feeling better now. Love!

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  9. Nisha! I was just about to go to the dentist to have my wisdom tooth removed. Gulp! Will reschedule when I muster up some courage.

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    1. Oh no Nancy. Don't. I didnt mean to scare anyone. Dental issues need immediate attention.

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  10. omg....on reading ur blog n the comments others gave....neesha what a fobia u all have.......i thank god to give me such a brave heart.....i got a wisdom tooth extracted n 5 rcts done......but yes except for one rct...i didnt come to know .....
    my son got 3 teeth extracted at the age of 10yrs.....kudos to hi m too

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    1. Hey you, Preeti.You are indeed the brave one. You are an inspiration girl...keep going Ms Woods :)

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  11. How I hate going to the dentist! It almost brought alive my experience of having my wisdom tooth removed! I had a panic attack, and I just couldn't breathe, the doctor had to give me a time out twice! I had to go out for fresh air...luckily the doctor is my friend and she had the patience not to get irritated with me! poor thing even held my hand and comforted me!

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  12. ha ha... that's exactly what I did to mine as well

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