The Dentist

Yesterday and today (and actually all week) I spent watching an orthopedic trauma surgeon. Today, I went to his office in the morning, saw a bunch of patients with him (people with things ranging from broken arms to an aputated leg), and in the afternoon, I watched a surgical procedure called a balloon kyphoplasty. I guess its a pretty good fix for compression fractures of the spine caused by osteoporosis. It was actually a really short procedure.

After I left the hospital, I had to go to the dentist for a filling. My appointment was for 4:15 (that gets important later on). So I got there on time. Of course they brought me back and out me in the chair pretty quickly. Then the dentist came in and told me I would need numbed up. So he gave me a shot of lidocaine. Anyway, that went well until about a minute after he put it in, and then I started getting a little dizzy, and got real nervous all of a sudden. Anyway, I said something to the dentist about it, and he told me that he had put the shot too close to the nerve. Later on he told me that he had put it straight into my artery, so it went straight into my blood, and into the ol' noggin. So they had me sit there for awhile while it kind of wore off. Meanwhile, somebody had some kind of dental emergency (so I'm told), because the dentist was gone for about an hour and a half while I waited in the chair for my filling. By the time he got back, not only was I totally "sobered up" from the medicine, but my mouth was also no longer numb. So he had to give ANOTHER shot. Actually it was good though, because even with being pretty numb, it still hurt quite a bit. Anyway, but the time I got out of the dentist's office, it was about 6:40.