This is a short story a friend of mine wrote about a dental procedure she recently had,because a nursing student friend of hers wanted to know all about it. I got her permission to use it. "Police Humor".

Date: Monday, March 2, 2009 7:12 AM

Subject: Re: A forward....about tooth #14
Size: 9 KB

Good Morning

Sure you can share it with anyone except my work supervisors.

Reneti here is an e-mail that I sent to a student nurse who wanted to

know what my surgery was like. Just thought that I would share it with you.......

Julie Girl, Here is my story. I wrote it as I would at work with a few extra comments. See if you can imagine my foot steps. I try to write so the reader will have a visual. What do you think?

On Wednesday February 25, 2009 at 1445 hrs. my husband Patrick and I walked toward the entrance of the Endodontic Associates of NWO,LLC located at 715 North Dixie Hwy. Wapakoneta, OH. after parking on the north side of the building. The exterior surroundings of the building was highly landscaped with trees and shrubs. Patrick had worked on the landscaping on this property twenty years ago while employed with Stoney Ridge Nursery. The building itself was secluded with plentiful wildlife in sight. There were occupied bird feeders and squirrels running about. The large pond in the rear of the building was beautiful. It had mallard ducks splashing in the sunlit water. Once in awhile the ducks would wattle to the ground feeder and gobbler a mouth full of cracked corn.

After viewing the exterior I cautiously walked in to the front door with Patrick following. The inside of the lobby was friendly decorated with wildlife and presented a home living room environment with blue/tan plaid couches. Our favorite decoration was a woodcock displayed on a wooden cabinet. Patrick sat in the lobby as I slowly walked to the secretary's window. There were no other customers in the area but I could hear a dental drill coming from the back. The staff greeted me with smiles. Mary explained the new patient paperwork that needed to be filled out. I went to the lobby and plopped on a couch and quickly filled the papers out and returned them. Fifteen minutes later I was greeted by Shannon who walked Patrick and I to the examine/surgery room. We were turned over to nurse Mary. She was tall and lean and wore blue framed stop sign shaped eye glasses. She was very timid speaking but answered my many questions. She invited me to sit in the center chair. The chair was tan. I had pictured in my mind the exact chair in blue that Julie C. had sent me by e-mail. I laughed inside. It was time to get over the much dreaded task of surgery. Patrick sat in a chair near the window.

Dr. Evans and nurse Tasha entered the room. Dr. Evans was an oriental female. I was happy to have a female doctor. She had small hands, perfect for the task. She spoke clear English and explained the possible procedure. She was going to perform tests for her evaluation to determine the proper procedure needed. She instructed Tasha to hand her different weapons, I mean instruments. She told me to raise my right hand if something she did hurt. As she tapped on tooth # 14 my hand flew up in the air. When she was doing a temperature test of hot and cold I put both hands up and raised a little out of the chair to explain that she had the correct tooth. She took a 3D x-ray to compare it to my dentist Jordan's taken a few weeks ago.

Her determination was that it was tooth 14,dah! She had observed a lot of infection and swelling in that area. When she looked through a telescope looking machine that hung from the ceiling next to the bright light she saw a partial root of that tooth that was dead. She made a plan and explained that she would drain the infection. She would then go in and pull out the dead partial root and replace it with a rubber material root. Patrick left the room and the surgery soon began.

Dr. Evans placed a silver ring looking crown over the bad tooth to work inside of. Tasha placed a green rubber shield in between two of my teeth blocking my throat just in case I swallowed one of their tools. That was an encouraging picture in my mind. She used dental floss to attach it, ouch! Tasha then offered me a pair of clear shooting glasses to keep debris from splashing on me. I must have seemed over cautious because Dr. Evans began explaining that the glasses were cleaned after each patient use and it was only a protection of comfort for me. I put them on thinking they were just like glasses that I wear on the shooting range but had clear lens instead of an amber tint. Oh well, I had gone this far so onward they proceeded. Dr. Evans put a green paper surgery shield over my mouth. I felt like I could not breath at first. My blood pressure was 85 over 55. My heart was beating really fast. Dr. Evans said that was normal because of the sedative she gave me. Ok, I was prepped.

Dr. Evans proceeded. I was able to mumble if I had a concern. I ask if I could swallow. Yes, was her answer. She used a Pina Clauda paste. I politely told her it was nasty tasting. She kept requesting Tasha to hand her different size instruments by numbers and or colors. It seemed as if she was using every instrument ever made. One tool slipped out of her hand and hit my lower lip and things were shattered for just a few seconds. She sincerely apologized and said that she was concentrating so hard that she didn't realize where the handle of her instrument was. She slipped a silver ring over the corner of the right side of my mouth allowing more space to work.The time seemed to be dragging.I smelled several different nasty smells coming from my mouth. I suppose it was the poison and the drilling of the tooth. Dr. Evans said that I only had a shell of the tooth left but she felt that it could be saved. I started quizzing myself to see if I was oriented or just thought that I was. I thought of writing my experience to Julie C. (the nurse to be), I thought of my who my neighbors were, the thought of what a poor supervisor I had at work crossed my mind, I thought of my upcoming challenge teaching at Rhodes. Yes, I was oriented. My mouth was getting tired of being opened. Dr. Evans worked continuously though and acted very confidently when she viewed a second x-ray that I had gagged on while being taken. I mumbled, are you have way done yet? She said just about. I repositioned my legs to get more comfortable and thought about what I couldn't eat but wanted. I was craving a sub from Sub Way with a lot of toppings that I can barely get my mouth around knowing that I won't be able to indulge in that until after my last treatment in April. Dr. Evans finally reported that she would be done in ten minutes. I felt relieved. She told Tasha to document an anti-biotic to be filled if needed. As the instruments were removed from my mouth I felt free, a relief like removing my gun belt from my waist every day at work.

Tasha said that I could remove the glasses. She thanked me for being such a good patient. I wondered how some of the others have reacted but was not feeling like starting a conversation. Dr. Evans proudly showed me pictures of the outcome. She instructed me on what to expect. I should be on my feet by March 8, 2009 if everything heals properly for the next stage of treatment. I felt sort of light headed but didn't tell anyone. My complexion was very white. My head felt heavy. Patrick and I left property to head home to a recliner.

2-26-09

I woke up with my mouth a lot sorer than last evening. It's harder to swallow today. The surgery is complete and recovery is in progress..........Dr. Evans said that I would feel worse before better.

The End.

My thanks to my friend Penny, for this story.

Reneti