Saturday, March 22, 2008

Be careful when going to the Oral Surgeon

This past Thursday afternoon I arrived, slightly late, to my appointment at the Oral Surgeon. The week before, my dentist recommended I get a small bump looked at. She said it was most likely an inflamed salivary gland which could be easily removed. She recommended I see the adjacent Oral Surgeon just down the road.

When I pulled up, I was comforted by the large "Oral Surgeon" sign on the front of the building. The sign comforted me in that a low budget, back alley doctor, couldn't possibly afford such a lavish marketing device. This guy must be legit.

The receptionist that met me had what I figured was a Eastern European accent. Turns out she was Russian, but from the Asia side. Being I was within two thousand miles, I patted myself on the back for being so worldly.

The appointment was what they called a consultation. I figured a consultation meant they'd dig around in your mouth a bit and then make a recommendation for a future appointment. The first part was right, but instead of scheduling something in the future, the doctor led me down the hall to the surgery room.

Typically the idea of going under the knife does not bother me. I'm a tough guy right? Now I'll caveat this with the fact that I forgot to each lunch so my blood sugar was a bit low, but as soon as he got out the large (about the size of William Wallace's sword) Novocaine needle, I nearly passed out. The doctor called to the Russian assistant (the same one that checked me in) for help. She quickly lowered my chair and patted my head with a wet rag.

After I recovered, the Russian assistant put on rubber gloves. I found it odd that the office assistant was now my nurse. Apparently she was well rounded. While she was fumbling around getting my lip stretched out, the doctor gathered his tools.

I won't get into the details, but I think you'll find your mouth can produce copious amounts of blood. And when you add in the Russian's hands with the doctor's, the pressure in your mouth can squirt the dark red fluid all over the place.

After the doctor got me stitched up, my mouth looked like it had taken a shot at a bar fight. I could hardly talk and was drooling blood. I was thinking about going back to work, but being I was loosing blood and had a screaming headache, I decided it would be a good afternoon to "work from home."

The lip is healing, but still pretty bruised. I'm taking "Flurbiprofen (100MG) Tablets" for pain and then washing my mouth with "Chlorhexidine Gluconate Oral Rinse (.12%)." I know nothing of these medicines other than they are suppose to make me feel better. And for the most part, they are.

My lesson in all this is that when you go into the Oral Surgeon's office for a consultation, make sure you know that a "consultation" can turn into a bloody surgery.

3 comments:

Scooter said...

You have just made me feel a million times better having not taken Eryn in at 2 to have her inflammed salivary gland surgically removed. We put it off a long time waiting until she was older so the surgery wouldn't be quite as traumatic, and then it went away on its own. I can't imagine doing what you described to her at 2 or 3.

Anonymous said...

WOW!!! Sounds like a scene from one of those horror movies I watched this wkend.

Rest up!

Cheers

Mac Noland said...

Scooter, you made the right decision!