My Chronic Life

My dentist appointment today wasn’t as bad as I thought. The shot he gave me for pain worked very well. Actually I didn’t even feel him give me a shot. This guy’s amazing. I was really tense for the procedure and once I got the shot I began to feel sleepy. I checked for the MG symptoms but it wasn’t bad. It was just a feeling of weakness or fatigue. I brought my sunglasses thank goodness as the bright dental light really bothered me.

Everything went smoothly. The temporary crown was in place and the dentist came back in the room to see how things were. Then without any warning, he just said, “Open as wide as you can”. He put in an impression mold. This was different than the others he used before. The others, two to be exact were just on the top of my mouth. No biggie.

This one was a full mouth tray. After he put it in I began having a panic attack. The assistant was in there but she was walking around not looking at me. I started banging my feet on the chair, then my hands. Then when she got close enough, I tapped her on the back.

All she said was that it was going to be only 5 minutes. If she took it out, she’d have to do it all over again. She said, breathe through your nose. Got me a paper towel for my tears and went back to her work. I banged the chair again. She turned around. I pointed to the floor with both index fingers trying to “tell” her to stay with me.

She got it. She realized I was crying not just tearing from the mold. So she stood near me and had me breath slowly. She kept checking to see if the mold had hardened so she could remove it as quickly as possible. At last it was over.

I told her that it wouldn’t have been so bad if I knew what was happening. I explained to her that with having MG the feeling of not being able to catch my breath or swallow and of choking is entrenched in my brain. The memories came flooding in.

A real, live panic attack in the dentist’s office. Good one. Let’s see how I can top that.

Oh yeah, when I went to make my appointment for my other crown. The receptionist said there was nothing in my chart about it. So she checked with the dentist. He said that yes I needed it and if I would’ve told him, he could’ve done both of them at the same time. He actually asked me if I wanted to get back in the chair to do the other one. Guess what my answer was?