During my extended period at home & given that I am finally taking advantage of my hard earned NI contributions, I am taking the opportunity to visit the dentist to sort out a few issues. It has taken a close friend bullying me for the best part of a month to get me there. It’s not that I don’t like the dentist, I am truly terrified. But it hasn’t always been like that.
In my younger years, I was a nightmare with a teeth so visits to the dentist were commonplace. Never an issue. My wisdom teeth came through. All four of them. Impacted. I had them removed, just had injections to numb my mouth, 2 one week, 2 a couple of weeks later. Not an issue. Didn’t even cry. And then I went and got a spot of cancer (yes, that old chestnut again) and a tooth infection.
Probably a little known fact with cancer is that when you are undergoing chemotherapy, you are strongly advised not to undertake any dental work. This is owing to your immune system being a big pile of shit and the risk of infenction being greatly increased. However. One of my teeth developed a very bad infection and as anyone with toothache will tell you, there is no pain like it. I was in absolute agony. Having spend the night pretty much punching myself in the face, I trotted to Kings College Dental Hospital where they quickly recognised that I needed root canal treatment – which I couldn’t have. The only other option and less risky one, was to extract the tooth. I was in so much pain, that I would have done almost anything, so this was fine. I then spent the next 4 hours having various blood tests to check my white cell count to ensure that I could cope with minimal infection and blood loss (yes, just to pull one tooth – isn’t cancer fun?). When we found that I could have the tooth pulled, in I went. They injected my gum to numb the tooth and waited. Didn’t work. Another couple of injections went in. Nothing, wasn’t numbing it at all. Transpires that the chemotherapy in my blood was counteracting the injections and the impact they were having. In the end I had to have around 40 injections in my mouth for the area to go numb and to enable the dentist to pull the tooth out (seriously, HOW much fun can you have with cancer?!). By the end of what I can only describe as an “ordeal”, I was a shaking, crying, nervous wreck. Absolutely fucking awful. And, I’d been put off dentists for life.
In the next 10 years I visited the dentist just 3 times for treatment. Twice I had to be heavily sedated and the third time, again, a tooth pulled out – but I forced myself to stay awake and just have injections, using loud music on my ipod to get me through it. That 3rd time was a momentous occasion – yes I cried like a baby and was shaking like a leaf, but I did it. On my own.
On Wednesday, I am returned to the dentist to have a crown fitted (already had prep work done – repeat of sobbing, unable to breathe and shaking) and will also be having two extractions. Dentist was concerned, having seen my reaction to a drill and offered sedation, but I am determined to get through with a combination of Steps, S Club, Guns n’Roses and the Killers. I don’t claim to be brave, but this is a huge achievement for me. I have to overcome my fear.
Watch out for Twitter updates on Wednesday!!
Saarf London Bird 