fun with an oral surgoen

Yes, it DOES say fun with an oral surgeon. . .and his nurse,actually.

I have an issue with my teeth, many are broken, and in short, there are only 15 left. thats 5 on the bottom, 10 very sensitive on top. makes it difficult to eat, and its not very attractive. For a woman who works with children, its really not fitting in. So the mission is to fix this. get rid of the 15, and pop in some falsies. I'm good with that. I like to eat. (and smile)

Off to see the oral surgeon !

I am not ashamed to start my appointment by telling him I have an aversion to dentists. "It's nothing personal aginst any one dentist, Its more against the aftereffects. " you know, the week of horrid pain from my face. (example, I had 5 teeth pulled at once, it felt like child labor in my head)
The OS replies by telling me he DOES take it personally, but hey, thanks for sharing so honestly.

well. he took that well.

they do my xray- it turns out to be a solid scan of the front of my face, from my nose to my chin. This is to get a clear idea of where my sinuses are, because they'll be working on the upper front.

When they put the xray on the lightbox, I had to laugh. " wow. that is the scariest fish I've ever seen!"
priceless.
Both the OS and nurse look at me like I've gone mad, look at the xray, and yes, even tilt thier heads. the nurse sees it first- " oooh my, yea I guess it is. thats a first.no one's ever said THAT before. "
I am still not sure if the OS actually saw it. "um yea, how odd"

As we go on, we go through my history- OS is amazed I've not been hospitalized for anything besides childbirth. It was all outpatient or ER. " no broken bones, no illness, you're pretty healthy for your age."
for my age?? "well of course- I still claim 25."
Ha! He double checks his chart, does the math again. "o hhh, haaahaa" this guys really quick.

moving on. we go through the motions of going over the drill, (pardon the pun) he tells me all i need to know and all he'll do to me if I allow him in my mouth.

Checking the chart again he tells the nurse he needs my blood pressure. I have low blood pressure. He needs a 'normal' reading from me so he knows when he tries to put me under hes' not going to kill me.
Fair enough.

I give this nurse the same warning I do all the nurses who ever took my blood pressure.

" good luck. its REALLY low. most of my nurses end up mad because they can't find it."

this one, she dooesn't go for it.(though I am serious) " oh no way. all my years at this, I have never had that problem"

"ok, seriously, they're tried to send me to the ER. One had me do jumping jacks. "

She stops and looks at me. "well thats just rediculous "

ok. don't say i didn't try to warn you.

We go to a room, she puts the cuff on. pumps it up- the AUTOMATIC machine, can't find my blood pressure.
hmm "well the cuff's too big for your little arm. thats all."

yup, sure . thats all.

smaller cuff. pumps it up- the numbers are flashing all over the place, but no reading. It really was trying hard.
5 minutes I sat quietly while she tried to get the machine to focus on something that isn't there.

Then she puts a heart monitor on me !
making sure I have a pulse. I assure her I do.

"well this is just the ... hmm. i wonder... if its the machine.."

nope. its me.

she turns to me and says "ok this is new to me, should i send you to finance first so you can get your estimate? that may get it up there"

oh she's cute. I ask her if she wants some jumping jacks.
nope. she is determined to get this reading.

Not that I have control over it but I sit and stay as quiet and calm as possible- to make it harder for her to say "wow you were right"

she resets the unit again, checks the cuff.

when she turns, I lift my arm up, just a little. (hehe done this before, I have)

the numbers come up.

And as I tried to tell her my blood pressure was remarkably low. (I am awful with numbers, so I don't remember them well, but it was lower than ususal)

She says "holy cow you weren't kidding! that IS low! how do you...feel?"

I answer her, as I do the others. " I'm freezing my arse off"

"i bet you are. wow! I've never known a healthy person to be that low!"
I tell her yea, they don't let me donate blood, just like a high pressure patient.

"no, REALLY?"

ok, coming from a nurse this was scary.
" well yea, If I go to donate blood , for one it would take all day, and then I'd pass out because I can't afford to not have that extra pressure moving through there."

"oh yea.. that makes sense. wow. thats a first for me ! "

haha told ya so !

turns out I probably could have gone to the finance first.

they estimated me WAY more than we expected. and they couldn't find my blood pressure. yea. I'll be going to see someone else, get a lower estimate. (and see how fast they get this blood pressure ;)