Blind Panic

By the time this blog post is published hubby and I will be up and getting ready for our trip to The National Ehlers Danlos Unit in Bath, a good two-hour journey to a hospital that has no parking. I am particularly looking forward to hubby losing his cool whilst trying to find a place to park.

Last week I was unable to write a new blog post so took the easy way out and re-blogged a piece from last year. I hate doing that but if I hadn’t there would have been nothing at all. Last week was filled with massive bouts of insomnia / painsomnia (if you're not familiar with that term it means being unable to sleep due to high levels of pain) add in getting my hair cut on the Monday and a trip to the dentists on the Wednesday, I was good for nothing.

I can’t lie I have a terrible phobia of the dentist, which is bad when EDS has really done a number on my teeth. Apart from my front teeth every tooth in my head has a filling, my front teeth are losing their enamel and are also crumbling. I should be a regularly attending patient but three years ago I stopped going due to my health being bad and never arranging an appointment to go back. The dentist that I had built up a good relationship with, that knew about EDS and would listen when I told her to stop has left to work in the private sector. If we could afford to see her, I would but we don’t have that kind of money, so I am now having to “break in” a new dentist.

The last appointment I attended had been on my birthday, it didn’t go well as I was so tense I could barely open my mouth and he seemed not to believe me when I told him he was hurting me. Not a great start when all he was doing at the time was examining the condition of my teeth. I learned from this appointment I needed two fillings as I had developed large cavities in my rear molars. One on the right side and one on the left, the cavities were so large and deep they could be seen on the x-rays he took. You would be correct in thinking that I was not looking forward to getting them sorted out.

Before I left the appointment on 1st November I went through with him that I needed a local anesthetic without adrenaline, one with adrenaline will cause me to face plant when leaving the dentist’s chair, as one previous dentist found out many years ago before I had my diagnosis of EDS and PoTs. Due to getting my diagnosis at 37, it means I have endured more than my fair share of painful dental procedures, with dentists shouting at me that I “couldn’t possibly feel anything” because I had been given local anesthetic. It’s not only dental procedures that have been plagued by pain but also small procedures such as having part of my toenail removed and a lumbar puncture. Until the diagnosis I got shouted at a lot by the medical profession, simply because they didn’t believe that the local anesthetic they had injected wasn’t working. Now although they acknowledge that anesthetics don’t work properly they underestimate how long it will last for.

I knew in my heart I was going to be in trouble yesterday when the dentist administered the injections for both fillings at the same time. I wanted to pretend it was going to be ok and that it was a situation where it was mind over matter. The first filling went ok, although I really could have done without the running commentary of what he was doing. I spent the whole of the first filling trying not to vomit which is my normal feeling when I hear the dentist’s drill. I really didn’t like it when he told me that the next bit of equipment was going to vibrate a lot making my tooth feel like it was going over cobbles. Another wave of nausea hit me when he told me that he was removing the “soft stuff, to get down to a good hard base”. I wanted to tell him, I really didn’t want to know but as I had his hands in my mouth and the dental nurse sticking the suction device to my tongue constantly, he wouldn’t have worked out what I was saying anyway.

Filling number one went off near perfectly, this was a good dentist experience, other than the running commentary. I was a perfect patient apart from the hyperventilating at the start and gripping the armrests until my knuckles went white. I didn’t find my happy place, which I try to do when stressed to the max during medical procedures. I am pretty good at meditation and can drop off during MRI scans because I just go into my head, the dentist is a different story coloured by so many bad experiences.

I was pleased, the dentist was pleased but it was short-lived due to filling number two. I should have said something or made some sort of guttural noise (as you do when the dentist has your hand in your gob) when he blasted the tooth with cold air and then stuck the metal prong into it. I tried to convince myself that I was imagining the sharp stab of pain. Concentrating on my breathing, I braced myself for the drill, trying very hard not to panic.

Within seconds of the drill hitting my tooth, I entered what can only be described as a state of blind panic. Until yesterday I had presumed that the state of blind panic was down to a weak mind, an inability to control one's fears when faced with them. I have a fear of heights yet know that if my life depended on it I would overcome my fear, I really don’t like daddy-long-legs or spiders yet will deal with them if I am alone in the house. I am scared of them but I would never describe it as a phobia. People tend to throw the word phobia around quite a lot but I can say hand on heart that my “fear” of dentists has now developed into a phobia. Yesterday I experienced a state of blind panic, where I couldn’t think clearly nor see the danger I could have potentially put myself in. I know now that it is nothing to do with self-control or a weakness of mind and I unreservedly apologise to those people I have doubted in the past.

As soon as the drill hit my tooth, I had immense pain (I know my pain threshold for dental procedures is considerably lower than my normal pain threshold) without thinking I grabbed the dentist’s drill and threw it out of my mouth. I immediately sat up and had the dentist not put his arm across my chest I believe I probably would have attempted to leave the room via the window opposite me. It all happened so quickly that there was no thinking involved, I just wanted the pain to stop and to leave the chair. The dentist was really freaked out but didn’t lose his cool with me. He did say “never do that again, it’s so dangerous, you could have really hurt yourself” in a very quiet voice. I apologised and then burst into tears, not my usual tears which are quiet and restrained but full on chest heaving sobs where I could barely speak. The dental nurse gently rubbed my arm and dried my eyes. I cried so much that the shoulders of the top I was wearing were wet. When I later looked at myself in the car on the way home, I resembled something like Alice Cooper with mascara all down my face.

I think at this point the dentist didn’t think I would allow him to continue but rational Rach walked back into the room. As long as I had adequate pain relief I would be able to continue. I had told him on 1st November that local anesthetic wears off quickly with me and he would only have a small window of opportunity to get the job done. I guess sometimes they don’t believe their patients and need to see it to believe it. I wish they would take what we say as the truth because if he had, I wouldn’t have had to go through that.

I often joke that it’s been a good appointment if the dentist still has all his fingers, I guess now the joke will be it's been a good appointment if I haven’t grabbed the dentist's drill or tried to escape the chair mid appointment.

The dentist was a little surprised when I could feel the third injection go in, that part of my gum should have been numb but it wasn’t and proved the point that the original injection for the second filling had worn off. He waited a few minutes before beginning work again. I told him before he started that I would sit on my right hand so that should the urge to grab the drill come over me I physically couldn’t. We agreed that should I feel anything I was to raise my left hand and he would stop. This was the system I had in place with my last dentist and it had worked well, although I have never had to sit on my hand before. But then I have never ripped a dentist’s drill from my mouth either.

After all that drama the second filling went off smoothly. I left the dentist’s without face planting but by the time I got home I needed to just crawl into bed. Today I feel the same but my back is so sore from having so many days in bed lately that I am hanging on for as long as possible before returning.

I don’t have to attend the dentist until March 2017 and that is to see the hygienist, my teeth still need cleaned. I am apprehensive about it as it seems all the nerves of my mouth are on the outer edges of my teeth. At least the anxiety of the dentist’s appointment and the recovery time needed after this little jaunt out have stopped me thinking about my trip to Bath. every cloud eh?