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Piltdown
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
 Posted - 07/15/2002 : 01:00:52
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Sometime about the first part of the week, I developed some pain in one of my rear bottom molars. Now, I think I am pretty lucky to have reached the age of 53 with my natural teeth intact, including the so-called "wisdom" teeth that everyone else seemed to have so much trouble with. Alas, it is catching up with me. The pain turned into a toothache, which got worse in a hurry. On Thursday morning I called my dentist and got an appointment for the next day. By Thursday night, it was hurting like all the furies in hell. As I was leaving work, however, an unbelievably horrible spasm gripped me. I have some experience with pain, including a couple of bullet wounds and a compound rib fracture, but this was the worst ever. It was as though someone had shoved a red-hot poker into the side of my face.
This peaked as I was unlocking my car in the parking lot. Along with the excruciating pain in my jaw, I was also starting to feel some chest pain, numbness in my hands and legs, and some light-headedness. Next thing I remember, I was lying face up in a bright room with all kinds of people standing around jamming needles into me. My first thought was that these folks looked a lot like the ill-fated Heaven's Gate cultists, since some of them appeared to wear purple coveralls. Were I not such a dyed-in-the-wool-skeptic, I might have suspected that I had been abducted by aliens and they were starting their diabolical experiments. As my mind cleared, I realized that the purple garments were scrubs and there were also green ones and some white lab coats with "so-and-so MD" printed above the left pocket.
It transpired that I had passed out cold, and fallen on the pavement, cutting my scalp in the process. A security guard spotted me and summoned an ambulance. When I came around at the emergency room, the doctor asked a few questions, looked at some figures and decided to transfer me to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at University Medical Center. EEEEK! I stayed there 21 hours, they poked me a couple dozen more times and plastered me with a bunch of fiercely adhesive little patches, connected to an array of machines that would do justice to the control room of the Orion spaceship. I was unable to sleep, what with the head cut and various needle-sticks and adhesive burns added to the toothache, and doors slamming and people jabbering constantly around me.
Friday morning came, eventually, and I tried to persuade the resident, a young woman from Thailand, that I had to get loose to go to a dentist's appointment. She explained, "Oh, no; toothache not kill you, heart problem kill you, must stay till we are sure." At that point, I was inclined to argue that that a toothache could, in fact, be fatal. I finally managed to call the dentist to cancel my appointment. Fortunately, a sudden rainstorm had flooded their office and they had cancelled all appointments themselves so I would not be charged with the late cancellation. I was finally released about 6PM with a clean bill of cardiac health. It appeared to have been a kind of shock reaction from the pain of the toothache. Among other things, this can mimic the symptoms of a severe cardiac episode. The doctors, about a dozen IIRC, decided that the tooth was infected and they prescribed antibiotics as an early start on my dental visit, now delayed till Monday. In the meantime, I am using Anbesol (over-the-counter benzocaine) and Tylenol to counteract the pain. I can't eat at all, and can't drink anything except, oddly, V-8 vegetable juice.
I will be headed for the dentist's office later this morning, but, at this rate, I may just go camp out on the doorstep till he gets there.
Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
-Robert Lindner
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Tokyodreamer
SFN Regular
USA
1447 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2002 : 05:51:13 [Permalink]
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My goodness! That sounds like some excitement I could live without. I'm glad it wasn't a heart attack.
Here's to hoping the dentist arrives early...
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You can tell she's hydrolic...
Her silver scream is supersonic
You can see the mercury smear in her eye... |
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PhDreamer
SFN Regular
USA
925 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2002 : 07:21:09 [Permalink]
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Helluva tale, Kil. Glad everything's (mostly) alright.
Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.
-D. Hume |
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 07/15/2002 : 09:46:04 [Permalink]
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quote:
I can't eat at all, and can't drink anything except, oddly, V-8 vegetable juice.
I will be headed for the dentist's office later this morning, but, at this rate, I may just go camp out on the doorstep till he gets there.
Wow! D, you just lived through my worst nightmare. Fainting on the street and being taken in an ambulance. Glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been, should you have really had a heart attack.
I am about your age, still have (most of) my wisdom teeth, in spite of the constant advice to have them out. One of them did have to be pulled because of the same pain you described. It was decayed. Sometimes doctors are right!
Thanks for the (painful) memories.
After a while the truma will be a distant thought and will feel much better. Sure hope you do.
nlm
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*Carabao forever
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Bye, bye Los Angeles. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY SECESSION - YES
All lives are movie settings, it's what channel you're on that counts. Zatikia
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Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 07/16/2002 : 07:49:39 [Permalink]
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That's something we call "Luck o' the Irish" where something nasty happens to you but you miss getting hit by something much worse.
Passing out in the parking lot is awful--but not as awful as it would have been a few minutes later when you were at 60 MPH. You're one lucky guy.
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My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations. ---Thomas Henry Huxley, 1860 |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13481 Posts |
Posted - 07/16/2002 : 11:35:10 [Permalink]
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quote:
In the meantime, I am using Anbesol (over-the-counter benzocaine) and Tylenol to counteract the pain.
Screw the Tylenol. Get some Ibuprophen. 800 mg's would probably do it. Or call the dentist or doctor and get something better. There is no reason to sit there in pain until your visit...
Oh wait. You probably have something better by now.
File this suggestion under:
The next time this happens.
The Evil Skeptic
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous. |
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Piltdown
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 07/16/2002 : 18:04:21 [Permalink]
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quote:
Screw the Tylenol. Get some Ibuprophen. 800 mg's would probably do it. Or call the dentist or doctor and get something better. There is no reason to sit there in pain until your visit...
Oh wait. You probably have something better by now.
File this suggestion under:
The next time this happens.
I'll try the ibuprofen. The dentist wanted me to stay on antibiotics for a couple of days before he extracts the bad tooth. This is now scheduled for Thursday morning. In the meantime, the pain has subsided a little, probably from the antibiotics reducing the infection. BTW, the bill for all this, so far, has come to $4,730.45, including the ambulance, and it will get higher (though not by much) before it is over. I have comprehensive health insurance to cover it, but it sure makes me more aware of the plight of the many millions of Americans who do not have health insurance. It is a disgrace that such a situation still exists in this country in the 21st century.
Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
-Robert Lindner
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Snake
SFN Addict
USA
2511 Posts |
Posted - 07/16/2002 : 21:53:51 [Permalink]
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quote:
BTW, the bill for all this, so far, has come to $4,730.45, including the ambulance, and it will get higher (though not by much) before it is over.
Holly shit! I know that's about what the average charge is but IMO they do pad it.
What gets me is that we pay taxes for city services like emergency ambulances and yet they still expect the individul who uses it to pay.....again.
quote:
I have comprehensive health insurance to cover it, but it sure makes me more aware of the plight of the many millions of Americans who do not have health insurance. It is a disgrace that such a situation still exists in this country in the 21st century.
Not that I don't understand what you are saying and agree somewhat but the poor get a lot of service.....FREE on our dollar.
* * * * * *
*Carabao forever
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Bye, bye Los Angeles. SAN FERNANDO VALLEY SECESSION - YES
All lives are movie settings, it's what channel you're on that counts. Zatikia
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