Mr Dentist!

Everything rots in the end...



The dentist has me in his chair! Strapped down and powerless to fight off his powerful rubber-clad hands! His mask speaks to me.....tells me what needs doing. One of three possible routes. The first being to fill the recently opened cavity......but he says that just by looking at it, it is probably too deep and won't take a filling. But he will have to look properly first.....get right in there and look see! But not until next week. Wednesday in fact! Fill me up with Factor VIII, swallow a handful of Transatlantic tablets (Tranexamic Acid), sit back and open WIDE!
Option two is a straight forward extraction. Take the bastard thing out completely, once & for all. No more worries, no more problems......just the one sitting....great. Then there is the third and last option. Root canal surgery. Dig into the tooth and clean out the canals, fill them and crown over if necessary.
I'm not totally in Love with any of them to be quite honest. I do hope though that just a filling is required. But failing that, I would probably go for a bloody extraction. The root stuff he said, would require at least three or four visits to complete, with a few weeks in between each visit. I don't fancy that! From the little I have read about root canal dental work & tooth extractions, I am beginning to wish that I had cleaned my teeth when I was young boy. The feeling is a little remenicent of the time when I left a £1200 mountain bike unlocked outside a newsagents to buy a single pint of milk for 20 seconds (I could still see the front wheel by the open door).......it got nicked! I have only myself to blame! I learned from that experience......like brushing my teeth tonight, I am learning.
If anyone reading this has any recommendations on the choices that I have been given, they would be greatly appreciated. The only thing bothering me about the extraction is the bleeding! I don't care about the pain so much. And the thing I don't like about the root canal work is the fact that it can fail down the line sometime, and cause more problems. And the thought of going back several times to get it finished just does my head in! At least the extraction is just the one job.....all done and dusted on the day so to speak. And at least they will all be carried out in the same chair with just a local. No overnight stays like in the old days (Haemophilia) with my Dad asleep in a bed next to mine. I was a kid at the time;)
This part of my mouth (my lower left side, at the back) has been bothering me for years. I just want it gone! Just don't you dare make my mouth bleed to much Mr Dentist! Or else!

So the next seven days build-up to the whatever is done, I will be a grumpy, miserable old sod! God knows what I will be like in the days after next Wednesday! I just won't see anyone. I may be surprised though. It may go so well, I may kiss the dentist. I will take my mind off the impending butchery with plenty of cycling and eating kebab shop bought Humus, as all the Humus in the supermarkets have been taken off the shelves as it has been contaminated with semolina.......Salmonella sorry;) It is more expensive but doesn't half taste better. MMMmmmm!
I have a bike ride planned for tomorrow (it will be tomorrow in 5 minutes;) as it happens. It will be an exact copy of the 33 mile ride I did last Wednesday around the two Royal Parks that I live right bang in the middle of. Kind of a giant figure of eight. I want to see if my old fashioned way of mile mapping is as accurate as it is supposed to be, by doing the whole lot exactly the same but with a modern bicycle trip computer. I shall let you all know presuming I'm not drowned in the forecasted rain for tomorrow. But according to Metcheck.com it should have stopped raining by about two or three pm. 'British weather forecasters'.........I think I will take my waterproof & an extra banana with me;) I got my i-pod charging as we speak...type....read....blog.....whatever. That and it's 1000 tracks should help me get through the rain I am sure. I shall be wearing my new 'Medic-Alert' bracelet too. A nice blue one. I thought about a red one but then decided against it incase there was so much blood it would be invisible and the paramedics might not see it;) Black would have been the same colour as my sleeve and therefore invisible also, so blue it was. The same colour as Ample's lost watch, that was.....found again.....in a dream.....then in real life.....spooky eh;). Also blue is the same colour as the light on a Police car or ambulance or the sea or sky or my favourite movies;).........or the gowns worn by operating theatre staff in some hospitals. So it seems blue is more red than red.....in a funny Jason kind of way.

Let me just finish with the wonderful pancakes I scoffed over at my Mums tonight. It was Shrove Tuesday. I have no idea what it means, but I enjoyed it anyway:) I had all the mixture ready and waiting for me. Flour, milk & eggs all whisked together, poured straight into a hot shallow pan with a little oil and toss half way. All four of them went perfick.........we can paint over the ones stuck to the ceiling like we did last year;) My Mum had some black cherry jam, vanilla sugar (great for the teeth) and lemon juice. Thanks Mum:)


Jason






(C) JPT 2007

43rd Injection & The Man in My Mouth!

My wall is well built, tall and very very strong!


Yesterday I was told to meet two people in a very small windowless room in the bowels of a giant concrete building. I went there feeling a little anxious but mostly curious as to what was going to happen to me once I was under their complete control. In this room I was sat down by a masked man and a masked woman! I was asked to relax and was told everything would be alright & that they would be performing a procedure on me not too dissimilar to some kinds of medieval torture! As I lay back in the grey PVC covered chair I interlocked my fingers together resting them, my hands and my arms across my slow heaving chest and looked straight ahead at this alien looking arm that seemed to extend out from the wall directly infront of me. From the end of this arm shone two tiny spot light beams which seemed to make a b-line for my eyes. I was temporarily blinded and quickly closed my eyes! Then through my red eyelids I could see the light was moving away from my eyes and down slightly towards my mouth. I was asked to open my mouth where a large metal & glass syringe was duly positioned into it. I felt a sharp stabbing pain as the long steel needle which was screwed onto the end of the syringe was inserted into the thin flesh covering my jaw bone in one corner of the very inside of my wide open mouth! After what seemed like 20 minutes of various sounds very similar to drawers sliding open then sliding back shut, cupboard doors opening then closing, footsteps to and fro in the space just behind me, the masked man & woman came back over and said that they were now ready and would continue with the procedure. I was then told to raise my hand if the pain that was going to be inflicted upon me became all too much for me.

One hour and one half of........
Drilling,
clamping,
scraping,
stamping,
numbness,
digging,
saliva ridding,
fingers,
thumbs,
elbows,
numb bums,
jets of water,
jets of air,
suction tubes,
mouth rinses,
one chair!


I never did raise my hand in surrenderment. I was far to stubborn to give in to these two high powered drill wielding maniacs!

Jason

P.s. I took the photo when I visited Inverlochy Castle in Fort William back in June this Summer. It was built in the 1200's and Ben Nevis keeps his beady little eye on it;) I Love this part of the world!

P.p.s. My 43rd Interferon injection went very well again. Just 5 more to go..........then what M? What are you going to use then eh;) he he:)




(C) JPT 2006

From the Mouths of......Babies! (& 37th injection)

My Pumpkin, 31st October, 2006

Yes, well what did i tell you! I hate dentists! There I was, waiting in the.....erm......waiting area, contemplating all the pain & blood to come for the next week or so. Playing my GameBoy Tetris (I've never met anyone who can beat me yet) listening to the drill spinning around at 10,000 MPH, in someone else's poor mouth. But.............It wasn't so bad at all this time:) I was completely taken by surprise. No pain & no blood! Same dentist too! Also, I had an injection in my gum which made my face completely numb (looking at a clock face) from about 14:30 to 18:30. Actually, it lasted about that long in real time too. I never had an injection like that at the dentist before. I spoke to my Mum and she said that they couldn't put needles into my mouth when I was a child because of my Haemophila. Hence all the painful memerories from having no face numbing juice!
It did feel odd though. Almost as if someone had drilled a little hole into the back of my skull (without the pain obviously), right up into the base of the tooth they were working on and bolted a length of metal cable to the root of the tooth and then hung a 20lbs weight from it!
I never knew how big my mouth was! For 45 minutes (I timed it) I had numerous rubber clad fingers, pipes blowing thin jets of air into my cavities, pipes spraying thin jets of water into them too, pipes for sucking out all my gob, various metal instruments ideal for scraping, picking & digging! And of course a rather nifty handheld drill (high speed.....I heard him ask for one). I nearly laughed when I thought of the scene in Only Fools & Horses where Delboy, after waiting for his face to go numb, says to the receptionist; "I'll just shit ere then".
I was worried over absolutely nothing in the end! Such a big baby;) I'm not scared of many things in life. I have mountain biked over terrain that would give my Mum a heart attack, sat on the edge of Beachy Head, legs dangling over the side, nearly set fire to my bedroom when I was a kid making homemade fireworks! But I can't have a little bit of dental work:) Makes me laugh really. I just hope it is the same kind of experience next month when the other tooth will be drilled!

The day was not completely pain free I might add! I had got to the RFH early, so my Haemophiliac nurses could put me under the cover of Factor VIII. I don't see why I can't do it at home myself. I felt like a 5 year old again, having a Doctor give me an injection. I watched in horror as only about one inch of blood was drawn before the Factor VIII was pushed in! So there I was waiting to get the bends from about 13 inches of air being pumped into my vein! Not to mention the air in the syringe too!
I didn't get the bends........I think I have always had the bends.....no way of telling:)
But in between the cover and the dental work, I had about 2 hours to kill. The first thing on my mind was getting some fresh air! I just cannot breathe properly in hospitals! Nor trains & buses! So off I went, as it was a fine crisp, sunny day, for a walk into Hampstead Heath, which is right across the road from the hospital.
After about half an hour, My right ankle was hurting! I wished I had my bike with me. I could've done the whole park.....without the pain. I headed back to the RFH and had some lunch, brushed my teeth and sat down with my Tetris. But by the time I got back to Richmond train Stn to catch another to Twickenham, I could hardly walk through the pain! From Twickenham Stn to the Car was a bloody nightmare! Took me about 15 minutes to walk 1/4 mile! I was so relieved to get home to a nice injection and a Lovely warm bath:)
It was a shame about the ankle pain yesterday, as I was all set to go for a cycle ride in the evening. But my ankle feels ok at the moment and tonight is cycle night with my friend Lee:) I must text him to arrange it. There is a firework display up on Leith Hill. Bit of a local do. They have a massive bonfire ready to set fire to! Lee & I are going to drive there and cycle to it from the other side of the hill. The parking will be a nightmare near the fire. It is such a tiny little village Coldharbour! In the middle of nowhere really. I'd Love to live there.......just me & my bike:)

Last night also saw my 37th Interferon injection desperately trying to find some more Hep C virus to do battle with! Not many left now......if any! They're all lying face down in the blood soaked grass, with giant, swaying swords towering over their gutless stomachs, pinning them to the earth for good! The stench is unbearable.......but the Victory is relentless!
No sides still, which is nice:) Infact it is bloody wonderful not to have any sides!

Jason

Pain Is Weakness Leaving The Body

Brixton, London.

This is what I have been dreading for some time now! I only have myself to blame I suppose. My teeth have never been the best in toothdom! I was a lazy bastard when I was a boy! Hardly ever brushed my teeth! I do now of course, but I think it is too late. One of My chewing teeth cracked last night when I was eating something! It wasn't even something hard! The loose part of the tooth is still in there, but very loose! No pain......yet! When I bite on it, or it comes out, then I will feel it! Also that side of my mouth has seen a massive increase in usage over the last 3 or so months, due to the fact that my natural side for chewing food has been causing me plenty of pain! So I switched sides.
I will explain in a moment just why I think I hate dentists so much! But first I will just say that I went to the RFH today and was seen this afternoon. The dentist was all ready to carry out a temporary repair. I needed some Factor VIII to cover for any (which there will be plenty of) bleeding! But my Haemophilia Docs said that they wanted me to start a course of A/B's to prevent any infection. And come back tomorrow for the dentist. So I got my a/b's and have already started them, also got some Tranexamic Acid (Trans Atlantic Acid:) for the bleeding I will get! I ain't to pleased at all! I really need the work done, but I am not looking forward to all the blood and pain!

So, Why do I hate the dentist so much?

Well, really it has a lot to do with the experience I had right after I was told I had HIV! I remember going to the dentist, as I did regularly, and when I was sent into the chair, I was half expecting E.T. to run through the room! The last time I was in there, everyone looked like normal, everyday dental peeps. But that time everyone looked more like they were collecting samples from the crater of a volcano! Covered from head to foot in plastic clothing and visors, under which were saftey googles! The whole room was like a giant version of Laura Palmer from Twin Peaks!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Wrapped in plastic!
Anyway, Apart from all the earlier experiences of bleeding gums (profusely) after surgery etc, which took a few weeks to heal! And not even mentioning the pain too.........I was quite well & truly put off from ever going back by this visit!
I did begin to go back about 3 years ago however, all was ok but after more and more bleeding from just having them cleaned I was beginning to wish I had stayed away! Work would definitely need doing sometime in the near future, but I left it, then all of a sudden I was on Hep C treatment and just hoped that nothing would happen whilst on tx. But I have had some nasty pain the last 2-3 months on one side, which made me switch, which caused this new problem! I just want it over now and am willing to except any pain & bleeding! I just hope I don't get any infections! Hospitals are not the cleanest of places!

Having said all that, I am really looking forward to having good teeth again! Christmas seems like less of an Unknow Pleasure now.

Just finished my 1512th Ribavirin tablet & 9th bottle emptied! See what I mean about the number nine! Even the amount of tablets adds up!

Bring on the PAIN!!!!

Jason