Whine but no cheese...

Some of you may have heard I had a root canal back in Nov and enjoyed the nitrous oxide and valium while having 1/2 the civilized world climbing into my mouth. heh. It was almost fun - I got to get high **legally**! Well, Tues I went to my long time dentist (really - 20 yrs) for the first crown fitting. Now, this man KNOWS that I have panic attacks and that I need nitrous and valium and headphones and a bit more time than most so the various drugs actually start to work.

I took 20mg of valium before the visit so I was doing OK when I got there. Got into the chair and the dentist was in a hell of a hurry. He popped the hose over my nose for the nitrous and wanted to start right in grinding off that tooth. I tried to tell him I was not having any reaction yet to the nitrous and that I needed more time, but he started grinding away.

In short, I had a panic attack. Bit his hand, scrambled out of the chair trailing hoses and drills, scuttled across floor on hands and knees trying to escape. Sande had left the building and only the 300 lb gorilla was home. Then I had an asthma attack brought on by the panic attack and it was touch and go for a while. Oh, did I mention that I wet myself? Yeah, that too.

And what did my dentist have to say? "Come on, only a bit left to go." I told him I *had* to have a few mins to let the nitrous work, that the adrenaline from the panic had burned off all the valium and I was still on the edge of panic. I was allowed 60 seconds and then he pried open my mouth to start grinding some more. Yeah, more panic. This time I didn't bite him, but whatever he had in my mouth cut into my gums and the roof of my mouth. The arms of the chair bruised me up a lot, too. I was not at the top of my game yesterday, to say the least. I still feel pretty drained and fuzzy from the aftermath of the adrenaline. I'm supposed to go back in 3 weeks for the real crown. I don't know if I can..