Doctor Becomes Patient, Part 2
Things seemed to be going pretty well after my dental procedures last week. The worst of the pain only lasted a couple of days, so I was able to resume working without missing a shift. Right before my last of three night shifts in a row, I noticed one of my tires was a little flat, and I remembered I had some Fix-A-Flat in my trunk. After a cursory inspection, it looked OK to me, so I proceeded to do a quick inflate/fix.
As soon as I screwed the tubing on the valve stem and pressed the button, BOOOOM!!!! It blew up in my face. With both eyes burning like hell, I ran blindly through my cluttered garage to the water faucet in my back yard. As I furiously scooped water into my face, I looked down and saw my arm had a couple of big chunks gouged out of it. I must have caught it on something as I ran. I didn't even feel it.
After a few minutes of irrigation, my eyes felt better but now my scrubs and shoes were soaked with water. And I was late for work. I can't stand being late for work. With my wife pleading, "Honey, you need to go to the ER!" (umm, that's where I'm going, sweetie) and my daughter crying "Is Daddy going to be blind now?" I changed clothes as fast as I could, and I borrowed my wife's car to go to work.
But that wasn't when I became a patient. Nope, I treated myself for all of that.
The next day, my tooth began hurting again. Not just my tooth, but the entire half of my face. And not just hurting, but HURTING! I called my dentist in the afternoon, and he was nice enough to come in after hours and give me another nerve block, which totally relieved my pain....for two hours. Then it came back worse than ever. My dentist had given me some of the anesthetic to inject myself as a nerve block, but it just wasn't working. I was writhing in agony, crying out with intolerable pain.
So I went to the ER where I work, tears rolling down my face the whole way, running red lights and speeding recklessly to the hospital at 3 am. My dentist had called one of his colleagues who had agreed to see me in the morning, but I just could not wait. One of my partners took pity on me and gave me a shot of Demerol which allowed me to catch a couple of hours sleep. I'd never had it before. It did help my pain, but I didn't get a "buzz" and it really didn't seem to be the sort of thing that people would malinger for. Maybe it's more enjoyable if you aren't really in pain.
Then I had the root canal, and here I sit back home praying that that horrible awful pain doesn't come back. I have an entirely new respect for dental pain, my fellow patients, and I will not make you wait ever again before medicating you.
UPDATE: Amazingly, 18 hours later, I have zero pain except with pressure on the involved tooth. I really had serious concerns that there might be another coexisting condition (trigeminal neuralgia, brain tumor, aneurysm?) that we were missing, but it seems that it all came from that rotten tooth and exposed nerve.
As soon as I screwed the tubing on the valve stem and pressed the button, BOOOOM!!!! It blew up in my face. With both eyes burning like hell, I ran blindly through my cluttered garage to the water faucet in my back yard. As I furiously scooped water into my face, I looked down and saw my arm had a couple of big chunks gouged out of it. I must have caught it on something as I ran. I didn't even feel it.
After a few minutes of irrigation, my eyes felt better but now my scrubs and shoes were soaked with water. And I was late for work. I can't stand being late for work. With my wife pleading, "Honey, you need to go to the ER!" (umm, that's where I'm going, sweetie) and my daughter crying "Is Daddy going to be blind now?" I changed clothes as fast as I could, and I borrowed my wife's car to go to work.
But that wasn't when I became a patient. Nope, I treated myself for all of that.
The next day, my tooth began hurting again. Not just my tooth, but the entire half of my face. And not just hurting, but HURTING! I called my dentist in the afternoon, and he was nice enough to come in after hours and give me another nerve block, which totally relieved my pain....for two hours. Then it came back worse than ever. My dentist had given me some of the anesthetic to inject myself as a nerve block, but it just wasn't working. I was writhing in agony, crying out with intolerable pain.
So I went to the ER where I work, tears rolling down my face the whole way, running red lights and speeding recklessly to the hospital at 3 am. My dentist had called one of his colleagues who had agreed to see me in the morning, but I just could not wait. One of my partners took pity on me and gave me a shot of Demerol which allowed me to catch a couple of hours sleep. I'd never had it before. It did help my pain, but I didn't get a "buzz" and it really didn't seem to be the sort of thing that people would malinger for. Maybe it's more enjoyable if you aren't really in pain.
Then I had the root canal, and here I sit back home praying that that horrible awful pain doesn't come back. I have an entirely new respect for dental pain, my fellow patients, and I will not make you wait ever again before medicating you.
UPDATE: Amazingly, 18 hours later, I have zero pain except with pressure on the involved tooth. I really had serious concerns that there might be another coexisting condition (trigeminal neuralgia, brain tumor, aneurysm?) that we were missing, but it seems that it all came from that rotten tooth and exposed nerve.
Labels: patients
posted by scalpel at 12:46 PM
3 Comments:
A one time injection of meperidine may not be enough for you to appreciate the high - especially given your degree of pain.
I had a meperidine PCA following major surgery. On POD 2 I noticed that each PCA bolus was followed by a nice little "high" feeling; unfortunately it also created searing pain in my forearm where the IV was. Got switched to PO meds the next day cuz the arm pain was so bad.
Hope your root canal ends the dental pain. I needed 2 root canals on the same tooth because the dentist didn't get the entire root (? collateral root or something like that). Nasty pain that was; and like you mentioned previously, Vicodin only partially controlled it.
CardioNP
I've never saw the fascination in Demerol. All it ever did to me was make me sleepy. No buzz whatsoever. The only drug that ever rung my bell was the Dilaudid PCA during my three say hospital stay after a tibial tubercle revision when I was 24 years old.
Vicodin, Percocet, Codeine...none of these do anything other than relieve pain, and on an empty stomach, make me a bit sleepy.
Was your tire mostly full? A friend of mine had a can blow off of a tire once...the tire was about 75% full of air. I've found thatletting most of the air out of the tire before applying the Fix-A-flat greatly reduces the chances of getting a facial.
Many years ago, when I was getting ready to get married I had a tooth that was in horrible need of a root canal. The pain was horrific. If I kept cold water on it, the pain would diminish. A nerve block did nothing for the pain. Neither did Demerol or the titrate of Dilaudid.
Cold water, and only cold water worked. Go figure. Ended up getting the root canal done, left the office happy only to be in extreme agony again once the freezing stopped. The other tooth was the actual problem!!!
Anyway, dental pain can be a bitch, the great thing about it is that it is easily taken care of. I was at a point where I would have gladly ripped my own tooth out to get rid of the agony. Opiates did not touch that pain one bit.
Best of luck with your tooth, and with your patients.
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