A bloody affair...

It was late morning in a cold and bright lit room. A dentist and nurse were hard at work dealing with the hardest case the day has ever seen. Blood splurged from the wound. Overhead lamp, t-shirt, mask, spectacles, sleeve, gloves and forehead are all but victims of the reddish composition of haemoglobin and such. Never did this panicked the master surgeon and his assistant as they tried even harder to cut, slice, drill, pull, clinch and finally extract what was left in the severed gum - the wisdom tooth!

Case closed....

So you think. I headed as usual at 9am in the morning to the dentist after a big bowl of "pan mee" from a hawker centre that I usually visited last time. It seemed usual because it was just a week ago that I made the same visit to the dentist to get my impacted wisdom tooth checked. Well, it's only a minor surgery- so I thought; it wouldn't take long before everything is finished and I would be happily hopping home right after the short procedure in the dentist's clinic.

"I came for my appointment to surgically remove my wisdom tooth." I told the nurse as I registered my name. "Oh, have you had a big meal already?" "Because, you would not be able to eat at all after a few hours after the surgery." She told me so that I would be prepared. I happily answered. "Yes, I've taken a big meal before this and I am very full now." "Have you taken your medication before coming?" She asked again. "Yes, I have; right after my breakfast." I answered abruptly. "Make sure you take 2 antibiotics because it is very hard for the wound to heal later." She alternatively responded. I thought to myself, "oh, well; 1 more antibiotic should make the wound heal faster I guess." So another dose of antibiotic pill was my booster for breakfast that morning.

"Cuckoo, Cuckoo!" Clock strucked 10am. Dr. N and his wife (a medical practicioner) came leisurely and entered their clinic through the back door. "Don't have to worry! I can do this." I thought to myself. I stood there with my Archie comic laid aside and prayed again. It was very touching that some of the text messages I received that morning was full of encouragement. Knowing that there are friends concerned about me made my day better tremendously. "Well, I know that God is with me and they(my friends) are praying for me." "No need to be panicky now." I thought to myself again.

"Chak Sin!" came the nurse from behind the door of the office. In cantonese it means remove stitches. Well, direct translation would be dismantle string if you would ask me. Hmmph... Well, I guess I have to be a gentlemen and let all those "Chak Sin" people in first because their procedure takes much lesser time than mine. I didn't even know how long mine will take. Well, God knows how long and I'm sure he'll take good care of me. "Bou Ngar!" came the nurse again. This time she's asking those who came to do "filling" to enter first. Well, being the gentlemen I am; I smiled at the nurse and continued waiting. Almost fell asleep a few times while waiting but somehow there was a little bit of tremour feeling deep inside. This is going to be my first surgical procedure in a dental clinic!

"Boy!" "Your turn!" Hah, finally; I get to go into the office and get a look at the doctor.... and his nurse of course. Well, nothing to brag about. The only thing I should focus on is - my tooth...Sigh! After switching off my phone, I asked the doctor how long will it take. He answered in a calm manner that he does not work with time. "Omigosh! I might be in here forever." I thought. It was 10.50am and he made me bite a roundish plastic matter in my mouth and pushed a large suction thing right on my right cheek. What on earth is that you might think. Well, for those of you who thought that it is to blast my tooth to pieces so that it would be easy to extract out; it was just an X-ray machine =P

As, I looked at the slide; I felt sad as it is really proven that my wisdom tooth was impacted. It grew at a horizontal angle just behind my visible last tooth and would eventually push all my other teeth out of place. Hence, there was nothing that can be done except removing it. I took a deep breath as he motioned me to move to the other surgical chair where he injected anaesthetic into 3 different areas in my gum and asked me to wait outside for the medicine to take effect. Well, another 30 minutes passed as I waited patiently outside the office again looking at other patients going in to get their teeth fixed. Mine would be the longest of the day, I thought.

It was 11.30 as I was called once again into the office. This time, I was invited into a surgical chair full of instruments that I don't even know what they are for. The nurse placed a towel on my chest and tied it around my neck and adjusted the seat for me to lie "comfortably" so that Dr. N can start doing the procedure. (I'm still shivering as I write this down)

WARNING!!!! CODE RED!!! (if you consider yourself as fainthearted, please do not read on... Press alt, F4 and this window will close)

Dr. N started by using a sharp edged tool to poke into my gum to reveal the hidden tooth lying underneath it. (It was horrifying to know that the whole surgery did not involve using any knife to slice my gums.) He continued to poke and scrapped until much of the tooth was visible. (Well, I can only tell you what I saw from my point of view. If you want more visual details; you can ask Dr.N himself.) Just by poking and scrapping there was a lot of blood that gushed out from my wound. If not for the suction hose placed permanently in my mouth; I think there would be more blood splurged everywhere.

Then, the drill came. It was a healthy and strong tooth. The only way to take out the tooth is to drill it into pieces to ease the process of pulling it out. It felt like I was at the mercy of Dr. N as he forcefully drilled into the teeth causing me to shiver in my seat. (I was shivering as a normal reflex. It felt cold as the air-cond was above me and I just couln't control my wobbly legs from jittering). Altogether, the tooth was drilled into 4 pieces at different junctures because he pulled out 1 piece at a time.

After the drill, there was a tiny instrument that had saw like teeth at the edge that he used. That was really unforgettable. He pressed very hard on my tooth and started the instrument with a loud "BRRRRRRR" sound like sawing my tooth out. He pressed on my teeth so hard that I felt that my jaw was almost coming off. I had no one to call for help except Jesus. I thought in my mind " Lord, please let this tooth come out easily."

Then came another poking device which he used to screw right into the tooth. Dr. N had to place one hand on the other side of my face while pushing with all his might into my tooth on the other end. I made some noise wenn this was done because I could feel the pain. (He gave me more anaesthetic injection) He clenched the screwing device that functioned like a plier again and again until he got a good hold on the tooth and pulled with all his might. Twisting and turning and finally pulling out the first quarter of the damaged tooth. There were 3 more to go. (When is this going to end?) - 50 minutes.

Throughout the surgery, the dentist only made one conversation with me. "Your tooth is embedded very deep in your gum and it is very hard to extract it." I couldn't respond to tell him how scared I am. I couldn't even yell "help" for there were gadgets in my mouth forbiding me to move. I wanted to say that it was painful at some point but all I can do was to make noises such as "NnNgrh...Aaargh...mgggghhh". It was totally out of my control since the starting of the surgery. The only glimpse of how my wound looked throughout the surgery was only through a faint reflection on the dentist's spectacles.

I got out of the dental clinic after collecting my medicine and made my way back to my car parked some distance away and drove home to an empty house with no one around and tried to lie down to forget the horrible experience I had. I still had to fetch my mom from school and bring her somewhere that day. It was almost 1pm when I reached home.

I felt very alone that day. Knowing that the only one who was with me all the time was Jesus. I had to realize that Jesus was with me the hard way after sharing with my mom later in the evening...

Catch the recovery period in the next entry...=)