Friday April 1, 2005 - 11:45am :: I arrived at the Drs office, and quickly remembered why I wasn't happy with the surgeon the first time I met him. I went to a different office this time, hoping for a different atmosphere. But I was quickly disapointed. The office was unkept. Very. I'm sorry, I know Doctors are busy and their staff are as well but I think someone should be able to find the time to vaccum the carpet from time to time. My sister wouldn't even let my 3 year old nephew play on the floor because it looked as if no one had bothered to clean a thing in months. Then, as with the first office, the receptionist was extremely rude. We had an issue with my payment. In January, I was told that having the canine extracted and exposed, plus all 4 wisdom teeth removed would cost approx $550. Today, it was $950. Unfortunately, I didn't get the cheaper price in writing so I couldn't fight it. Instead, I opted for removing the two top wisdom and having the extraction/exposure. That was only $285. (with a $1000 from insurance..)
I was told that I would be taken in immediately, and that the procedure would last 30 minutes.
12:45pm :: I am finally called into the back. I go in the back, and the nurse (who was actually nice) started prepping everything. She told me to hang my jacket on the back of the door, and to push up my right sleeve. She began to give me the needle that would knock me out. After about 5 minutes I felt VERY woozy. Not tired, but spacey and dizzy. I sat there and waited for a little while longer.. apparently knockout meds don't work very quickly for me. I remember looking at the heartrate monitor and my heartrate was staying between 79-82.. which I guess is my normal rate. I spaced out and woke up a minute later. The doctor and the nurse were standing over me, and I was thinking "CRAP! I woke up before they even started!" But the nurse was like, "Hi honey we're almost all done!" So low and behold, I fell asleep for about 30-45 minutes
I'm now wide awake and aware of everything going on around me. I feel this extruciating pain and realize that the Dr is still working on me even though I am awake. I'm sure he's given me some novacaine, but for some reason I feel the last few things he does as if there's NOTHING to numb the pain. I happen to look at the heartrate monitor again while he's doing this and notice that my heartrate has shot up to 110. I'm informed at this point that the doctor didn't have the right sized bracket that I needed for the exposed tooth. The nurse said it was too large so they were going to have someone bring it from their other office and it would be about 45 more minutes. She tells me to just sit there and relax awhile. Time basically flew because I was so in and out of it. But at some point I hear the nurse call the other office and say something like "Hi so-and-so, this is (NAME) from the other office.. I need a.." and goes on to say the size and whatever she needed. She then says "Oh, thank you so much! I'll see you in a few minutes!" About 10 or 15 minutes pass, and I hear the receptionist come in the back to talk to the nurse. She says "Where's Dr. So-and-so?" (MY DOCTOR) And the nurse says he's gone to lunch and will be back around 2. A few minutes after this, the other lady from the other office arrive with the needed bracket. The nurse comes in and shows me the bracket.. and a minute or two after that, I see the doctor walk past the windows my chair is facing.
He comes into my room and doesn't say a single word to me. He immediately starts working on my UNNUMB mouth! I feel every single little thing he does to my mouth. Lots of scraping, pulling, and then applying the bracket. And then, worst of all, I swear to God that he put the stitches in my mouth with me wide awake.. with no novacaine. It hurt so bad!
After leaving the office, I learn that the nurse went outside to my sister in the waiting room and told her that it would be another 45 minutes because of the missing bracket. Then she told my sister that my DOCTOR was going to have to go get it! She blatently lied to my sister, because instead of doing that he went to get himself lunch and left me sitting in the chair for 45 minutes. Now, keep in mind I have NO stitches while he is gone so I am sitting there with my palate sliced wide open and bleeding profusely! The nurse changed my gauze at least 10 times while I was waiting.
I am VERY annoyed about this at the moment, and so is my mother. She is going to write a letter to whoever is in charge of regulating dentistry and oral surgeons, because this is an outrage. First, he lied to me, then he and his staff led my family and I to believe that he was leaving the building to do something that concerned my surgery and instead he left to eat-- leaving me with an open wound. Then no one explained a thing to me about my recovery, only to my sister who told them "I DON'T LIVE WITH HER! I can't help her with this, I won't be there!" and their snotty receptionist replied "Ugh well I don't have the time to wait and explain it to her!!" and pushed the papers and extra gauze at my sister.
Fast forward to healing: My mouth continued to bleed severely for about 2 hours and hurt so badly that I couldn't even sleep... and that was after 2 vicodin. The bleeding has stopped now, so I am okay but about to need some more pain meds because my palate/teeth/jaw/everything hurts like Hell. On the plus side, my wisdom teeth extractions don't hurt
lolPlease excuse any errors with time. When I was in the Drs office I really had no concept of time. It would seem like a minute passed when it was really 20..
Feel free to comment or question on anything!
Immediately afterwards, the pain wasn't that severe and I think a lot of the early pain I had was due to me feeling the stitches and some of the work he was doing. 