Doctors and Surgeries

I’m back with yet another monologue that no one asked for. After failing to keep my blog alive, despite (forgotten) promises and determined (lazy) decisions, I wish to write about something that I experienced today.

I spent the entire previous week cribbing about some random inflammation inside my cheek and I obviously didn’t think much of it. Days were spent casually hoping of the cheek’s miraculous natural recovery but of course that did not happen. I finally visited the dentist yesterday. I was told how my wisdom teeth were the real culprits behind the irritation in my mouth! Stupidly growing out in directions they were not supposed to, my wisdom teeth had nothing better to do but blister my poor skin.

I was then told I had to get wisdom teeth removal surgeries done. The entire day was spent getting X-rayed, contacting other specialists/dentists in the family, buying medicines and, last but not the least, panicking. I also talked to a lot of my friends, asking everyone if they had gotten their wisdom teeth removed and how was their experience like but surprisingly my sister was the only close person who had gotten it done. She literally described her whole experience – and I love her for doing so – but my god it was scary. She talking about (sorry for the graphic TMI) spitting blood, getting gums stitched and anesthesia injections, and it was traumatizing but at least I got to know what to expect.

The next day was spent desperately trying to distract my mind from the perpetual thoughts of the surgery. But the time came, and after a 45 minute drive, we reached the clinic late afternoon. The surgeon was actually pretty amazing (and had a super soothing voice). He explained the whole problem with my teeth, the several options of removal procedures and every other relevant detail. I had the option of either getting hospitalized for a day and removing all four of my teeth at once, or coming for individual tooth removals at the surgeon’s clinic. I kind of felt like getting the pain out of the way at once and thought of getting them all removed together but the general anesthesia, expenses and the pandemic made us all a little hesitant to get hospitalized.

And so, I decided to get at least that one upper tooth removed for the time being at the clinic; the particular one which irritated my skin the most. It was an interesting experience to say the least. They first apply an anesthetic gel, give you anesthetic injections, and then use specific tools to remove the tooth. Experiencing anesthesia in your mouth is one of the strangest feelings ever. Your skin feels heavy, dense but at the same time so intangible that you would want to touch it just to confirm it’s still attached to you! The whole procedure was over even before I could process what happened.

I can’t even imagine how crazy a doctor’s profession is. It’s just insane to think about the level of skill, expertise, patience and confidence a person must have to literally fix someone else’s body. It just makes me respect the profession so much because honestly I could never ever have that much of confidence to actually pick up tools and fix something inside someone’s living body; I would end up panicking multiple times during the operation if I became a surgeon.

My visit ended with the doctor giving me a list of Do’s and Don’ts after the surgery, me smirking (which sadly went unnoticed because of the masks) at my mother at the mention of two to three scoops of ice cream and unforgettably, receiving a small box with a red lid, containing my annoying wisdom tooth. What a weird, interesting, exhausting day! But I kind of liked it.

Doctors and surgeries – I’m still in awe of the former and wary of the latter. But I guess the the awe would always keep making me trust the former enough to go forward with the latter..

*The credits for the picture attached go to Brainless Tales.