Crying In Public

Tom Hanks' character in the movie A League of Their Own said "there's no crying in baseball" to a sniveling sniffling blond fluffy girl.

Well, my dentist practically said the same thing to a sniffling blond fluffy me at my Tuesday afternoon dental appoinment coz I cried in public. In front of a lot of people. Crying in public. Painful.

First, the bite-wing Xrays which weren't bad.

Second, I had an unfamiliar dental hygienist (coz my familiar one was out unexpectedly) named Sunday (Sunday?!) who was nice but ROUGH and she poked me quite a few times. Thank god I had Taz to hold onto or she would have been decked the same number of times she poked me. However, I do have to give her credit for coming up with an alternative way to polish my two bottom front teeth because the vibration of the polisher when pressed hard against those two particular teeth makes me incredibly nauseous and squicky feeling - much like when you bang your funny bone only add mucho nausea to that tingly not-so-good feeling.

Third, the dentist, in examining me and the Xrays, determined that there is enough decalcification (read: decay, I asked!) to merit having a filling and some restoration work to close the gap between the teeth to keep food out and have the floss make the appropriate SNAP it's supposed to.

I cried on being informed of this.

I didn't bawl, I just had silent tears running down my face.

He asked me if this was an emotional breakdown, because he "couldn't handle this right now".

Then as he left the room and I could hear him (while I wiped my face) say to the others outside the room, "I have my limits."

??????

Apparently he did not remember that I'm a "red star" patient (read: major phobia, be careful and very very very gentle and kind) or the two hour filling he gave me last time in order to not hurt me or frighten me more than I already was.

I helped his memory along when he came back into the examining room, he offered me Valium. When I told him the Valium did not work last time, he then offered Valium plus Nitrous Oxide (sp?), the happy gas. He said "you will really like this stuff, it totally excentuates the Valium but you don't lose control, all you have to do is breath thru your mouth and the effect wears off quickly." It was almost like he takes the stuff himself and was "pushing" it on me. I also reminded him that last time he let me have a "dental buddy". He did not remember that and was resistant to this as he told me there was no room in the room. I told him I needed a dental buddy and was not going to get the procedure done unless I had one and he let me have one last time and and and, possibly more tears welled up at this point.

He folded and I get to have a dental buddy.

I tried to get the same buddy as last time but she's going in that morning for her bi-monthly spinal injection. No go. I'm asking my dad and if he is not able to, I have a back up buddy.

My appointment is first thing in the morning sometime in April. I plan on not coming in to work the rest of the day so that I can recover mentally.

My supervisor informed me today that I can take it as a sick day as it is "outside the realm of the annual visits". Nice.