By Kristy Pantin / @kristypantin
Last Tuesday I went to the dentist for a root canal and was sedated a little (A LOT!!!)
Yes I’m a chicken at the dentist.
I’ve had a bad experience in the past when an orthodontist was putting on braces in Trinidad.
As he was using a pointy instrument to press the bracket to my teeth he slipped and it sliced the inside of my cheek.
I should add that the wonderful child I was, when my parents were unable to take me to my first orthodontist visit when we moved to Canada, my grandmother took me and I somehow managed to convince her that I was supposed to get my braces taken off.
My front teeth are still a little crooked.
And my mother still glares at me because of it.
And now at age 35 I’m going to have to get braces put on again.
How my parents survived my childhood I’ll never know.
It wasn’t only the pointy instrument/cheek cutting incident that makes it necessary for me to be sedated for the more serious dental work, it’s also that I have an extra nerve (or ten) so it takes multiple shots of their freezing concoction in order to numb my mouth.
My mother never needs freezing of any kind. She can also drink hot tea straight out of the kettle.
I missed that gene somehow and got not only her missing nerves, but my father’s allotment as well which produced incredibly sensitive teeth.
I can’t even begin to explain how much fun that is.
So anyway, back to my story.
I had a root canal done on Tuesday and my seventeen year old came to pick me up with her sisters.
She decided to record the experience on her phone.
She also jotted down a couple conversations we had in order to amuse me with them the next morning.
I was definitely amused!
Believe it or not, the similarity between sedation and Alzheimer’s is incredible.
I now know exactly what my grandfather is going through.
The day after, I was only able to remember snippets of the actual day, and when watching the videos my daughter took, it felt very strange because I was looking at myself doing and saying things I have absolutely no memory of.
For example, I had a migraine when I went in but figured it would be ok because the dentist would be sedating me so I’d be pretty much out of it and not feeling the pain.
I couldn’t take any T-3’s before-hand because she didn’t want it to interfere with the medication she would be giving me, so the migraine was getting pretty good by the time I got there.
Once my daughter got me home, I asked for T-3’s because my head was still pounding.
She gave me the Advil the doc said to take because I wasn’t supposed to take T-3’s that soon after the sedative and said she would set my alarm on my phone to let me know when I could have T-3’s.
As she was setting it, it accidentally went off and she said I turned to her happily with a smile and asked completely seriously, “Is it time now?”
Another funny episode was when she was walking me into the house.
I am notorious for not being able to keep plants alive no matter what I do (I should add here that my mother is a Master Gardener so this is very embarrassing).
I currently have a tiny plant in a tiny container sitting on the edge of my bbq right by the back door.
I got it from my chiropractor’s office on Mother’s Day and had it in the house at one point until it started dying. I swear I watered it every day and everything, but the damn thing refused to live.
Eventually I figured Mother Nature would help, so I put it outside on the ledge of the bbq that has drain holes in it so when it rained, it would get watered and any excess would drain out and not drown it.
Fast forward to my almost dead plant and me noticing it in my sedated state.
Jenna told me when I reached it, I stuck my finger in it as if to test the soil’s dampness.
Only I ended up stabbing my finger straight through the poor thing and throwing the container over.
Murder of plant…complete!
Now let’s see…what else?
Oh yes, it apparently takes ten years to eat a bowl of cereal in that state as well.
Like a dutiful daughter, Jenna sat watching me eat in bed to make sure I didn’t choke. She said she had gray hairs by the time I was finished because it took three tries to finish EACH teaspoonful.
The funniest thing by far was when she had come downstairs with my cereal after I finished changing into my pj’s.
She actually took a video of what happened and I laughed so hard at it that I cried (sadly it’s not internet-approved because of the whole pj situation).
As I was trying to get onto my bed, which is higher than most beds because it has a very thick mattress, I didn’t pull my leg up high enough and toppled over onto my face in the blankets.
My darling child thought it was far more important to video tape the incident than save me from suffocation so it took a good half minute to remove my face from the evil blankets.
Watching that video after, I was completely amazed that she managed to remain upright while filming it since I could hear her laughing hysterically in the background. Ahhhh teenagers!
And as for the sedation’s resemblance to Alzheimer’s…she said that everything I did reminded her of my grandfather, especially forgetting things seconds later and re-asking the same questions or telling her the same things over again.
It’s not really scary or anything, just strange knowing things happened that I can’t remember.
I really hope I never get Alzheimer’s, but even if I do, I doubt it would bother me too much since it would just be like living permanently sedated.
It’s not a horrible thing…just hilarious after the fact (which would mimic those moments of clarity in an Alzheimer’s patient).
I think I’m going to tell my daughter that if I ever end up like that…to make sure she takes lots of video’s so that I can be properly entertained during my clear moments and actually enjoy that stage of life.
