RJM Stuff N Such

Chapter 2, The “Dentist”

I get to the dentist, he is normally closed on Friday’s, and he was there by himself with an emergency patient.  I rang the bell and he hollered I’ll be right with you.  30 minutes later the patient comes out and the doctor invites me back.

He sets me down in the chair, asked my son what happened, looks at me and says I can’t help you, you need an oral surgeon.  There just happened to be one two doors down from his office.  My daughter had some surgery there a few years ago, for braces, and I was not happy with the care.  At this point I would’ve been happy with a mortician, anyone to get me out of pain.  He calls the oral surgeon comes back in and asks what kind of insurance, TRICARE I say, assuming it is the best and will cover anything or everything.  He said what type of dental insurance, I told him and he said they do not take that.  So they wouldn’t take my health insurance, because it is considered a dental emergency, and they won’t take the dental insurance I have, my lucky day.  He apologizes and writes me a referral slip and walks me out of the front door.

I walk the two doors down, go inside the waiting room and there are patients, thank goodness I thought at least they are open.  I slid the slip across the counter to the young lady; she looks at it and says “you walked down here”.  I looked at her and pointed back in the direction I came and thought, you idiot, did you think I would drive.  Well, she said, didn’t Dr. X tell you that we did not take your insurance, I mumbled that I did not care, made the gesture that I would write a check and said how much?  I am running out of options here.

Meanwhile my son is on the phone with my boss, she was the medical director of the clinic where I worked.  She knew I was out for the procedure, but imagine a 20 year old kid trying to explain what happened to me.  The lady came back and said $800, and I said okay can they see me now?

My son tells me that my boss said not to pay, not to pay.  I could hear her saying that over the phone.  She has the ability to approve emergent visits that are out of the network.  She knew that if I paid I would never get my money back, and told my son to tell the staff that an authorization would be coming soon over the fax.  They agreed to see me, it was getting later in the morning, my stomach was growling and I just couldn’t believe how shitty this day was going.  I sat down in the waiting room.

My wife texts my son to see if we were still at the surgery center, his reply, “no we are at the dentist office now”; imagine the shock of trying to figure that out.  Of course she stayed at school, too tough to get a sub for a couple of hours.

Half hour or so they took me back to get an x-ray, a CT in fact.  Dental world has changed a good bit since I got out of it, did I mention I was a dental technician in the Air Force when I first went in. 

That was tough trying to get the x-ray, I wasn’t able to bite down on the little stick to keep your jaw still, back out into the waiting room.  Went back to one of the treatment rooms, a little different than your ordinary dental treatment room.  Chair is different, set up is different, one of those big lights and IV stands.  The doctor came in, not the same one that worked on my daughter a few years earlier, thank goodness.  We looked at the CT discussed our options, manual reduction.  Manual and reduction do not go well together in a sentence.

Views from the top of my head, behind my head and the left side

Right side view, normal; where the mandibular condyle should be.

Left side view.  Oral surgeon said I was lucky I did not break off the mandibular condyle.

He was going to try and pop it back in.  He did have large forearms, which I’m sure most oral surgeons do.  He asked his assistant for some gauze, she handed him a couple of 4 X 4s.  He said I am going to need more than that.  Did I mention that I was a dental assistant in the Air Force many years ago?  I knew that “more gauze” was not good.  I thought oh my gosh maybe he is going straight to surgery, would they knock me out first?  He wrapped his fingers with the gauze, now I got it, in case I try and bite him.  He tried 5 different angles, in front from the side and back.  I was fighting and biting him.  He said, we are going have to sedate you.  I’m like wait a minute, did you not forget I was already knocked out once today.  He told the assistant to call the surgery center, maybe to find out what they used on me?  I didn’t know, did that matter?  Anyway they told my son to wait in the waiting room.  I was alone, I started to cry.  I could not believe this was happening to me, why me?  I’ve always told my wife that I felt like I had a black cloud over my head, bad luck and all.  This sealed it.  The nurse came back to tell me what she was going to do.  She started the IV, I was so exhausted I’m not even sure they needed the drugs, I don’t remember.

I woke up and the picture is in the “Forward”. I didn’t see myself in the mirror until I got home, battered and bruised, he told me to take it easy over the weekend.  Great, two old friends were coming into town for lunch the next day.  I get home and totally exhausted.  I let my son go back to school, felt sorry for him, he did not sign up for all this.  I did drop off a prescription for some pain meds, so my wife was going to pick those up for me.  She shows up after work, I walk out of the front door holding my hands out like a zombie, moaning.  The shock in her eyes, the way I looked scared her.  She had no idea what I had been through and I sure didn’t feel like talking about it at that point.