Heck – it’s Thursday so it must be time for Jack’s Wednesday guest post!
I suffer (although that’s not really the appropriate word) from a condition called NPS (Nail Patella Syndrome). It’s a hereditary condition and other members of my family group really do ‘suffer’ much more than me. For me it’s just a weird thing that affects my bone structure – strange knee and elbow configurations , malformed finger and toe nails and very soft teeth with twisted roots. I was even the subject of a dissertation and I have a copy of it!
None of this much affected me too much growing up except for the teeth thing.
Back in the 1950s when dentistry was much less sophisticated than now and (certainly in Scotland) you were expected to just accept the pain as part of the general Calvinist approach to life, I went through a never ending Hell. In fact – maybe that’s what Hell is, and not fires at all – just a permanent dentist’s chair with a foot operated drill and a pair of pliers!
I finally, at the age of 25, had them all out – every one of them. Despite that, I still have nightmares fairly regularly involving that iconic dentist’s chair – and the mask – and the metallic smell of the gas – and the ghostly voices.
Wendy also has dental issues, but of a quite different kind, and she always has dealt with them in a much more straightforward American way (I’ve never understood the US fashion to put every teenage kid into teeth braces!).
Unlike me, Wendy has managed to keep hold of the teeth she was born with, but that has involved all sorts of procedures that never existed in Scotland when I was growing up. Things like crowns and implants.
But on Monday past (which explains the dearth of blog posts) she went into an excellent facility in Knoxville for the difficult extraction of a twisted rear tooth ahead of an implant. Suddenly I was transported back many years because she would require general anesthetic and I would need to drive her afterwards. When I was called to collect her I found her in a state of complete drunkenness with an IV in her arm, and asking me to sing for her. So I did. Then I had to leave her for 45 minutes sitting in the car while I waited for eight CVS employees to fill her pain meds scrip. However I did manage to get her a cold milk shake much more quickly at a drive-thru!
Everything’s fine – honest it is!
But I’m frightened to go to sleep now , in case – – –
Wendy Welch: Books, Yarn, Cats, Opioids 
Dental woes are the worst! Fingers crossed for no nightmares.
Perhaps if we look closely, some of the images in the works of Hieronymus Bosch might reveal tiny dentistry-related demons. I suspect this is a universal human fear and I really wish a better job of tooth care and maintenance could be provided to everyone everywhere, It might free us from some nightmares, and much more. Glad to hear Wendy’s okay.
Oh, you’ve made my teeth ache! I always had to pry my clutched hands off the arms of the dentist’s chair–probably made permanent indentations. Best wishes to Wendy. (I’d have asked you to sing, too.)
Hope you feel better today, Wendy. 😌🐦
May you drem of chocolate milkshakes!! Dentistry has come a long, long way in the years you suffered. The meds are excellent. Had all mine done about 5 years ago.