My emergency room thread (Sunday morning trip),,

[Stand_watie]

       I've officially become a fan of my local emergency room.  Just a teensy lil east Texas E.R., not attached to a hospital proper. Not the best place to get treatment for something like massive trauma or major burn probably, but they have a helo pad to "careflite" certain victims to the big hospitals in the area if neccessary.

     I went in a couple of years ago in an ambulance thinking I was having a heart attack and they fixed me right up, tested the heck out of me, treated me great (turned out to be a caffeine induced panic attack) and had me out of there in three hours.

     Yesterday I went in for an abcessed tooth, that had me in such pain I wanted to beg for my mommy. I had lready been seen by the fron receptionist, a nurse, and a doctor within 30 minutes of walking in the front door. Had a diagnosis, prescriptions and a painkiller injection within another fifteen minutes. After a short nap while they watched me to make sure I wasn't going to have a reaction to the painkiller shot, I was out the door in a total time of less than an hour and 30 minutes, no longer in pain and with my dignity wholly intact. They even sent me home a little "How was our service" survey card

    I'm giving them two thumbs up

http://www.etmc.org/emergencycentergunbarrel.htm

[RocketMan]

Glad to hear your visit turned out okay, Stand.
Why is it that way too many of us are spending time with the docs lately?

[Boomhauer]

Glad to hear your visit turned out okay, Stand.
Why is it that way too many of us are spending time with the docs lately?

That's what I'm wondering. Hell, I even had to go to the doctor last Monday due to a sinus infection and many have had much worse.

At least we are not dropping like celebrities.

[Stand_watie]

Glad to hear your visit turned out okay, Stand.
Why is it that way too many of us are spending time with the docs lately?

In my case, procrastination It was a tooth I knew I needed removed or repaired that would turn into an abcess if I didn't,  that I just kept putting off.

[K Frame]

Abycessed teeth are possibly the most painful things any male can ever encounter. I've heard one person describe his abycessed tooth as being 10 times worse than the No. 6 shot sized kidney stone he passed.

I've had several abycesses (all in the same tooth, Frankentooth). I've never had a kidney stone, but if it's anything like that, no thank you.

[crt360]

I went to the hospital with severe tooth/jaw pain last week.  They poked around on me, took some x-rays and sent me home with a prescription for painkillers.  The pain got even worse for about four days and then eased up quite a bit.  I went in for a follow up appointment this morning, but the power was out.  I guess they thought I wouldn't believe them if they called and told me that before I got there.    From what I can gather so far, the x-rays showed nothing and they want to do an MRI.  Hopefully they'll find something that's easy to fix.

[Stand_watie]

I went to the hospital with severe tooth/jaw pain last week.  They poked around on me, took some x-rays and sent me home with a prescription for painkillers.  The pain got even worse for about four days and then eased up quite a bit.  I went in for a follow up appointment this morning, but the power was out.  I guess they thought I wouldn't believe them if they called and told me that before I got there.    From what I can gather so far, the x-rays showed nothing and they want to do an MRI.  Hopefully they'll find something that's easy to fix.

I have a chronic condition that that might be...I thought it was an abcessed tooth the first time I experienced it...it's called (something like) TMJ. It's Jaw pain that extends to every tooth on one side of your mouth, and as I understand it is roughly equivalent to "carpal tunnel" syndrome of the jaw.  The treatment essentially, is to quit chewing so much, and so hard.  Cheap and effective treatment, but it's a difficult regimen to stick with.

[Boomhauer]

Oh, and since we are talking about teeth/jaw issues...

Watch how wide you open your mouth (like yawning or having it jacked open, during oral surgery). Open too wide and you can cause your lower jaw to pop out of it's pocket where it joins the rest of your head. It can be massaged and easied back into place, but it's very disconcerting. Happened to me once and happens to my sister all the time.

[Stand_watie]

Abycessed teeth are possibly the most painful things any male can ever encounter. I've heard one person describe his abycessed tooth as being 10 times worse than the No. 6 shot sized kidney stone he passed.

I've had several abycesses (all in the same tooth, Frankentooth). I've never had a kidney stone, but if it's anything like that, no thank you.

      Think about the mediveal museums you've been to...  the ones where they show circa 1200 teeth pulling devices...and what you thought of them when you saw them..."No way I'd let somebody touch my mouth with that thing!"...Then think about how that abcessed tooth felt, and how with that abcessed tooth you'd have been happy to have a 260 lb blacksmith, plant his knee on your chest, jam that horrible medieval vice grip in your mouth and tear that tooth out, and then grab the jaw/gum and squeeze the pus out while you scream like a woman in difficult labor.

Yeah, I think you have a darn good idea what I'm talking about how I felt yesterday....

[Boomhauer]

      Think about the mediveal museums you've been to...  the ones where they show circa 1200 teeth pulling devices...and what you thought of them when you saw them..."No way I'd let somebody touch my mouth with that thing!"...Then think about how that abcessed tooth felt, and how with that abcessed tooth you'd have been happy to have a 260 lb blacksmith, plant his knee on your chest, jam that horrible medieval vice grip in your mouth and tear that tooth out, and then grab the jaw/gum and squeeze the pus out while you scream like a woman in difficult labor.

Yeah, I think you have a darn good idea what I'm talking about how I felt yesterday....

I know of a few people who have had teeth removed in that manner...dentist grabs the tooth with a set of pliers and yanks it out. Ouch.

[crt360]

I have a chronic condition that that might be...I thought it was an abcessed tooth the first time I experienced it...it's called (something like) TMJ. It's Jaw pain that extends to every tooth on one side of your mouth, and as I understand it is roughly equivalent to "carpal tunnel" syndrome of the jaw.  The treatment essentially, is to quit chewing so much, and so hard.  Cheap and effective treatment, but it's a difficult regimen to stick with.

That's what the doc was suspecting.  I also had a wisdom tooth pulled back there about 15 years ago that didn't go so well and a piece of root and various bone fragments were not removed.  Not only was that extraction under insufficient local anesthetic extremely painful, but the weeks following were sleepless and miserable.  Needless to say, I've been very nervous about going to the dentist ever since.

I also had a filling about a year ago that messed up my bite.  The dentist redid the filling earlier this year and ground on the tooth trying to fix the problem which only made things worse.  Combined with the swelling and pain from the other recent problem, that tooth and the one below it felt like they were going to explode last week.  I seriously thought about picking up a bottle of whiskey, some orajel and getting after the offenders with a pair of pliers.  I am thankful that the pain let up before I did that.