“How do you react to anaesthesia?” the doctor asks.
“I never had any, so I don’t know,” I respond.
The doctor frowns.
“You indicated that you had a tonsillectomy at the age of five,” she says.
“Yes, that was done without anaesthesia.”
The doctor looks very skeptical, “You probably don’t remember.”
“Oh yes, I do remember vividly the doctor putting his fist through my face to prevent me from screaming,” I say.
The doctor looks like she is considering getting a psych evaluation for me, so I explain, “It was in the Soviet Union.”
“Ah!” the doctor responds. “Well, we do things somewhat differently around here.”
Since I’ve been seeing her for years and she has never been rude, mean or cruel to me and always seemed completely sober, I kind of got that message already.
Eh, I will never forget how a dentist finished removing my tooth with her nails. Or how my parents paid a doctor to remove my tonsil under anesthesia and he blew the money and tied me to the chair (parents intervened once they heard my screaming).
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Jesus.
Well, at least I’m not the only one with medical horror stories.
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Holy crap. I am so glad I never had to live through such horrors. I think I would have been traumatized for life had that happened to me – I’m tensing up at my desk just thinking about it.
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“What do you call a Doctor who finishes last in his or her class? You call them Doctor.” 😉
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My father had an experience with what he called a “horse doctor” who removed a tooth without anaesthetic. Actually, he managed to break it off within the gum and then had to go looking for the remaining pieces. My father kept fainting, though, so the digging out had to be postponed for a few days, after digging for an hour or more. Then he had to return to have the roots dug out again.
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I’m so blessed in comparison! The only time I am in real pain at the dentist is when I get handed the bill. 🙂
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