Project 366:014
The view from the recovery chair at the dentists. Taken while the drugs wore off.
It's not the photo I would have liked to have taken for today. I would have liked to have taken the view from the dentist's chair. He has a huge picture window with a view of the harbour. The crane which I can see from my office window, just along the road, is just outside his window. As I sat in the chair, before I he 'put me out' I could see four long, heavy chains hanging from that crane and thought "where is my camera?". However, my bag was already in the recovery room waiting for me and I doubt I would have taken the photo even if it had been to hand.
My tactics when going for sedation is to mentally remove myself from the situation straight away. Just pretend I am already out of it. So I closed my eyes and breathed slowly and deeply. The beeping of the (pulse oximeter?) disturbed my determination to 'not be here' and I wondered if I would hear it all the time.
I had followed the dentist's instructions and had fasted for four hours and had only had a small amount of water when I was thirsty - not the lots of water I usually drink during the day. However, this meant that I was slightly dehydrated and my veins kept collapsing when he was trying to get a line in for the sedative. He had two attempts in each arm before I he succeeded, The next thing I knew I was opening my eyes to the green door.
I think the sedative is called midazolam. Apparently you remain sufficiently responsive that you can follow instructions ("open wide", I guess) but you feel relaxed and really don't mind what's happening. Fortunately, it is also an amnesiac drug so I have no memory of what happened. As a life-long dental-phobe (I blame 1960s school dentists in England) it's hard to beleive that I wouldn't care what was going on. However, while i was in the recovery room I heard a beeping noise. I thought "Oh, that's an alarm, I've probably forgotten to breathe, or something". I wasn't the least bit fussed. A member of staff then opened the door and told me to take some breaths.
Thursday, 14th January 2016
Project 366:014
The view from the recovery chair at the dentists. Taken while the drugs wore off.
It's not the photo I would have liked to have taken for today. I would have liked to have taken the view from the dentist's chair. He has a huge picture window with a view of the harbour. The crane which I can see from my office window, just along the road, is just outside his window. As I sat in the chair, before I he 'put me out' I could see four long, heavy chains hanging from that crane and thought "where is my camera?". However, my bag was already in the recovery room waiting for me and I doubt I would have taken the photo even if it had been to hand.
My tactics when going for sedation is to mentally remove myself from the situation straight away. Just pretend I am already out of it. So I closed my eyes and breathed slowly and deeply. The beeping of the (pulse oximeter?) disturbed my determination to 'not be here' and I wondered if I would hear it all the time.
I had followed the dentist's instructions and had fasted for four hours and had only had a small amount of water when I was thirsty - not the lots of water I usually drink during the day. However, this meant that I was slightly dehydrated and my veins kept collapsing when he was trying to get a line in for the sedative. He had two attempts in each arm before I he succeeded, The next thing I knew I was opening my eyes to the green door.
I think the sedative is called midazolam. Apparently you remain sufficiently responsive that you can follow instructions ("open wide", I guess) but you feel relaxed and really don't mind what's happening. Fortunately, it is also an amnesiac drug so I have no memory of what happened. As a life-long dental-phobe (I blame 1960s school dentists in England) it's hard to beleive that I wouldn't care what was going on. However, while i was in the recovery room I heard a beeping noise. I thought "Oh, that's an alarm, I've probably forgotten to breathe, or something". I wasn't the least bit fussed. A member of staff then opened the door and told me to take some breaths.
Thursday, 14th January 2016