Friday 9 September 2011

Goldfish & wisdom

I had a wisdom tooth out on Wednesday so still feeling a bit fragile but keeping it all at bay with illegal amounts of Nurofen and codeine. I got adrenaline-free local as adrenaline is not great for ME, though I wondered - briefly - if the dental surgeon perhaps thought I had false illness beliefs after the media circus last month, though he gave absolutely no indication of this (I console myself that most people can probably see through the bollocks of Wesselymania). He was great and I came away loving our NHS. In my novel, the main character's father is a dentist and I've been thinking of this scene:

My real father Peter had his own dental practice above a butcher’s shop. He had minty breath and slept with his nurses. (A little more suction, please, Denise!) When you went through the close to get to the surgery upstairs, you could smell the meat from the butcher’s delivery entrance. Sometimes there was blood on the ground. There was a fish-tank in the waiting room and the goldfish always had a string of white shit hanging from its tail. Peter left when I was ten but we still went to him for fillings. I didn’t find the divorce traumatic – I’d never really liked him. The only thing I have in common with him is that we both love raw onion.

I did a search for 'goldfish' to find this scene and found three occurrences, that always intrigues me, recurring images that I have forgotten.

9 comments:

Cusp said...

Oooh....I had two wisdom teeth out about a year ago. I was terrifed as you know but, like you, came away very impressed with the quality of the surgery and the kindness.

I hope you have some arnica tablets and also hypericum...found those invaluable combined with ibuprofen and aspirin (alternated).

Feel better soon xxx

nmj said...

Hey Cusp, I have had very little swelling, luckily, the tooth came out in one piece, no need for stitches. So really just have the pain and discomfort you would expect. Very glad it's over though, it wasn't exactly fun! I always compare to having laser surgery on eyes - to seal retinal tears years ago, in USA - nothing ever as scary as that, for me, at least x

Kate said...

I don't know if you had citanest as your non adrenaline injection, but I had a sort of raised eyebrow from a previous dentist when I asked for it as I didn't want adrenaline. Apparently it makes it harder for the dentist as it doesn't stop the blood in the same way as an adrenaline injection, and they have more difficulty seeing what they are doing. It may explain their reaction to you? Hope all healing well and you can eat & drink ok.

nmj said...

hey kate, i think you misunderstood, there was *no* reaction from dentist, it was all fine! It was just me wondering to myself if he or any of those assisting had read any of the nonsense in media about ME this last few weeks... I had requested adrenaline-free at the previous consultation, just explained it could potentially make ME symptoms worse. But in the interim we had Wesselymania, so I couldn't help wondering if it had had any infuence on how I was perceived... All seems to be healing okay, thanks, but obviously not back to normal yet.

Alison said...

I had a tooth out last summer, not a wisdom tooth, those went in college, just a regular back molar. It went OK, doctor knew about CFS, gave me local anesthetic. But it when I was recovering it was 100 degrees and my air conditioner broke. So I had to camp out at my boyfriends alone all day. Luckily I was in the middle of your book, very absorbed, and it kept my mind off the swelling and the bleeding very nicely : )

Still need to get a fake tooth put in. I know there's a better term for fake tooth but I can't remember.

Have a good recovery!

nmj said...

Alison, I l love that you can tie reading TSoM to a particular event - and glad it helped distract you. I often recall where I was or what I was doing when I was reading certain novels.

Amy said...

Glad you have survived the extraction. I had a horrible reaction to local anesthetic containing adrenaline, many years ago before I discovered (too late) how horrible it is with ME.

Glad you came away feeling great about the NHS. We probably won't have much of ours left soon in England so I might have to emigrate to Scotland.

Mim said...

"The only thing I have in common with him is that we both love raw onion. " Is this ever the wry Nasim Jafry touch I like so much!

Wisdom tooth out but you'll keep your wise-ass tone, won't you? I count on it.

nmj said...

damn, i think i spoke too soon about recovering, my tooth has been causing big probs over weekend, off i go back to dental hosp this aft...

thanks, mim!

yes, amy, nhs changes are deeply worrying.