Day 11 Is there yoga after dentistry?

After the usual school run this morning, my day started with a trip to the lab for some routine blood tests. I had a dental appointment at 9 am, and I figured I might as well do all the unpleasant tasks on the same day.

I hadn’t really thought that through. I’m totally stoic for blood draws – I can and have taken my own blood, which freaks my husband out. He thinks this means I’m likely to become a heroin addict. (Which is ridiculous. I can’t afford heroin.) I am, however, phobic about dental work.

I had to skip breakfast for the bloodwork, which would have been okay, but for the dentistry. This wasn’t a big 2.5 hour appointment, like I had a couple of weeks ago and for which I was mildly, but very happily, sedated; this was simply replacing the temporary crown with the permanent. Easy-peasy, right? Except that the temp didn’t pop off the way it was supposed to. Mike, my dentist, got in there with both hands. Nothing. He got out the dental crowbar. Nothing. “Hm. I’ll have to cut it off,” said Mike. “This might be a little… dusty.” A really nice guy, Mike. I always feel bad for hating to see him.

I squeezed my eyes shut, imagining a miniature jackhammer crossed with a circular saw. The sounds and the smell were entirely real, unfortunately, and on an empty and – worse – caffeine-free stomach, resulted in burgeoning panic.  I think perhaps I was also missing those four vials of blood they took from me earlier.

Finally that little temporary crown came off in splintering bits and pieces, one of which nearly flew down my throat. “Oops,” said Mike, neatly vacuuming it up, then pulling the suction device off my frozen tongue. “Oh, I guess that’s not what you want to hear from your dentist, is it?”

No, Mike, it’s really not. Of course, I couldn’t answer him. I couldn’t do anything but practice my pranayama breathing, which I wish I could say was more helpful. My hands were clenched so tight, I’ve got neat little smiley faces all across my palms.

Then it was over. I mopped my face with that nice hot cloth, wobbled out to my car and drove home, very slowly and carefully. And then I crawled back into bed until noon.

I went to yoga later, oh yes, Virginia, there is yoga after dentistry. I did okay, until about half-way through the class, the last of the freezing suddenly disappeared. Ouch.