I believe we'll begin again with the story of my throwing up on the dentist... at the age of 22.
If I'm not mistaken, I mentioned my "hell-tooth" that I had to have a second root canal on in a previous post, so I will assume that everyone is familiar with how effing annoying this has been for me. Anyway, this story begins by me going in to get this tooth fixed, once and for all (knock on wood).
So I go into the dentist's office, and I sit down. Before the procedure is supposed to start, I made sure to get them to sedate me for the procedure. The thing will be more than an hour long, so I don't wanna be awake while they are cutting and filling and removing and whatnot. So I want to be sedated. Great. Not a problem apparently. I go in. The assistant woman gives me this pill which she dissolves in this orange juice and I down it. I go back to the waiting room... and wait. I wait a little. Nothing really. A little longer. Maybe a LITTLE relaxed. A little longer. Okay, eventually the pill makes me feel like I've been up all night. But, being a university student with terrible sleeping patterns, this felt normal to me. So, I'm still fully aware of everything going on. It's just that I'm a little "tuckered out". I tell the woman this as she comes to collect me, and she assures me that if I need more sedation, they will give me more in the chair. Awesome. Great. Just what I want. I'm not out enough yet. I need more drugs.
She takes me into the dental office, and I sit down. The two dental assistants who will be helping with surgery are mulling about. I'm sitting there, kind of antsy that I'm still awake for this, but still assured in the fact that more drugs will be coming. Eventually, the dentist comes in. He leans me back and administers the numbing to my gums. Alright, I think to myself. He'll put me out before he starts the ACTUAL surgery. This is just pre-lim. He needs my full attention to get this stuff out of the way... right??
Apparently not. As soon as I'm numb, down comes the microscope so he can start the surgery. As he does this, I have to pipe up. "Ummm... I'm still fully here. Not sedated at all." He kind of just looks at me. "Oh... Well, okay. You don't feel relaxed at all??" I try not to look at my shaking legs to point out how obviously NOT relaxed I am. "Umm, no. Not so much."
"Well, I can give you the gas. Will that be okay??"
Finally. The gas. Exactly what I was expecting this entire time. Jeez. I'm 6'1, 225 lbs. A single pill isn't gonna take me down. Are you kidding doc??
So anyway, he straps me in with the gas, and tells me to tell him when I start feeling something. He's gonna gradually go up the levels and when it gets where I need it, then let him know. He starts at Level 1, and I feel nothing. My legs are still shaking. I can still see straight. Nothing. Up to Level 2. I'm still totally there. I look at the reflection of my mouth in the dental light to make sure I can still make out what that is. Yep. Still a mouth. Still aware. Level 3. Deep breathes. In and out. Still shaking. And then Level 4. Level 4 finally did it. My legs stop shaking. My focus is blurred. My body collapses into the giant chair. I reply to the doc, "There we go. That's the one." I'm finally out. And the procedure starts.
Now, I've been under the gas a number of times before. The most recent case was my wisdom teeth, and I remember little, to nothing about the actual surgery. Here though, I remember most of it. It was the weirdest feeling I have experienced, because I was definitely under the influence of the gas, yet I was totally aware of my surroundings. I even opened my eyes a couple times to check shit out. I was drugged up, but not totally out. It was beyond strange. Either way though, I was relaxed as shit, so I didn't care about the surgery going on. They could have probably taken out a lung and I would've been okay with it.
About half an hour in though, I started to drift farther away from the surface. I ended up in some weird realm of the gas. It's hard to describe, but what I felt was that reality didn't exist any more. It was a bunch of grey fuzz that just kept playing one after another in a secular order and I was led to believe that that's what had been happening all along. Life, as I knew it, was simply another grey piece of fuzz in between two other grey pieces of fuzz.
You can imagine how odd this would have seemed to a half conscious person in a dentists chair, so naturally, my reaction was to wake myself up. How did I do this?? By trying to sit up of course. As soon as I did this though, I came to, and realized what was happening. The dental assistant coaxed me back down, but by that point I was aware what had happened. So, mid-surgery, I actually asked, to make sure, "...Did I freak out a little bit??" "A little bit" she replied. "Oops. Sorry."
Stupid gas. Make me freak out during the procedure. Oh well though, that was over. Back to relaxing. Back to sinking into the chair and not caring about the procedure.
I lay back down and start trying to relax again, but unfortunately I fall back into the comatose state. I went too far, and now I don't want out. But I'm still fully aware of what I'm thinking. And what I'm thinking is that I'm gonna be sick. I say to myself, Oh crap. You're gonna be sick. You should tell them!!... Nawww, you can fight this. Fuck sickness!! You can beat it right back down!! FIGHT THE SICK!!
Next thing I new, I was sitting up, vomiting. I can't explain what I was feeling at this moment, but I was fully aware of what was happening, I just had no control over it. I won't go into details about the incident, but when I finally gained total control over the gas again a few seconds later, I refused to open my eyes for being terrified and embarrassed as to see what damage had been done. I preferred not knowing that, so I never did find out.
Anyway, I laid back down, he toned back the gas, and he finished the procedure with me in that first state of relaxation and not the deeper stuff that got me in trouble. When I was finally "up", I assessed the damage, and he said not to worry about it. Apparently I may have just had an averse reaction to the gas, and perhaps it was a little too much for my system. Either that, or I was allergic to it, but I'm putting my money on the first thing.
Overall, it was a thoroughly embarrassing experience, but I was only half-conscious, so I can't feel too bad about it. And the tooth seems to be fixed, so that's also a plus. Next time, I think I will be asked to be knocked right the fuck out though. None of this lingering in relaxation bullcrap. Knock. Me. Out!!
