posted October 08, 2009 09:43 PM         

You know, I think I’ve talked a little about my doctor office dislike before. I think it’s getting worse as time goes on. I don’t know why. My 10 year old is better at the dentist than I am. I try to logically talk myself through it but it doesn’t work. The main problem is being injected with anything. I can generally have blood taken and I’m okay. I’ll get slightly woozy but I am fine. I’ve had amniocentesis when I was pregnant with Hunter with a 5 inch needle and I hated it but I was okay.

Once someone is injecting me with something – anything – my body just FREAKS the **** out. Oh – and that time a couple years ago with my gyn took a sample of my uterine lining – and one time I had an infection on my ankle with I was 8 months pregnant with Hunter and the nurse was going to lance it.

I make it through injections. No problem. It’s directly AFTER injections that things go to hell no matter how I monitor my breathing, talk myself through it, imagine I’m somewhere else, etc.

So, yesterday I had zero anxiety going to the dentist. I wasn’t looking FORWARD to it but I slept okay the night before and wasn’t particularly nervous. The dentist put numbing gel on my gums and then gave me a shot on the bottom gum, then another and then moved to the top gum and gave me one or two… nausea set in as he was numbing another area of gums. Then I started sweating. Then I got dizzy and I had to stop him. My hands started shaking and I had to sit forward in the chair, garbage pail up under my chin, white as a sheet, sweating and shaking for 15 minutes. I was convinced I was going to throw up. Luckily, that didn’t happen but I’m sure if I had tried to stand that I’d have passed straight out because that’s happened before. The dentist tried to give me oxygen but having that thing on my face – ugh. I could hardly even form a response to him when he tried to talk to me. I was just shaking or nodding my head.

A couple years ago when the gyn took the uterine sample – when she was done I looked so white she took my blood pressure and it had dropped so low she was pretty freaked out. I had to stay there an extra half hour before my blood pressure would go back to normal and she’d let me stand up.

I don’t know what the deal is.

WHY? Why, why, why? I don’t want to be some sort of weak freak or a ball of nerves. I went to my boyfriend’s afterwards and I was so wound up all night. I had pains in my chest and I was tired and then wired and tired and wired so I just ended up being quiet around Brian because I felt like a big enough tool about my reaction at the dentist and I didn’t want to complain further about it.

So the dentist prescribed me valium to take before my next appointment on the 21st. Technically, that’s not really advised because of the blood pressure drop but the other ‘solution’ is to take anti-anxiety / anti-depression medication and I’m not going on full time meds just because I might have to have a shot a couple times a year, know what I mean? Or I can go to a shrink so we can discuss it and delve into what traumatic experience I may or may not have had with a needle at some point in my life. Mmmm. No.

I have had 2 really bad anxiety / panic attacks in the past 3 years and a couple mild ones that weren't related to doctors at all.. they are horrifying.

posted October 09, 2009 06:52 AM         

A trip to the dentist is a big deal for a lot of people, I think. There's a general anxiety about it, so you're definitely not alone there.

posted October 09, 2009 08:43 PM         

Anxiety can affect us all. My anxiety appears when I'm around people who don't follow safety rules. I go haywire!!! It's apart of our primal survival part that is there to protect us. Some are more sensitive to others because that part of them has already been activiated eg, PA waking during an operation (crikey, to that one).

It's good to vent your anxiety as long as you balance it with reflection and some other health support eg, other knowflakes suggesting health remedies.

I sometimes feel like everytime someone touches me or my possessions they damage it!! My eye is swollen beyond belief today from having my eyebrows waxed. The clinician pushed a massage around my eye - a no-no as far as I'm concerned. No use encouraging saggy bags underneath!

Also, our janitor, sprayed paint over my new car when marking out parking spaces!!!

They are just some examples.

However, on a good note, I'm just out of hospital from having surgery. I must admit I was nervous to begin with, but I concentrated on my breathing and trusted in ......something .... and all went well.

posted October 12, 2009 11:55 PM         

Your post reminded me of my ex. He was like the most uber-macho dude on earth, but had a unusual fear of dentists. It was so bad that once when one accidently touched a nerve in his tooth, he shot up and pushed the poor guy into the wall.

After doing research on it, we found out that dentists don't like being pushed against walls, and they are just as afraid of us as we are of them. (dentists have a super high suicide rate, just randomness there) anyway, there are dentists who will put you out, completely, for any dental procedure. They are out there. This is the only thing that worked for my ex, and he wouldn't even take a tylenol, but for any dental work, he just has to be gassed out.

You do have to mention this on the phone, or when you go. You have to say you are an EXTREMELY ANXIOUS patient, and they go tell the doc, and he will speak with you and work it out.

posted October 13, 2009 01:28 PM         

I don't have a specific fear of dentists - it's just how my body reacts to ANYTHING being injected in me. Whether by a dentist or any other doctor. If I got a flu shot then I would react the same way after it was already done! I passed out when I got a measles shot once. After I had a miscarriage the doctor gave me a shot because my blood is supposedly A-. I was fine, went downstairs and THEN nearly passed out in a different doctor's office.