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[grump]
I felt fine when I went to bed last night, but this morning I was awakened by a nasty, hangover-style (complete with slight queasiness), dehydration-type headache in my sinuses at (fortunately) exactly the moment I should have heard my alarm but didn't. Feh. And then instead of going to work, I went to the dentist. But at least the needles and the drilling couldn't ruin a day when I already felt good.
I am not afraid of dental work. I think the dental professionals would doubt me if I told them this, because I tense right up when the Novocaine goes in, and I tense up further when the little drill begins, and when they get going with the big drill, I can feel myself trembling. When they step back I have to make a conscious effort to relax one muscle at a time, beginning with the arches of my feet and carrying on all the way up to my shoulders. But this is not fear! It's straightforward loathing, nothing more. They tend to think they're hurting me, because of the way I cringe; but then they can tell they haven't been hurting me, when they stick me with the needle again and it does hurt, a lot, and I actually cry out. There's a world of difference between a patient whose whole body is tense and a patient who is trying reflexively to crawl backward out of the chair and away from you.
(I will say that I like this dentist and his crew very much; I vastly prefer a dentist who is over-concerned about hurting his patients than one who is under-concerned. This guy is businesslike and efficient, but also pays close attention to every flinch, every gasp, every knit of the eyebrows, so if you do feel pain in his chair, you don't feel it for long.)
And now I am at work and the lower left quadrant of my face is numb, which I also don't like. I don't like the rubbery feeling of my skin; I don't know why it should feel different under my fingers when it has no sensation, but it does. That is, if I touch my lower lip with two fingers, one on the right side and one on the left, of course I can feel it on my lip on one side and not the other -- but each finger experiences it differently, and the side I can't feel is not the same as touching someone else's lip, which I also obviously wouldn't be able to feel except with my finger. It's no good. I also don't like the worry that I will bite my tongue. And that, until I resume control of my whole face, I can't drink anything, because I don't have a straw for my water bottle. Dribble dribble.
I've got my upper lip back to about 90%, though, and I got that shot about half an hour before the lower-lip one, so hopefully I'll be back on all cylinders well before lunch time.
I am not afraid of dental work. I think the dental professionals would doubt me if I told them this, because I tense right up when the Novocaine goes in, and I tense up further when the little drill begins, and when they get going with the big drill, I can feel myself trembling. When they step back I have to make a conscious effort to relax one muscle at a time, beginning with the arches of my feet and carrying on all the way up to my shoulders. But this is not fear! It's straightforward loathing, nothing more. They tend to think they're hurting me, because of the way I cringe; but then they can tell they haven't been hurting me, when they stick me with the needle again and it does hurt, a lot, and I actually cry out. There's a world of difference between a patient whose whole body is tense and a patient who is trying reflexively to crawl backward out of the chair and away from you.
(I will say that I like this dentist and his crew very much; I vastly prefer a dentist who is over-concerned about hurting his patients than one who is under-concerned. This guy is businesslike and efficient, but also pays close attention to every flinch, every gasp, every knit of the eyebrows, so if you do feel pain in his chair, you don't feel it for long.)
And now I am at work and the lower left quadrant of my face is numb, which I also don't like. I don't like the rubbery feeling of my skin; I don't know why it should feel different under my fingers when it has no sensation, but it does. That is, if I touch my lower lip with two fingers, one on the right side and one on the left, of course I can feel it on my lip on one side and not the other -- but each finger experiences it differently, and the side I can't feel is not the same as touching someone else's lip, which I also obviously wouldn't be able to feel except with my finger. It's no good. I also don't like the worry that I will bite my tongue. And that, until I resume control of my whole face, I can't drink anything, because I don't have a straw for my water bottle. Dribble dribble.
I've got my upper lip back to about 90%, though, and I got that shot about half an hour before the lower-lip one, so hopefully I'll be back on all cylinders well before lunch time.
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Wow - so it does! My guess is when you touch your mouth with your fingers, both fingers and mouth send the sensation back to your brain. When only the fingers can feel, it's interpreted differently.