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| Another ten minutes - Alive and kicking |
| Posted on 25/02/05 at 10:49 by NGONGE |
Yesterday, I left work early to accompany a friend to the dentists. I was going to be his nurse for the day because none of his family lived in London. We went in and had to read a big list of what to do and not to do. This, I discovered was going to be a minor operation! An operation!
I started getting nervous and wondering what sort of serious bother have I let myself into. What if my friend never wakes up? What if he gets a severe disability from this? What? What? What?
We walked into the room and he was instructed to sit on the dentists chair. Four people crowded round him and started picking out all sorts of instruments and needles. They were all dressed in green! It was like a scene from ER. A nurse brought out a tray full of syringes. One of the guys in the green clothes started tabbing my friends hand and then inserted a tiny needle in it. He then picked up one of the syringes and emptied all its contents in my friends hand. He then picked another and repeated the same action. He then picked yet another syringe! After using four of these tiny syringes, he picked up a huge syringe filled with some white liquid! This was supposed to be a dentist and my friend was only having his wisdom tooth removed!
I was starting to feel dizzy and faint. Had they tried to extract any of my teeth, I dont think I would have felt any pain! They put an eye patch on my friends face and started going to work. I ran out of the room. As I ran out, I got a flashback of Scarlet OHara running out of a burning house. I quickly tried to hold on to my imaginary skirt and cover my modesty.
I went and sat in the waiting room and looked at all the scared faces in there. This was like being in a labour ward. All the anxious fathers (and some mothers) were sitting erect and staring in the distance. Some slowly moved their lips but there was no sound coming out. I sat thinking about my poor friend. I thought about ER and hoped that those dentists had better self-respect than the self indulgent ER people. I imagined the dentist cutting my friend up and lamenting the end of his relationship with the blonde receptionist. I quickly stole a glance at her. I really dont blame the dentist. She was worth crying over. I thought about talking her into giving it one more try with the dentist. I idiotically started thinking up excuses why the dentist had neglected her and convinced myself that I can convince her to take him back. The thought calmed me down.
The receptionist caught me staring at her and smiled at me. I panicked! This was not the time for the woman to fall for me. My friend is under her boyfriends knife! I pretended to frown. She was startled and looked away from me. I smiled.
A nurse came out and read out my friends name. Hes only been there for ten minutes! How could they finish so soon? I panicked. Something must have gone wrong! She asked me to follow her to the recovery room. I struggled to get up. People were looking at me! I quickly jumped up and calmly followed her. I noticed the looks of admiration as I glided by all those expectant mothers and fathers. What they didnt know is that while I looked cool, calm and very collected in the outside, inside, a band of drunken monkeys were rioting against the recent shortages of coconuts.
We walked into the recovery room and I saw my friend. He looked dead! I went closer to his bed and noticed that he was breathing. He had a heart monitor on. He had an oxygen mask on his face. His mouth was open and there was a big piece of cotton sticking out. His upper lip had shrunk and his front teeth were very visible. I got a flashback of a dead sheeps head. I looked at my friends face and slowly started nodding. His head did look like a sheeps head! I always knew he reminded me of something but could never point it out. I smiled. I frowned. The peeping of the heart monitor continued steadily. On it, there was, in big font, the number 100! It always stayed the same while the tiny numbers on the side kept on changing. I had no idea how heart monitors worked. I decided that if the tiny numbers went below 70 then my friend must be in trouble. I stood staring at the heart monitor and willing it to stay above 70. The tiny numbers stayed between 89 and 85. Things were looking good. He was going to make it. As I was about to turn my gaze away from the heart monitor and look at my friends face, I noticed the 100 becoming 99! I almost fainted. I quickly looked for the emergency button. My friends life was gradually seeping away. I got ready to give him first aid. I panicked! How could I give him the kiss of life if he had his wisdom tooth taken out?
I looked at his mouth. I tried to think of a way to give him the kiss of life without touching the cotton sticking out of his mouth. He opened his eyes! I jumped back. He closed his eyes again. I panicked and started talking to him. He didnt open his eyes. The nurse came over and asked me if I was ok! I silenced the rioting monkeys, looked at her calmly and told her that I was fine. She told me that my friend was going to come round any minute now.
A few minutes later, he was awake. A few minutes after that, we were discharged. On the way out, I told him that I thought he was going to die. He grunted. With that drugged up face of his and the cotton sticking out of his mouth, I really didnt know what that grunt meant! I told him that his head reminded me of a dead sheep. He grunted again. I carried on explaining why I thought he looked like a sheep. He grunted and kicked me. Sheep face was nowhere near death it seems! He was, erm, alive and kicking.
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