by John Zienkosky

Created on: March 29, 2009

I was stationed at Twenty Nine Palms for 3 weeks temporary duty when, in the middle of that three weeks, I began to feel a twinge in my lower right jaw. This rapidly escalated into a full blown agony that immediately put me in mind of the Marathon Man (is it safe?) and I asked for the afternoon off to venture over to the base dentist. After a cursory examination I was told I had a wisdom tooth gone bad and it would need to be pulled. However, the real dentist wouldn't be in until tomorrow morning and so they gave me some Tylenol 3 and sent me away. It was the first time I had taken Tylenol three and I immediately realized that it did not work.

I went to my bunk where I was destined to stay until the next morning, not even coming out for evening chow. The pain from the infected tooth would come in waves which elicited dread from me during the times that it wasn't really hurting. As the night wore on my resolve and manliness wore down and I began to moan when the pain was at its worst. For my Marine roommates this was a sure sign I was going to have my John Wayne card revoked the next day at the first opportunity. By three am my fellow Marines were disgusted with my cries of "Mommy, Mommy!" By 5 am they were alarmed when, in a fitful sleep I began yelling, "It's safe, it's safe by God I tell you it's safe!" Holding my cheek with both of my hands they gave me a wide berth as I left at 6:30 am to the dentist's chair and relief.

My appointment was for 7 am and I was there with bells on so nothing would delay my extraction. I was told the dentist would be right with me and to take a seat. The Navy Corpsman dentist was indeed on time and I was escorted to the chair by a pretty assistant who made sure I was comfortable and prepped for the extraction. Shortly the dentist waltzed in holding the x-rays taken of my tooth the day before. For some reason however, he still felt the need to stick sharp metallic objects into my mouth prior to the anesthetic. They do this to test your reflexes and see if you really can hit the ceiling with your head. I could and did and he said, "Is that the tooth?" To which I responded, "I swear it's safe, it's safe." I don't think he believed me because next he pulled out a 3 foot needle. He said, "This'll only sting for a second." He lied.

The needle went in, and in, and in until I swear it must have come out of the back of my neck at some point. He told me he was looking for the nerve and I said nothing, because I couldn't. It occurred to me

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