Be afraid, very afraid....

I for one, have never understand the morbid fear of dentists. Whats the big deal?? Not that I have really enjoyed my trips through the years to keep up the pearly whites, but really nothing to stress about. I guess you could compare my attitude to be similar to the woman in the early 1900's toothpaste postcard.

Well, OK probably not that sedate and contemplative. Who knew brushing the teeth could be such a deep moving experience?
I guess being the blind optimist that I am, I figured all of our dental encounters would leave us with fresher breath, whiter whites and stronger healthier teeth. We might even come away with such a positive experience that we would be much like this young woman who went in to have dental surgery and came out smiling even though they stitched her finger to her gums.

But this week has changed everything. All my growling at my husband, who has a phobia about anything medical, "Quit being such a baby, its just the dentist". Or telling friends who faced extractions, "Aw, you'll be fine. That's what they make vicodin for".
Having had all three of my older children as well as myself have wisdom teeth pulled, I was not at all worried about my 18 year old son having his pulled out on Monday. Worst was I was going to have to kill about 2 hours waiting and getting him situated back home. After all, the oral surgeon said they were very easy teeth and it was going to be a piece of cake.

So when they finally called me back ,I waltzed leisurely into the discharge area. There he sat still barely able to open his eyes. I turned my attention to the nurse who began to spill out all the instructions. Along with the tidbit,"Oh,and he swallowed some gauze" without missing a beat. I looked back at my son and observed what to me appeared to be an impression of a drunken pelican trying to swallow a whole fish. I interrupted the nurse and asked "Did the gauze go down? Why is he swallowing like that?".
"Oh, he is just probably really dry" and went on to more instructions, like gauze of all things, and salt water rinses. As she rose to open the exit door, my steady peer at my son fighting to swallow became more apparent. I told her I was not comfortable leaving as it appeared something was wrong.
So she proceeds to try and get him to drink some water which leaves him choking and gasping for air. They take him back to a room,send me back to waiting room and an hour later come back and tell me he is fine now. So I gather up his things and we head home. Granted,he didn't seem to be gulping anymore.

That night at home when we tried to have him eat or drink, it always ended up the same way. After a few sips, he coughed everything up. I did some research on google and seemed to come away that swallowing can be a difficulty after oral surgery and just figured this was what he was dealing with. Stupid me.
In the morning on Tuesday I checked on him very early to find out that it was still happening. Few sips and he would feel it all build up in his chest and he would cough everything out.
Now a frantic call to oral surgeon was placed. Next thing I know we are whisking him to hospital to have an endoscopy. And lo and behold...gauze. Because I am just plain weird I am posting the actual picture of the endoscopy and the offending gauze.

On the upside,the oral surgery went great. No swelling,bruising,and hardly any pain.
Just a near choking death incident. What more could you ask for??