Excerpt from Latest Novel (italics and formatting are lost, sorry)--A Dream

Chapter Five
1
The Torturer approached in a white cassock, wearing a large crucifix. Jane struggled against the leather straps that bound her wrists and ankles, to no avail. “Who’s callin’ me a witch?!” she demanded. The Torturer said nothing. Soon he was standing directly over her.
Meanwhile someone who appeared to be the Torturer’s assistant had taken a seat on a stool directly behind where Jane was seated in the wooden torture chair. Like the Torturer himself, the assistant wore a mask. Jane looked up and met the Torturer’s assistant face-to-face, eye-to-eye, upside down. The malevolence in that masked countenance was no less frightful than in that of the Torturer himself. Jane shuddered and closed her eyes.
“So, what do you have to say?” the Torturer said, gently stroking Jane’s jaw with his soft, gloved hand. Jane didn’t answer. A moment later he grabbed her forcefully by the chin. “You’d best confess now,” he said, slipping his thumb into Jane’s mouth, “while you can still talk!”
Jane bit down on his finger.
“Yow!” the Torturer said, instantly withdrawing his thumb. “I can see this is not going to be easy. Darla, would you please pass me the crackers—the Tooth Crackers, that is.”
“Darla?!” Jane thought, quizzically looking back up at the masked assistant.
“Well, now will you confess?” the Torturer said. “Just say, ‘I’m a witch.’”
“And get burnt alive?” Jane said. “You think I’m nuts?!”
Darla meanwhile passed the Tooth Crackers to the Torturer.
“This is your last chance,” said the Torturer, dangling the ghastly-looking device before Jane’s terrified eyes.
“All right,” she blurted out, “I’m a w-w-w-bitch!”
“Witch!” the torturer repeated.
“But I ain’t no witch!” Jane protested.
“Then may God have mercy on your soul!”
Yet before proceeding with the Tooth Crackers, the Torturer produced an electric drill, conjuring it right out of thin air.
# # #
Jane clutched her pillow tightly and squinched her eyes. As bad as the dream was, she sensed—even in her slumber—that it could be a whole lot worse. For as grisly, as gruesome, as harrowing as the bloody ordeal was—and she could see her own blood spattered across the Torturer’s mask, as well as taste it on her tongue—she was feeling no pain. Some form of divine intervention, Jane reckoned, a miracle. Maybe she wouldn’t feel a thing after all when at last they burned her alive at the stake, but she still wasn’t about to confess.
# # #
“Darla, pass the forceps, please,” the Torturer said.
“Lord, give me strength,” Jane was thinking. She only hoped this go-round wouldn’t be as ghastly as the electric drill and the Tooth Crackers, but she clamped her eyes shut and braced herself for the worst.
“Jane, this is your very last chance,” the Torturer said. “Now say it, ‘I am a witch.’ Come on, it’s really not that hard.”
At that point, Jane couldn’t have said it even if she’d wanted to. And just what were the ramifications of that, she wondered.
“And if I don’t get an answer,” the Torturer continued, “it’s on to the Grand Inquisitor with you. And rest assured, you won’t like that one bit!”
Well, that pretty much answered her question, Jane was thinking.
“Tell me,” the Torturer said, gently tracing the circle of Jane’s lips with the cold forceps, “have you ever heard of something called ‘The Iron Maiden’?”
With that, Jane struggled mightily to elicit something intelligible in reply. “Ah ainh ngo huich!”
# # #
Jane clutched her other pillow now and smiled, her eyelids fluttering. She knew—even in her slumber—that this bad dream was coming to an end.
# # #
“Congratulations. You made it through!”
Jane opened her eyes. The “Torturer” had removed his mask. It was Dr. Zahn, her oral surgeon.
“You behaved like a saint,” he said, smiling as he proudly held up the bloody wisdom teeth he’d just extracted.
Jane still couldn’t talk. She just sat back, smiling in relief. . . .

My Oral Surgeon--Dr. W

He looks much better without his surgical mask--nice smile. He's kind of cute, actually. (I found this on the Internet. The contraption he's touching is not the tooth hammer but a whitening machine.) I think he's from Brazil. At any rate, I don't think English is his first language, although he speaks it very well and also is able to understand my largely non-verbal expressions of pain. (Sorry I couldn't find a better pic on the Internet.)

TGIF - Tooth Troubles (Not Pretty)

I've almost but maybe not quite recovered from all the Xanax the oral surgeon gave me yesterday to prepare me for the extraction of my molar, so please bear with with me. The tooth is gone (but not forgotten) and the mechanical operation of my jaws and teeth has already returned to normal. I'd been having pain eating for almost three weeks, with teeth abnormally (and painfully) knocking against one another, my bite having been thrown off by the abscessed tooth, which on account of the pressure caused by the inflammation had been forced downward from its socket, no longer meshing properly with the other teeth. I could no longer bite down on the tooth without experiencing excruciating pain, in addition to being unable to tolerate extremes in temperature.

I love the oral surgeon, who's extracted some teeth before (mostly wisdom teeth). As usual, he didn't want me to experience any discomfort. Thus the Xanax and then more Xanax (at my request) and loads of Novocaine. He even insisted I eat some Twix (he also had Snickers) to stop me from trembling from the local anesthesia. (Have you ever known a dentist to administer candy as part of the treatment?) (He also offered sugar water as an alternative, which I declined.) But the minute he started drilling into the tooth to break it apart, I almost went through the roof (which he and his assistant duly noted). He said the abscess was still draining, and, after another shot of novocaine (?) and a long pause, I couldn't feel anything else afterward but pressure. The tooth subsequently came out rather cleanly in two or three pieces. He then showed me the browned abscessed area in the roots. He said it was good to have the tooth extracted then, since otherwise my whole face might have ended up swelling as it did two years ago while B. and I were on vacation in San Francisco and I had to make an emergency trip to a local dentist for antibiotics and painkillers (which made me nauseated). (Put a big damper on our lovely Wine Country trip!)

On that vacation I ended up having a massive abscess and upon returning to Miami had a wisdom tooth and the tooth next to it removed. The abscess meanwhile deteriorated a lot of bone, so the tooth that was extracted yesterday didn't have much of a foundation and basically no gums left on the back side and the roots were exposed, which left it open for infection. The tooth next to that one now--a premolar--has gums, however. I hope I won't have trouble with it. Now, however, I'm going to have to do most of my serious chewing on the other side of my mouth, where everything is intact except the wisdom teeth (which are essentially useless and very difficult to brush, unless you have no gag reflex).

Word to the wise--get rid of your wisdom teeth before they cause problems (mind you, I'm no dentist, so ask him or her about it).

Wednesday Night -- Not for the Squeamish

Things are looking up. Doctor called tonight right when I got home from work. Had some good test results. I'd been a little worried about some possibly skewed test results.

Next I have to deal with a dental problem--a tooth has to go. I don't like getting teeth pulled--who would?--and it's a first molar. But it's loose and basically useless and is now causing pain. (The oral surgeon administers Valium before the procedure.) I'm afraid if I don't get this attended to ASAP, I'll get an abscess, which I've had before.

Two years ago, while we were vacationing in San Francisco, I woke up one morning with one side of my mouth swelled up to the size of a grapefruit. That day we were scheduled to take a really nice guided minibus tour of the local wine country (Napa and Sonoma Valleys). We went on the tour anyway, though I was basically out of commission and couldn't really enjoy it. After the tour, I went to a dentist next door to the Inn on Castro, where we were staying, and got prescriptions for an antibiotic and a pain killer (Vicodin). (Fortunately, this was toward the end of our vacation.) The Vicodin made me nauseated and I stopped taking it. The swelling went down, though, and a few days later I had a wisdom tooth and a 2nd molar extracted back in Miami. Now the first molar must go. Apparently the teeth in that particular region don't do well, for whatever reason.

In any case, all of my wisdom teeth have had to be extracted except for one (and they all grew in correctly). Maybe it's best to get them extracted right after they grow in. (A dentist once told me that.)

Tuesday Night

Tomorrow I have to go back to the dentist. I was there just 2 weeks ago. I'm taking 2 valiums this time (vs. one) for this procedure (the prescription having been prescribed by my doctor, who also medicates himself before he goes to the dentist).

Had a productive night tonight. No nap. Went to Home Depot and then Walgreens to pick up B's prescriptions. Did some needed touching up with appliance paint. This is boring, I know. Will go to sleep soon.