First in 62 Years

You'd never guess what's first for me in 62 years. I think its pretty amazing to have your first tooth out at 62 after being warded in hospital for 5 days. Who would have thought that you can get warded for a tooth ache! Call it stupid thinking, naive or whatever, but I really never thought that you can be in such danger as to be urgently attended to by an experienced dentist.

But if you had seen me on the day I was admitted to the ward you would not be surprised. My face was so swollen up to my neck. When I looked at the mirror I looked almost like the face of ' Popeye the sailor man'. My lower lip almost covered my upper lip. The local general clinic at first treated me with some antibiotics and I thought that would do it. You know its only a tooth ache. Never did it occur to me that I would not be able to open my mouth until it happened. So the next day and I was sent immediately to the University of Malaya Medical Center emergency department.

But all is well that ends well. My tooth was finally extracted by a graduate student working for her masters. She did a fantastic job. I can now forget the traumatic experience while at the ward. They said the pus that was in my swollen face had to be drained out in a small operation. Of course I was frightened. An operation is an operation big or small. See how stupid again I was. But after all the treatment they extracted my tooth and let the pus flow out with the blood. But because I am diabetic and with high blood pressure problem, they had to do certain procedures that would make it safe.

The doctors did a good job. Alhamdulillah