Butterflies

The Clinic

As we pulled up the the clinic, my dizziness went away. I was able to walk into the office without any support from Shawn. Once inside, I took a seat as he sighed me in. It didn't take long before I got called back. My coworker, Eli, came into the waiting room and announced my name. Both Shawn and I stood up. Eli led us into the back of the office past all of the exam rooms, into a procedure room.

"Wait, why am I going back here?" I mumbled. Eli looked back at me.

"Rachel, we don't know if we are going to have to do anything, like numb you or extractions," my eyes went wide. "so it's just easier if we examine your mouth here." he said. "Trust me, you'll be okay." he smiled and continued to lead us through the hallway. Shawn took my hand as we entered the room. 

"Take a seat for me, Rachel. Dr. Stevens should be here in a few minutes, he's just finishing up with another patient right now." he said, his back turned to us. I did as I was told and slid my body into the large chair. It felt weird to be in this kind of situation. 

Shawn pulled a chair up so he could sit close to me. Eli came out from behind me, putting on a pair of gloves.

"Let's take that gauze out, shall we?" he said, more so to himself then to us. I opened my mouth and he quickly grabbed them, pulling his hand back in a matter of seconds. He went back to setting up his tools while we waited.

Before I had time to take everything in, Dr. Stevens came into the room. 

"Rachel! You can't go around breaking your teeth," he joked. "I need my hygienists to have healthy smiles" he laughed. I heard Eli let a chuckle out too. Me, on the other hand, did not. Nothing was funny about this mess. "Alrighty, lets take a look." Dr. Stevens said. The chair leaned back and he snapped on a pair of gloves. Both Eli and him sat, hovering over my head, which made me begin to feel anxious. Shawn noticed and squeezed my hand a few times. 

After a few minuted of them looking around and tapping a few teeth, they pulled back and took their masks off. 

"So, it looks like when you fell, you did chip two of your back teeth. One of them is pretty severe so we are going to get you numbed up before we fix them." they said, sympathetically. I sighed, looking over to Shawn who gave me a reassuring smile. I nodded and they both began to pull supplies out of the cabinets and drawers. 

Shawn watched as they filled two syringes with lidocaine. Once everything was ready, they rolled back over to my head.

"Is it okay if we use a mouth prop? We don't want your jaw to get soar from holding your mouth open for so long." they asked. I said yes only because I thought if I said no, they would think less of me. I don't want that. Once they put it in my mouth, I felt as if all of my privacy was just thrown out the door. I felt exposed. I took a couple deep breaths and squeezed Shawn's hand. He gave me a couple squeezes back, letting me know I wasn't alone. 

"Alright Rachel, time to get you numbed up." they said. I saw them pull the needles from behind my head, resting one of them on my chin. I closed my eyes at both Eli and Dr. Stevens shifted in their seats. As I felt them being inserted into my gums, one at a time, my hand wrapped around Shawn's fingers. Before I knew it, they were done. Eli and Dr. Stevens pulled away and discarded the needles. 

"Now we wait" Eli said.