The Traveling Dentist 1807

      If you are afraid of dentists, read no further. When I was in San Diego I had a regular dentist and he said one day that I needed to have my wisdom teeth removed. I did not want to hear that, but asked when he would do it. He said that the practice did not do that surgery, but they had a traveling surgeon that came into the office every month to do that procedure. I agreed to have the surgery and set up an appointment. The day came and I got there on time and things started to happen. After the procedure I did not wake up from the general anesthetic for a long time. The assistant finally got me awake and asked if I felt all right. I replied, "I feel great! I could do a cartwheel right now!" The assistant said that was not necessary as I took giant steps that seemed the thing to do as I walked with assistance from the chair. She had called Joyce into the area to assist me. As I took my giant steps I noted we were not headed back through the waiting room as usual, but were being steered to a rear door exit. The assistant did not want me going through the waiting room. Joyce got me into the car I insisted we stop and get me a milkshake. She did not want that, but I insisted and she relented, thinking I was going to vomit it up on the way home. I didn't and things turned out well that day.
      A month or two later I was looking at the Sunday paper when I read an article about the traveling dentist, the one who did my dental wisdom teeth removal. It turned out he was prosecuted and his license was revoked forever after he had killed several people while doing surgery and overdosing their bodies with the anesthetic. That was not a fun thing to see and read. I was just lucky he didn't kill me, but rather had given me just a little too much and not enought to kill me.
      This is one more incident where I never knew how close to death I was. It makes me wonder how close we all are to a swift death and never even know it.