The Man in the Ironed Mask

Spiders, confined spaces, clowns, no problems for me. I’m a real man, able to fight my own weight in chocolate Santas.

Dentist!
Injections!!
Entirely different story, I’m genuinely dentist and needle phobic. An old film, ‘The Running Man’, has Dustin Hoffman being tortured for information by a dentist drilling into a tooth without anaesthetic – I’d have broken before getting to the chair.

Sue’s recently avoided the dentist because the drilling, high pitched whine and having to lay back would be a problem for her Meniere’s. Things had been jogging along without too much tooth problem until she developed an abscess a few weeks ago, one which needed someone to look in her mouth.

So she went and I, as usual, took her. Then I went in with her, a bit anxious and unhappy (me, not Sue). And then we came to the part where a strong relationship can be made or broken – “how you going to lip read if the dentist is wearing a mask?” put on brave, noble face and continue “would you like me to come in and lip speak/sign??  ??  ???”
“Yes please.”
Great.

We went in and I focussed on interpreting and making sure Sue was okay, whilst avoiding looking at any dentist stuff. Sue had antibiotics and things cleared up without intervention. Fact is though, deaf people have to overcome more than simple (simple? Huh, terror and cold sweats) dislike of treatment providers. We once spent most of a day in A&E after Sue had an accident which ended up with her lower lip being burst into three pieces, yes, as painful as that sounds. I think it took 15 stitches to sew her lip together and quite a few injections. I held her hand throughout and smiled encouragingly. It’s easy to mistake a frozen look of horror for encouragement.

On the way home I asked her if she could eat something, she hadn’t eaten since morning and it was 11.20pm. Sue thought she might be able to slide chicken nuggets and fries between her battered and swollen lips, so we stopped at McD’s. I asked if the order could have no salt, for obvious reasons, and they cleaned a serving area and tray so there’d be no contamination. Very decent people.