From dentist's office to ER.......

[Cint]

I know some of you are familiar with the vagus nerve and have the VNS as I do, but not everyone is familiar with how the vagus nerve is situated in the body. It's the 10th cranial nerve and called the wandering nerve. It wanders through the abdomen, and comes in contact with the heart, lungs, voicebox, stomach, ears and other body parts.

Anyway, my sis was at the dentist for a regular filling the other day. The dr. gave her the shot of a newer type of novocaine (I forget the name), and within a few minutes she started having shortness of breath, only to get worse. The dentist then gave her a shot of epinephrine, thinking my sister was having an allergic reaction to the newer type of novocaine. That shot didn't help at all, by then she couldn't speak, her tongue on one side was swollen, she couldn't swallow, so they had to call 911. The paramedic didn't think it was an allergic reaction and by then they had her on oxygen.

After getting her breathing again and stabilized, the ER dr. finally came to the conclusion that the dentist had somehow hit the vagus nerve when initially giving the shot. My sis said that this was a first for the dentist who has been in practice for 27 years! She was also on display at the hospital because the ER doc called all the nurses so they could come and look, they'd never seen anything like that before either! She was there all day. Imagine, thinking you're going to get a tooth filled and ending up in the ER!! :bigmouth:
Now I don't want to go back to have any dental work done. I'll make sure I tell my dentist this story and make sure I tell him again about my Vagus Nerve! I'll also tell my neuro this story.

 

[epileric]

I"m going to the dentist tomorrow

I"m going to be sure to wear my medic alert bracelet

 

[Eyes_herself]

I've had a bad experience at the dentist which triggered my seizures again, due to a badly impacted wisdom tooth, poor communication and bone growth of spikes afterward (which are supposed to go back into the jaw, mine decided to park themselves where they were). Once they were discovered they were swiftly filed down and months later I'm medicated appropriately and seizure free.

SO do your research, talk to the dentist if you have any questions!! He may think you're crazy but he'll be doing his job. make him work for his money!