A few of my friends had asked me if I had to choose again would I choose my path as a medicine man again ? My answer definitely a YES It was a chance of a life time to lay my foot on this path. No remorse --- although most of my time, my brain had been thinking of solution for the -pharmacy project. I was lucky to become a physician and had the luxury to do tropical medicine in a less hazard place (such as Africa). I am currently the family physician of my own family - really a luxury . I don't have to sent my children to a ENT for a common cold consultation -- even the H1N1.... I am greatful to the MOH...
But sometimes, you would get a hit over the head, you just can't solve everything......... We had gone for a camping trip during the new year eve 2 months ago. During the stay I had noticed a persistent pain over my right lateral tongue. I could feel the pain intermittently for the past 3-4 months. I had always thought the I had bitten my tongue somewhere in time. But when the pain become persistent, I was worried. I did a good look at the lesion - well, a 1cm cleave like lesion was noted and I could feel a plaque around the lesion. The colour is paler than the surronding on closer observation. It was a darn shocking ... a leukoplakia a.k.a pre-cancerous lesion OR maybe a real true malignant lesion !!!!
I had entered an dilemma and tried to seek the cause - I am a non-smoker, non-betel nut use and I don't drink either. I didn't spend much time to give myself an answer --- caries.
A long long story - tracing back to my college days, there was this toothache over my rt upper first bicuspid tooth. I had visited the dental clinic and a pulpectomy was planned but I defaulted the treatment(I had DENTOPHOBIA). The pulpectomy hole had become bigger and bigger and I had suffered a few years long of toothache ( the second bicuspid was involved later on and the I had 2 caries instead of 1) This 2 caries had cracked over the time - their sharp edges had consistently rubbed over my tongue.
After a 2 weeks trial of "trying to keep" my tongue as left as possible most of the time but the lesion was till there. I decided to visit the dental department of my university hospital. I saw a young attending dental surgeon - - well, my BP rised up to 230/130 mmHg prior the consultation ( I was very very very very nervous) - the worst case scenario was "cutting" off half of my tongue and a long time speech rehab.... I am definitely not prepared for that !!!
An lady dental intern saw me first but she could barely localized the lesion. That was where I got the "rocket high" once of a life time BP recorded. I proceeded to see the dental surgeon minutes later and he assured me that it was just only an leukoplakia and tooth extraction would prevent the lesion progress..... I sigh and turn down the offer to extract the caries on the spot- I was scheduled for a 24 hrs shift then....
With no struggle I called up William's clinic and scheduled for a tooth extraction 4 days later....William's is a dentist and my senior who practiced not far away from the place I worked. He is very senior to me(he graduated 10 + years before I enter medicine school)... but we had sometime in common - both of us had a practice license back in Malaysia but choose to stay back here in Taiwan...
The tongue lesion had regressed after the extraction and I had walked out from the "self frightening anxiety" syndrome.....I tends to precious my life more - I had the feeling of regainning my life( still far away from a reborn...)
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