Mrs. Gower wakes up. She lets her husband continue sleeping. She smiles as she closes the bedroom door because he is usually up early, but she understands that yesterday’s root canal must not have been easy for him. About an hour later, she checks on her husband and finds that he is awake but he has had a very rough night.
“My jaw is really stiff, Nancy, and it hurts more than the last time I had a root canal.”
Mrs. Gower brings him some ibuprofen and tells him to stay in bed until it gets into his system. When she returns, Mr. Gower tells her that his jaw is still stiff and that every time he tries to get up, he feels faint and has no energy or strength. This makes Mrs. Gower very concerned.
“I’ll get the blood pressure machine, John.”
Mr. Gower smiles. They bought the machine when Nancy was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and now, every time he felt sick, she took his blood pressure with it.
“It’s 100 over 60, John, and it’s usually 120 over 70.”
Mrs. Gower calls the dentist’s office, and they tell her that his problems are probably due to the procedure. They suggest that Mr. Gower stay in bed and drink plenty of fluids, and that she should call again if he gets worse.
Mr. Gower eats nothing during the day, and just drinks fruit juice. At dinner time, his jaw is so stiff he has trouble opening his mouth to eat the soup and rice pudding his wife has made for him. Mr. Gower goes to sleep early that evening with the hope that he will be better after a good night’s sleep.
Originally published at http://www.sciencecases.org/chin/chin2.asp
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