I was put on local anesthesia before I extracted my wisdom teeth. One on my right bottom was horizontal and embedded in my gums. The injection hurt, and my bottom chin and lips became swollen after abt 30 min. But when Dr. Tan began the operation, I could not feel any pain, even though there were loud grinding noises and pressure on my gums. My eyes were covered to prevent water from splashing in and protect me from the light glare. But the unknown made me scared. Trust & Faith in Dr. Tan and in the anesthesia injection..did I trust the local anesthesia? Logically, there should be pain. I was scared that there would be sudden jutting pain bcos the injection wasn't done properly.
Why did God create pain? It reminded me of Philip Yancey's book "Where is God when it hurts?". In the book, he says that pain helps us to know that there is something we need to fix, and prevents us from getting hurt. E.g. leprosy patients lose feelings in their limps, and they scratch themselves, cut themselves etc, but it doesn't hurt. Pain is a good indication from God that we are hurting.
Dr. Tan was stitching the wound, and he said, we are now at the last stage of the op. You have been very brave, you hardly made a noise, are you okay? Are you used to having operations?
Well actually no, I have never been hospitalized, and this is my second operation since few years ago extracting my first ever wisdom tooth.
I took the MRT home after the op. I felt no pain in my mouth, except for numbness and a swollen chin. When I got home, there was a lot of blood but no pain! Again brings home the pt of pain...
Sometimes I think, we are numbed to pain, but physical symptoms like bleeding show us that we are hurting and we are in need of medical care. What abt for emotional issues that hurt us? Do we wait until physical symptoms appear that we know we are in need of care? These are more tricky...isn't it? Do I have a big threshold for pain?
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