Things I forgot:

The only things that saved my sanity and probably emotional status for the rest of today was my doing the "breathe in, breathe out" thing at the dentist. I kept envisioning my lungs (yeah sorry any squeamish people) expanding and deflating with my breathing. I tried to focus on that. I tried picturing myself in some green jungle with a brook next to me doing that, but epic fail when someones hands are on your face, in your mouth and there's some sharp, loud horrible instrument in your mouth.

The other thing was Cindy (my hygienist! I found out her name) turned off the overhead ceiling lights after awhile. Apparently she can see better without those on and just have the light attached to the chair that they can swing and turn which ever way they want. She turned it off and was talking to another hygienist there, Lucy about it being easier to examine teeth without them on then commented that "Look, I turned them off and I can already feel how much more relaxed she is!" She, being me. I hadn't noticed that yet. But she was right I was much more relaxed. I didn't tense up so much as I did before. It was sooo much dimmer (for me) and I didn't have to close my eyes if I didn't want to. I could've kept them open with the ceiling lights on too but its not comfortable. I usually close mine tight because of the light. Which tenses me up. The dimmer lighting was calming. The fluorescent lights no not at all.

So breathing as calmly as I could and the dimmer lighting made it better. I'll be asking for them to turn the lights off again.

Even reading this makes me feel like the dentist for once, was not a emotional and physical catastrophe.