Adjusting to a new normal

As another year passed, I am still not 100 percent, yet I "feel" I saw incremental progress, as more feeling returned, particularly on the lateral side of the tongue (closest to my right ear). It's difficult to explain or describe with precision what continues to not work correctly -- four years after the incident. Like recuperating from any injury involving a nerve, you learn to adjust to what psychologists call a "new normal." The baseline for my tongue operation after the paresthesia is different than it was pre-injury. There are times when I'll go several hours and not notice that I've got a spot in my mouth where there is no feeling. I can enjoy the feel and taste of all foods. None of my teeth fell out. I talk normally (normally for me.)

Learning to live with numbness while getting 'better'

Even though I still have a partially numb tongue (a 3 ice-cube size area of my left underside has no sensation whatsover, it feels like a lifeless sandbar in the middle of an ocean.) I feel like I gain another fraction of feeling back every month, when I least expect. You can tell the area in question when you try to twist your tongue in your mouth. The unfeeling section feels cold and dead. Like my tinnitus, it's a condition that I've learned to live with.

"Happy" anniversary

I am just reporting the facts here that, indeed, the journey to "recovery" has been incomplete. I can still feel numb spots on the underside of my tongue. I did let the dentist who did the sedation know that it was still an issue, just for informational purposes. (I did not sue - I signed the waiver.) To all of you out there who may be facing long-term partial paralysis, my best to you!

Eat your heart out, Wrigley's

The continuing journey that my tongue is taking as it fully "awakens" from its 10-month coma is a frustrating experience, and one that requires a vast amount of patience. I still don't have sensation on the right front underside and it feels like 94% of my tongue is operational and dragging the stubborn unusable 6% with it. When you lack sensation in a part of the body that otherwise contains the most sensitive external sensors, the unworking areas seem inflated or highlighted. The "dead" area I envision feels like a chewed-up piece of gum. In other words, I'm storing Wrigley's flavorless gum just behind my teeth.

Return to the dentist

I slid back in the same dentist chair in which I underwent the under-sedation dental procedure in June 2012. The reason: the paresthesia still lingers in a small but noticeable quadrant in my tongue, and the nerve endings "fire up" sporadically, once every two weeks or so. The dentist poked me with a slightly blunt instrument to see if I felt pressure and then the sharp end of the device, and really maneuvered around in my mouth. He tried to offer me encouragement, that it would take some time, but he's just guessing that healing will be 100 percent. It could very well be 95 percent, and that I would have to live with my condition. But I'm not at that stage yet, since final healing hasn't progressed to the level I am hoping, but it is technically still progressing.

Still fighting parasthesia

So I got the "nerve" to call the dentist's office and left a message with the receptionist's voice mail, describing my issues and waiting for a response so I can schedule my first trip back to the dentist since November. So I've passed the 8-month mark and still have not fully regained the sensation in an area of my tongue on the right side. It's quite noticeable, and I hope it is not a permanent dead area, because when you are used to 100 percent feeling of an organ and that feeling is suddenly reduced, through no fault of your own, that is the pits. It's set for March 5 at 12:20 p.m. I'll let you know what happens.

Not 100%, and not happy

There is still a sliver of lost sensation in my tongue, on the right side. I'm thinking of paying another visit to the dentist who caused the paresthesia -- although I'm not sure what good it will do, ultimately, since he can't repair the damage - just monitor it. I no longer feel the pins-and-needles sensation of the nerves refiring on a daily basis; now it happens but on occasion -once every 10 days. Having a dead spot on your tongue is more than just annoying: It impacts your quality of life. It impacts my ability to trust a dentist with Novacaine, which I know I'll eventually have to use again. That's how teeth are; they break down. Here's the other thing: While I am no longer actively his patient, I still have a bill to pay - over $1,100 that is still owed to the credit card agency. Yes, I knew the risk when I had the procedure done in June 2012, but it was a simple sedation to replace 2 fillings and install a crown. Nothing complicated. Beyond follow-up appointments, which were not build, procedures, no offer of a refund. I am contemplating asking for a refund.