Root Canals and Old Friends
Posted on | February 17, 2009 | 2 Comments
Before I go on and on about my tooth, let me just say that I think I am WAY fucking behind on getting this novel edited. I planned on working on it for hours today, but I’m a little distracted by my swollen left cheek and my root canal. It has me worried – the lack of progress, not the tooth. And sometimes I am doubtful that I will ever publish because it’s hard. It would be easier on everyone if I just gave up. But I can’t. I’m compelled. And I am so damn proud of myself for finishing my novel. So that was your schitzoid thought for the day. On to more painful things…
I broke one of my back molars on my tongue ring back in 97 or so. I worked at Borders in Miami, just down the road from Dadeland Mall (what an awful name for a mall). I had just changed the guage and put a ring in, instead of the usual barbell. Why? I think I swallowed the ball for barbell and I wanted to up the guage. So, there I was with a thick ring in my mouth, shelving history (oh yes, I remember). I was on one of the ladders, getting down, my foot slipped and….
****CRUNCH*****
The sound filled my head, turned my stomach, and I swallowed part of my tooth. I let the manager know because I had to, and she told me I could get it fixed. Techinacally I hurt myself on the job. But who in their right mind, with some stupid peice of jewelry in their tongue would have the brass bawls to go to the dentist on a worker’s comp claim to fix a broken tooth? Not me, obviously.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. The tooth has bothered me off and on for a while, usually just being sensitive to cold. Then last week I bit into a veggie burger (of all things), and it felt like someone grabbed a hold of the nerve and yanked. I honestly thought I was going to puke, it hurt that bad. The pain eased, but the tooth became quite bothersome later in the week. By Friday I had polished off most of a bottle of Advil and I had to admit defeat.
A dentist it would be.
I have pretty good luck at finding good docs. But I haven’t been to a dentist since…well I was still a teen. I looked through Google and yelp, and settle in on Eilers Dental. They run a paperless office, which just makes me all happy inside. They also squeezed me in on the same day because I was in pain. The office staff we super nice, asking me if I was okay, making appropriate and interesting small talk and explained the costs and such associated with my tooth. The Dr. was also top notch. We discussed my options (removal or root canal) and he told me what I already knew – if I had fixed the damn thing 10 years ago, I probably wouldn’t be having the current problem. One look at my X-ray and he knew I had to go to a specialist.
They set me up with an appointment today. I admit that I was nervous. You hear all kinds of stories about infected root canals, or drills going to deep or what ever. I have never had a cavity, so I didn’t know what I was supposed to be scared of. David and I arrived at Endodontic Associates at noon. The staff there were also lovely. The nurse and the doctor chatted their way through the appointment. Apparently my jaw surgery and the plates and screw I have are unusual, so there was a lot of discussion about that procedure and the bone plates. Oh, and I have long, curly roots. Who knew? I can honestly say that there was no pain. And they did their best to make sure I was comfortable. Now, with a swollen left cheek, I am home and only in mild discomfort. The next expensive step is having the crown put on, but that won’t come until March.
Facebook has been in the press recently for their shady practices, but I found a few friends I had been wondering about for years via their site. I’m not jazzed about being Facebook’s bitch, but they are terribly useful sometimes. One of my old friends, T (initials to protect the innocent), used to work with me at Borders. She used to call me Sunshine – because I’m a raging pain in the ass when I wake up in the morning. Especially back then. I didn’t eat. I lived on coffee, and I was….well let’s just say I lived in Miami and it was the 90′s. I am really glad to have found old friends again. While I won’t go back to Florida anytime soon (being unemployed, I got the time just not the cash), it’s good to know that I have frieds to go to dinner with when we head down there. Sometimes I miss the old days, but I am more interested in getting to know these old friends again as the person I am now. I think I’ve grown.
And one of them told me “you got your shit together”…. That felt good to hear.
So now, I have a date with a milkshake and some Advil.
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February 18th, 2009 @ 6:23 am
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