No, I haven't forgotten which blog I'm working on, but there's considerable overlap at the moment. On Friday night (because
of course it was a Friday night) I had a tooth suddenly go supernova on me. Since then I've been popping pain pills and antibiotics to try to make it to Monday, when I can hopefully see someone rather than just making a future appointment.
Ironically, the tooth in question should theoretically be incapable of causing pain owing to a root canal and a crown from an emergency dentist about 18 months ago when I was on hospital duty with Kathy. This person (I hesitate to use the word "dentist") apparently failed to do a complete root canal, put on the worst-looking crown I've ever seen, and then made it fit by drilling the top until she (oops!) made it down into the original tooth, making the crown useless. And did I mention the $4k emergency fee? But I was preoccupied at the time so let it go.
But that lack-of-quality workmanship has caught up with me and I'm enduring "Marathon Man" levels of pain about as enthusiastically as Dustin Hoffman did. And money be damned, I'm NOT going back to the emergency place to demand a do-over because I'd rather pay pretty much anything to pretty much anyone else to have the job done right. Although during moments of intense suffering, I have considered taking a more "hands-on" approach...
It's indicative of my situation that I've actually been looking up "do it yourself" videos on Youtube, and that even the one above seems appealing. I genuinely envy that lucky SOB with the beer.
And now, I've got to get back to the serious work of holding an ice bag on my face. I'll try to update this post later after I've either been to the dentist or a Home Depot.
MONDAY UPDATE:
My good dentist worked me in first thing this morning and confirmed that I've got infection due to the botched root canal the emergency person did. So I've got a referral to a specialist I've seen before (also good) at 4:15 to finish the root canal that the emergency practice only started. So now I've got a few hours to kill and will spend them packing that tooth area in mint chocolate chip ice cream.
SECOND UPDATE:
Aw, nuts. The specialist let me come in early, but not much good came out of it. The x-ray shows that the emergency dentist left what might be a small amount of drill bit in the root of my tooth. So I was given the choice of getting a new root canal using a laser which might or might not clear the obstruction, or just pulling the tooth after which I’d need an implant. I said I’d rather do the root canal, but it turns out that if they attempted it and it didn’t work, I’d be in WAY more pain than I’ve been in so far and would have to schedule an emergency tooth extraction with some other practitioner.
SOoo the strategy is to just give my antibiotics another 24-48 hours to bring the pain down, THEN try the root canal (for $2500 - and I’ll surely need a new crown on top of that). If the tooth was further back in my mouth I’d just have them pull it and be done with it. But since the tooth is visible when I smile, I don't think I should just leave a gaping hole there. Of course, it won't be a problem if I give up smiling, which seems like an easy enough option.
At the moment, at least, I don't hurt. Because for my $300 specialist visit today, I got three numbing injections (directly into my brain stem I believe) which should mask the pain until all the dentists close their offices for the day.
AND BY THE WAY...
How accurate was this prediction from last Friday?
In case you haven't heard, Tucker has been fired from FOX News and we now know (which he didn't) that Friday was his last show for the network. Sometimes I'm so good I scare myself.
