Yesterday, I told my notification list, "Diabetes, hypertension... what next?
Don't... *DON'T* answer that. It was rhetorical." Stupid. I don't know why I set myself up like that. I guess that I have to be the straight guy and the funny guy both, heh. Anyway, I wake up this morning and my damned tooth hurts... the front one, not my *other* damned tooth. And it's loose as a goose, to boot. All of my teeth could be considered damned, come to think of it. Anyway, I went to see the MD at 08:15 and he gave me some additional BP pills to take, making sure that I knew that weight control was the *real* way to manage my BP. He also pointed out that it was unlikely that they would do the knee surgery with my BP uncontrolled.... Catch-22 time... I need my knee fixed so that I can exercise and lose weight and get the BP down... well, that's a lie and an excuse, I guess. I can lose weight by not eating so much, and I can do limited activity with my knee, and I really need to work on upper-body exercise too. I made it to work only 15 minutes late, 08:45, and we had a staff meeting scheduled for 09:00. We had to do one patient, a 16-year-old kid with a headache. Dammit, a previously un-diagnosed brain tumor. We all hate it when that happens... it seems like it's always a surprise, we do so many scans for headaches and there's nothing there... this shows why we do them, to catch that one-in-a-thousand. I had called my dentist as soon as I got to work, and they called back just as the meeting got started, they wanted me out there at 10:00... or not until next week. Well, this wasn't a problem that was going to wait that long, so I headed out before the meeting even really got started. The news was bad, as I knew that it had to be. The tooth was fractured below the cap about 3 mm, and it would have to come out, and the two next to it would have to be replaced with a bridge. DamnDamnDamn. Insurance doesn't pay for bridges. DamnDamnDamn. Not counting the pain. DamnDamndamn! So I go over to the oral surgeon's place, fill out reams of paperwork and get in the chair. I'm told that I have to make a decision... gas or no gas? I've never been offered gas before, but I'm told that it's $55 and the insurance doesn't pay for it. Nah. It's just for the local injection anyway, I've done that lots of times. Yeah, pain, but not that much, and pretty brief. $55? A no-brainer. OK. The guy goes into the dentist office, says, "OK, doc, I don't want a local, no gas, nothing, no horsing around, just pull the damned tooth!" The dentist says, "It's rare to find a patient who is so stoic... which tooth is hurting you?" The guy turns to his wife and says, "Show him your tooth, honey." the oral surgeon is pretty good at his job, the local is indeed painful but brief. He explained to me that this could go anywhere from minor to major, depending... he might have to cut away some bone, etc. or it might just pop right out. It pretty much popped right out, didn't take him but about two minutes to get a grip on it and yank it. The tooth had already had a root canal, so it was painless. He did give me some darvocet, he said that it would hurt later, and it's starting to now.
13:50....
Old age seldom arrives smoothly or quickly... It is more often a succession of jerks.
I took the sponge out of the hole in my mouth and looked up the number for my dentist, and at that moment, the phone rang. Yeah, it was the dentist, they needed me to come back for another impression, so I did. I also found out that the insurance will pay for the bridge... except for the fact that I'm over the annual limit, so I will be picking up the majority of it anyway.
Actually, now that I think about it, I should have spent that $55 on gas, 'cause I've never done it before. Nah, that's OK, I think that I can live my entire life without nitrous oxide, or whatever it is.
I have to go back to the dentist tomorrow at 11:30 for a "flap", a temporary tooth to plug the hole while the bridge is being constructed, then in about ten days I'll go back and have the other teeth cut off and the bridge cemented on.
Karen is going to KC with three other ladies tonight, she'll be home about 22:00, she said. Going to go shopping and eat. She doesn't get out much except with her kids or with me, so this'll be good for her.
This afternoon is going to be occupied with spacing out on the darvocets, I have a feeling. A painful feeling. The socket isn't bleeding and that's a plus, but my lip is sure sore... I think that he leaned on it to get leverage. And it hurts like hell under my nose where he put the local in. OK, darvocet. He gave it to me for a reason, heh....
In addition to not driving or operating heavy machinery, I probably should not be writing under the influence, and this is a good place to stop.