The root canal is over, and now I am tripping along on codeine (trying to figure out in the middle of the night if I will be able to go off of these drugs tomorrow to do all the things I have to do in the next three days). Here is my list:
Miranda's PawPrint book presentation 8:15 am
Amelia's Pawprint book presentation 8:30 am (this is a recipe book that I also worked on a lot so I am eager to see this)
Go to school bookfair and get Percy Jackson book for Amelia, $12, and equivalent book or thing for Miranda
Go to ARD meeting at school 9:15 am (husband to do these meetings with me)
It's Dreaded Payday. Get money, gas, go to Wally-World for some groceries, get yellow t shirts for DI at Hobby Lobby (and some fabric paint). Need stage makeup that doesn't itch as well. Eat lunch (must be soup or something easily chewed). We are out of rum again so working in the liquor store might be nice too.
1 pm go with husband to Consignment dropoff in Grapevine. Note pickup time for stuff which I think is Tues night. Kids are going to Percy Jackson movie with LEAP class at the end of the school day, and are to be picked up by friend Phyllis for playdate. Try to get cookies delivered to friend and two other neighbors.
Bookfair tonight at 5 pm at school if not able to go earlier (try to avoid and do earlier in the day--it will be a zoo with 1000 kids at this elementary school). DI wine and cheese party from 7-9 (try to avoid--don't want to stand around feeling stupid and talking to other, better and more technically-inclined coaches and getting drunk, and need to be back on pain drugs by now). Steppes Populace meeting 7 -10 in Carrollton--try to go and deliver Girl Scout cookies and collect money.
Saturday morning: Thinking Day at 9 am--go over and set up Troop's presentation on Colombia (oops, still need to write the 3 minute oral presentation part. I have a 5-7 minute one already written but now I need to cut it down). Thinking Day goes until about 12:30 pm. Feed kids something--mac and cheese (I hate it but they love it). Destination Imagination work session at house from 2 pm to 5 pm.
Sunday morning: get garage arranged so kids can practice skit out there. Destination Imagination work session from 2-5 pm. Need to do makeup and costumes and skit bigtime.
Monday: taking Girl Scout cookies to Dallas during the day to deliver to people who couldn't come to Populace or don't want to wait until March Business meeting to get their cookies.
My life is such a joy. So I earned a law degree for THIS????
Anyway, the root canal wasn't too bad once they changed the radio station (I said in the lobby that I hated country music which is not entirely true, but I think they overheard me). I liked this guy. The fancy endodontist in MY neighborhood wouldn't take our insurance so we drove all the way to Carrollton. This guy was nice and very funny, and had a no frills not fancy at all office (bathroom down the hall and everything which was inconvenient for throwing up after root canal but one can't have everything). He had the gas, which is the important thing.
I like doctors and dentists who don't have really fancy offices. When they have really fancy offices I know they are making a lot of money that they don't know what else to do with, and guess who is paying for that fancy Mayan decoration (I am not kidding--my downtown dentist referred me to a specialist who was redoing his office to look like Machu Pichu or something. I ran out of there so fast it would make your head swim). This is one of the reasons I never got braces as an adult even though I really needed them.
This guy gave me some topical anesthetic that smelled like cloves (oil of cloves, like Mike Kavannaugh mentioned the other day, is still very useful thousands of years later). I barely felt the novocaine shot. Of course, I have a dreadful time breathing during these procedures because I'm a mouth breather. It's really hard to breathe around a rubber dam. Also, I just don't get stoned enough on the gas usually because when I breathe through my nose I sound like Darth Vader. Or in this case, the guy's wife's new English bulldog (OK, I didn't say he was poor, just frugal). He was indeed making fun of my breathing but I didn't care. I guess enough of the gas was getting through anyway.
No tvs or headphones or any frills here though, and the walls were painted mustard (and probably from back in the 1970's, not because he was going for a cool retro look). Also, my ipod was dead this morning so I had to tough it out and listen to him talk to the hygenist like I wasn't there (because of course I was more sober than they realized). I must admit when he finally killed the root of the tooth I felt a relaxation like I hadn't felt in YEARS. It was AWESOME (although of course now the sucker really hurts!) He said he didn't understand why no one could see anything wrong with this tooth the last time I had it looked at, since there was so much decay, and I reluctantly admitted how long it had really been since I had been to the dentist (blaming it on the various financial reversals of IT professionals since things started getting outsourced to India, and our sporadic dental insurance)--and he (and the hygenist) both said, "sounds like my world." I didn't want to admit that part of the reason no one has looked at my teeth in years
is primarily that I have become dental phobic and I just hate the f****** dentist! But I'm sure he knew.
So, Darth Vader signing off now--I really really want another pain pill!!!!
Pleasant Valley Mom, wanting sleep
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Showing posts with label dentist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dentist. Show all posts
Friday, February 19, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The Joys of Neanderthal Teeth, or Trying to Make It Until Root Canal Time
Well folks, this will be short today because I am doped up. I finally went to the dentist yesterday about my teeth since I broke a filling and lost part of a tooth a week ago Friday!!! I have been so busy and with the snow and everything, I just could not seem to get in to the dentist. Well, now I need a root canal in addition to a crown, and I am scheduled to see a specialist (endodontist) on Thursday at 9:30 am. So I am going to be doped up a bit this week and taking antibiotics until I can get this tooth fixed. I was fine while I was writing my email but all of a sudden that hydrocodone haze has descended and I know that I am getting loopy!!! It's almost time to get the girls up and I feel like I am stoned.
I am afraid that I have developed a dreadful dental phobia in the last few years. I am a mouth breather so going to the dentist has always been miserable for me. I have had 3-4 root canals (one had to be redone so I don't know if that counts as a fourth root canal or not). The one that had to be redone took FOUR visits to fix and the dentist who did it (not the one who did it the first time) told me to never get another root canal done by an ordinary dentist but to use an endodontist. She claimed that I have extra roots in my teeth or something and that they are very weird. My teeth are not as evolved as most people's. Does this mean I have neanderthal teeth? Well, probably not but let's call it that. Neanderthal teeth.
I really really really hate the dentist. No matter how nice they are. When I had my wisdom teeth out in high school, three of the four were impacted. I'm the only person I know who stayed in bed for four days after her wisdom teeth came out. I was so swollen that I had black eyes. It was a lovely sight. No one saw me for a week. I believe I got to do this over spring break Senior Year. I remember that the dentist's name was Bruce and he was really cute. I remember that it cost $350 (my mom complained about it of course). I also remember that it was HELL.
I am a mouth breather and an asthmatic, so being at the dentist is always absolutely horrible for me, no matter how much gas they give me. I want to be gassed, even for a cleaning, and I want to listen to really loud music and try to pretend I am not there. I think I will take my ipod this time and try to zone out as much as possible, plus take the codeine to the office and see if they want me to take it before the procedure (although the gas would be nice too and I should probably just hold out for the gas; I'd just rather be stoned). I am hoping to get R to drive me and wait and drive me home, and take his computer to work there if necessary. I have to go all the way to Carrollton because the endodontist in our town isn't on our insurance, so I don't really want to be driving home all the way from Carrollton after the root canal experience, or sitting around in the office waiting for him. For me in terms of stress it's like having surgery; actually worse because I'm awake for it.
The weird thing is that most of the pain is in my lower jaw but those teeth actually look fine, including the ones that have had root canals in the past. This is not the first time someone has told me this. Could it all be in my head? I can't imagine that I am imagining this tooth pain though--that doesn't sound like me. So the pain feels like it is lower but is may actually all be related to this upper tooth that fell apart ten days ago. Because it has been bothering me for some time but I have been trying to ignore it, I haven't had a cleaning in some time either, so now they want to do scaling. Yuk. Even having the hygenist talk about it was making my skin crawl. I know I probably really need to do this and it looks like it is covered by insurance now (which it wasn't before), but I am really dreading dreading dreading it!!!!
Does anyone else out there hate the dentist? What in the world is wrong with me, putting this off for ten days? The dentist did give me the codeine of course, so I guess he believes that I am really in a lot of pain. Maybe I just supress some of it. Anyway, I feel a lot better with the codeine but of course, like usual when I am on medication of different types, it makes it hard to function. Today we have to do the Scouts presentation board for Thinking Day on the country of Colombia. How appropriate. Note to self: No codeine after Noon. Must sober up in time to do presentation board etc. Defrost something easy and early and crash about 5 pm. There's always chicken soup, and if I'm not too out of it today I could make some noodles for it.
It didn't help that last night I had to go to DI training until almost 10 pm over in Carrollton. I got a ride since I have no business driving, and then I couldn't leave because she was giving another lady a ride home. I mostly went to find out some key DI information; there wasn't anything else much that was new about the training, and my drugs wore off. Then when I got home R and I had to print out consignment tags (yes, still doing that), print out pictures from Colombia, staple fabric to the presentation board and set up a spreadsheet for DI. Well, R did most of this for me because I was too loopy to do it, of course. I tried to watch Lost but I fell asleep, so no exciting blog about that today. Maybe in a few days after the root canal is done. A friend said recently that you should never put off procedures involving your feet or your teeth, and I am guilty of doing both.
Man, I really really really hate the dentist. And my Neanderthal Teeth. Somebody wake me up when it is over!!!
Pleasant Valley Mom, more like Valley of the Dolls today
I am afraid that I have developed a dreadful dental phobia in the last few years. I am a mouth breather so going to the dentist has always been miserable for me. I have had 3-4 root canals (one had to be redone so I don't know if that counts as a fourth root canal or not). The one that had to be redone took FOUR visits to fix and the dentist who did it (not the one who did it the first time) told me to never get another root canal done by an ordinary dentist but to use an endodontist. She claimed that I have extra roots in my teeth or something and that they are very weird. My teeth are not as evolved as most people's. Does this mean I have neanderthal teeth? Well, probably not but let's call it that. Neanderthal teeth.
I really really really hate the dentist. No matter how nice they are. When I had my wisdom teeth out in high school, three of the four were impacted. I'm the only person I know who stayed in bed for four days after her wisdom teeth came out. I was so swollen that I had black eyes. It was a lovely sight. No one saw me for a week. I believe I got to do this over spring break Senior Year. I remember that the dentist's name was Bruce and he was really cute. I remember that it cost $350 (my mom complained about it of course). I also remember that it was HELL.
I am a mouth breather and an asthmatic, so being at the dentist is always absolutely horrible for me, no matter how much gas they give me. I want to be gassed, even for a cleaning, and I want to listen to really loud music and try to pretend I am not there. I think I will take my ipod this time and try to zone out as much as possible, plus take the codeine to the office and see if they want me to take it before the procedure (although the gas would be nice too and I should probably just hold out for the gas; I'd just rather be stoned). I am hoping to get R to drive me and wait and drive me home, and take his computer to work there if necessary. I have to go all the way to Carrollton because the endodontist in our town isn't on our insurance, so I don't really want to be driving home all the way from Carrollton after the root canal experience, or sitting around in the office waiting for him. For me in terms of stress it's like having surgery; actually worse because I'm awake for it.
The weird thing is that most of the pain is in my lower jaw but those teeth actually look fine, including the ones that have had root canals in the past. This is not the first time someone has told me this. Could it all be in my head? I can't imagine that I am imagining this tooth pain though--that doesn't sound like me. So the pain feels like it is lower but is may actually all be related to this upper tooth that fell apart ten days ago. Because it has been bothering me for some time but I have been trying to ignore it, I haven't had a cleaning in some time either, so now they want to do scaling. Yuk. Even having the hygenist talk about it was making my skin crawl. I know I probably really need to do this and it looks like it is covered by insurance now (which it wasn't before), but I am really dreading dreading dreading it!!!!
Does anyone else out there hate the dentist? What in the world is wrong with me, putting this off for ten days? The dentist did give me the codeine of course, so I guess he believes that I am really in a lot of pain. Maybe I just supress some of it. Anyway, I feel a lot better with the codeine but of course, like usual when I am on medication of different types, it makes it hard to function. Today we have to do the Scouts presentation board for Thinking Day on the country of Colombia. How appropriate. Note to self: No codeine after Noon. Must sober up in time to do presentation board etc. Defrost something easy and early and crash about 5 pm. There's always chicken soup, and if I'm not too out of it today I could make some noodles for it.
It didn't help that last night I had to go to DI training until almost 10 pm over in Carrollton. I got a ride since I have no business driving, and then I couldn't leave because she was giving another lady a ride home. I mostly went to find out some key DI information; there wasn't anything else much that was new about the training, and my drugs wore off. Then when I got home R and I had to print out consignment tags (yes, still doing that), print out pictures from Colombia, staple fabric to the presentation board and set up a spreadsheet for DI. Well, R did most of this for me because I was too loopy to do it, of course. I tried to watch Lost but I fell asleep, so no exciting blog about that today. Maybe in a few days after the root canal is done. A friend said recently that you should never put off procedures involving your feet or your teeth, and I am guilty of doing both.
Man, I really really really hate the dentist. And my Neanderthal Teeth. Somebody wake me up when it is over!!!
Pleasant Valley Mom, more like Valley of the Dolls today
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