Thursday, October 04, 2007

Surgical Woes

I thought I broke a tooth, or a filling, and called the dentist. He fit me in right after school. DH was on his way to work, and I figured he'd give me some temp. thing and reschedule a real appt.

Uh uh. I broke a top wisdom tooth. Yup. 'Way back there. One I'd had a root canal on. It was nice and brittle, and the roots were rotted. Great. It took him over 2 hours, contorting my head, face and neck in all impossible positions in a wrestling match with this impossible thing. Turned into a major deal. I got told, yet again, that my mouth is really small, and difficult to work in, and too small for all the teeth I have. (Yes, I have not been accused of being a big-mouth in a realllly long time.) And my teeth, even in this state, are really strong with deep roots...so, hard to remove. I am an enigma to myself, yet again.

All this wondrousness was experienced with Little Sir sitting looking on, working on his new Curious George puzzle & coloring book. (Had I known this was gonna happen, I'd've gotten a sitter, or made DH stay home and/or come with me!) I was very conscious of not letting all my emotions and physical discomfort too evident, so as not to scare this 4-year-old away from dentists permanently.

The simplest things can turn into such a mess with me. Happens all the time.

So now, half of my face is swollen and distorted, my throat hurts, can't swallow, can't talk, and even with Tylenol 3 w/ codeine, I am in serious pain. (Makes ya wonder what I'd be like without it.) I hope tomorrow is better, but I'm sure my neck will need some help,even after the mouth heals.

Here's the tip of the day: Take good care of your teeth, and they'll take care of you.

4 comments:

Natasha Beccaria said...

eeewww.. I have a thing about dentists. Had my wisdom teeth pulled several years ago (the bottom ones - they were impacted).

I found out i was allergic to codeine with stitches in my mouth. Wasnt pretty.

And how brave you are for not showing Little Sir your discomfort. I would have been W@#$#@%$#$%@# under my breath the whole time!

Hope you feel better soon darlin'!

Luna said...

Oh, I'm sorry JM I feel your pain.

In typical Luna fashion, I went and had only the bottom wisdoms pulled 10 years ago--they kept saying "You should do them all" and I was a giant baby and didn't.

Fast forward to last year when I had no dental insurance and one got infected. You wanna talk insult to injury. Know what I did? I still can't believe I did it. I went to this chi chi dentist in the Hamptons-because he could get me in quick--and I negotiated with him--IN THE OFFICE, right before the appointment.

I was SO obnoxious that I pulled the old "nope, I'm leaving" and walked out. He followed me and knocked $400 off the bill.

So, my question is....if he could knock $400 off the bill on a whim, exactly HOW cheap IS it to pull teeth?

Then of course I sat there as he was pulling them, thinking, hmmm....I wonder if he gave me enough novocaine...or if I'm gonna suffer for that $400.... LOL

Anyway, enjoy that Tylenol--you should've pushed them for vicodin, that Tylenol 3 is weak.

Feel better.

j-m said...

Thanks for the sympathy, girls. See, the problem with the Tyl 3 is that I can't have wine with it...and right now, I would love a bottle of good red wine, even if I have to sip it through a straw...guess I could've skipped the Tyl. and gone straight to the liquor store...but it was closed by the time I got my scrip, blah blah blah...


I just wanna enjoy this weekend off from school!

j-m said...

Oh...and we have this discount dental plan...it was $750 less with it. So...who eats that $750? I haven't paid that much in fees for all 5 of us to get away with a bill like that. Makes me wonder, too, Luna.

And I know whatcha mean about procrastinating about this stuff...had I had the crown done, right away, after the root canal, like he told me to...

yeah


no rotten roots, no cracked wall...

but I hate sitting in that chair..."Now open a little wider...wider!"