I'd rather have a root canal...

source: thedentistreviews.com

I used to use this line often when refering to something horrible I didn't want to do...until I had a root canal...then I stopped saying it.

Last Monday I woke up with a tooth ache. I kind of thought I just got something caught so I ignored it. It was dull but with some swelling. So Wednesday I dreadingly called the base dentist only to learn they only see active duty people. And furthermore I should have enrolled in Tricare Dental already but since I haven't it won't be active until June 1st. So I ask about my toothache. They can see me for emergency care. So I go in...they think one tooth may be dead but the tests are inconclusive. So I have to take Advil and come back on Tuesday of this week.

Yesterday I go in and see a very pleasant resident (its a training clinic) who does some tests but still inconclusive. So she calls in one of the upper dentists. Who does the same tests. And apparently I'd been responding to stimulus that wasn't there. So he decided the smart thing is to yell at me about it..."You have got to work with me, we're trying to make sure we work on the right tooth because otherwise we drill the wrong tooth. You're giving me a bunch of malarkey here. If you keep it up I'll be sending you home in pain and not doing anything for you even though you obviously need help." So we tried again. And I did ok and then I responded when he hadn't hit the tooth again. So another lecture. Finally they determined that the tooth behind my canine tooth was dead and would need root canal. But they couldn't do that until today so they were going to send me home. Well the fabulous doctor determined that my resident needed to cut my gum and get the infection out. And proceeded to go into detail about what to do to my gum in the room with me...I about jumped out of the chair at the description. Whoo hoo that was fun! Soft diet for the night (but I'm ok with that Spaghettios here we come) and return at 0700 for the root canal.

So this morning I get up with J for work...and head to the dentist. Two hours later my root canal isn't quite done but they send me out so they can get to the next appointment. And I'll have to go back later to finish it. So I come to work with half my face (all the way up to my eyelid) numb. That wasn't so bad...but now three hours later the novicane is wearing off and the pain is coming back and I can't take another dose of pain meds until 2:30 this afternoon. I'm happy!!

I will say this whole experience has made me remember why I loved going from military dentists to private dentists when Dad retired. I know the military is nice to give us health care for free but it has its issues too.

J was a dream last night - fixing dinner, clean-up afterwords, etc.