So. Dentistry. Amazing, we allow people to do that to us. Am I the only person who stares at the ceiling in the dentist's chair and thinks "what the hell am I doing, it is insane, it is absolutely against human nature to sit here calmly and allow this!"
I went in for a "consultation" this past Monday. Even though they couldn't see anything untoward on the x-rays, and the tooth had stopped hurting a week earlier (but still felt "odd"), the "make it hurt with chemical cold" test showed the tooth wasn't responding the way it should. The doctor's claim that the nerve was "dead or dying," however, proved to be a bit misleading. If a "dead or dying" nerve can cause that much damnable agony through a half-gallon of novocaine, then I cringe to think what a "live and kicking" nerve could do.
The dentist (a very handsome guy who looks and sounds like Gaeta from BSG) really wanted to do a root canal.
He kept saying he didn't want to push, but fact was, he pushed. I had them running back and forth to the front desk, ensuring that this wasn't going to cost me a dime (that available credit needed to cover it entirely). And that was the consensus--my available credit more than covers it.
I went in for a "consultation" this past Monday. Even though they couldn't see anything untoward on the x-rays, and the tooth had stopped hurting a week earlier (but still felt "odd"), the "make it hurt with chemical cold" test showed the tooth wasn't responding the way it should. The doctor's claim that the nerve was "dead or dying," however, proved to be a bit misleading. If a "dead or dying" nerve can cause that much damnable agony through a half-gallon of novocaine, then I cringe to think what a "live and kicking" nerve could do.
The dentist (a very handsome guy who looks and sounds like Gaeta from BSG) really wanted to do a root canal.
 |
| Not really my dentist, but pretty danged close! |
He kept saying he didn't want to push, but fact was, he pushed. I had them running back and forth to the front desk, ensuring that this wasn't going to cost me a dime (that available credit needed to cover it entirely). And that was the consensus--my available credit more than covers it.
So I agreed. Mostly because I want to use that credit before they decide I don't actually HAVE it.
He said he could do it right then. Which was a little shocking, considering it took three months just to get an initial appointment in this place.
Things turned difficult pretty quickly. Like is often the case, my roots were curved. He said "maybe we should send you to an endodontist," and I said "No money for that." So we forged forward.
This wasn't my first root canal (I had one about 7 years ago), but it was my most painful. One canal "blind," partially calcified and the nerve hard to get to. Office didn't have the right sized file (he needed white, and they didn't have it, though they ordered one asap).. Long story short?
Four-and-a-half hours of drilling and x-rays and mouth wide open. And pain.
Holy shit, pain. Absolutely, by far, the worst dental pain I've ever suffered, and I've suffered a lot.
Four-and-a-half hours, and he couldn't finish. Other patients being shuffled off onto other dentists so he could put that much time into it. I wound up going home with a cobbled together temporary filling and two scripts--one for antibiotics (which are thrashing my belly) and one for Vicodin, which is of zero use. Not sure why folks get hooked on it, unless they're taking superbly high doses. Made an appointment for yesterday to (hopefully) finish, and spent three days eating soft, mushy things because I don't have any molars on the other side to chew with.
Back yesterday, finished up. Another three-and-a-half hours. Same dentist because I requested it--I'm sick of the "fast food/assembly line" dentistry where I get a different doctor every time. I like this guy, even if he did burn my lip twice. He listens, he pays attention, he actually reads my file, and he put a hell of a lot of effort into this--more than most dentists there would have. He's new in the office, and, honestly, I think he's a poor fit--the other dentists come across as employees (which they are--this is a "one main, older dentist running a stable of fresh-out-of-school dentists" situation), whereas this guy comes across as a dentist. He'll have his own office sooner rather than later, I'm thinking.
That his name is a Doctor Who reference?
Icing.
So now I have a temp crown for two weeks, during which time I'm not supposed to eat on that side of my head. Gonna make Thanksgiving interesting. On the "bright" side, it does make me eat a LOT slower. Ever gummed a Builder's Bar? Takes a while.
Hopefully, this root canal will take. If it doesn't, I'm going to feel super-stupid having blown that credit on a root canal instead of an extraction and bridge.
Our latest foray into cemetery photographing took us to an old Civil War era graveyard. Came across something I'd like to discuss. A "road to hell" thing.
Don't do that. If you're not an expert on repairing old headstones, don't whip out the damned GORILLA GLUE and do THIS. Whoever did this made no effort to mask the lower half of the stone or even to remove the excess before it set/bonded. There's no getting it off now without chipping away at the stone. I'm sure the person who did this thought they were doing a good thing, but fact is, they were screwing up. The road to vandalism is paved with good intentions? In this case, definitely.
Photographing these cemeteries has put me out on various family history and gravestone sites, which has, in turn, reawakened my interest in our own family's history. I've discovered a lot about my own family, including stuff I had no idea about. Like my Great-Grandfather Philip dying in the state penitentiary of TB, which explains why Great-Grandma remarried. And what Philip did to wind up in prison?
Explains pretty much everything about Grandma Mary's psychological makeup.
My little sister hit basic training camp two weeks ago. I got my first letter from her a couple of days ago. She wrote so small I had to put on my old lady reading glasses to make sense of it. She is MARKEDLY younger than I am. In fact, I am literally (and I mean "literally" LITERALLY) old enough to be her mother. Her writing will get bigger as her inability to read that small print comes on with age, I'm sure. Anyway, she's in basic training, Army. I'm not at all happy about it, would almost certainly have tried to talk her out of it, had I any advance warning, but she sprung it on me after the fact--she'd already enlisted.
Enlisted. A Specialist. I'm hoping she shoots for Officer Training. With a six-year enlistment, she should make the most of it. I also hope she stays safe. As a woman in the military, she has more to worry about from her male counterparts than from any enemy combatants. Our military members rape and abuse female soldiers with impunity.
I'm only just getting to know her, and I like what I'm finding. She's smart, practical, pragmatic, and funny. She (along with her siblings) comes from our dad's second marriage. Her mom was "the other woman" (or ONE of the "other women," actually) in my mom's marriage. She loves her mom, and so I don't ever say anything, but recently her sister (my other little sister) went nutty on our dad's newest wife--the one he left their mom for, calling her a slut, a whore, a homewrecker, etc. It was all I could do to keep from saying, "Yeah, sucks, doesn't it, when some other woman gets involved with your mom's husband and destroys the marriage?"
Glass houses, but fact is, it's not my little sister who lives in that glass house. I'm not going to smack her for not recognizing that her own mother did to my family exactly what the new wife did to hers. She's not likely to see the parallels at this point in her life. Maybe in 20 years.
I have no hard feelings . . . mostly. I do have to compartmentalize, though--bitter past experience has left me no love for women who knowingly dally with married men. I don't tend to use terms like "whore/slut/tramp/slag," but when I do, I am, without fail, referring to women who have sex with other women's husbands, knowing they're married.
Anyway, my beautiful little sister. I hope this works for her, I hope she gets out of it what she's looking for. I hope she's safe, happy, and comes out of it the person she wants to be.
Not much to say, politically, except this:
Came across a particularly silly Utah name today. It would be silly regardless of gender, but this was a man's name, and that made it all the more ridiculous. The name?
Deronda.
I know, right?
Things turned difficult pretty quickly. Like is often the case, my roots were curved. He said "maybe we should send you to an endodontist," and I said "No money for that." So we forged forward.
This wasn't my first root canal (I had one about 7 years ago), but it was my most painful. One canal "blind," partially calcified and the nerve hard to get to. Office didn't have the right sized file (he needed white, and they didn't have it, though they ordered one asap).. Long story short?
Four-and-a-half hours of drilling and x-rays and mouth wide open. And pain.
Holy shit, pain. Absolutely, by far, the worst dental pain I've ever suffered, and I've suffered a lot.
Four-and-a-half hours, and he couldn't finish. Other patients being shuffled off onto other dentists so he could put that much time into it. I wound up going home with a cobbled together temporary filling and two scripts--one for antibiotics (which are thrashing my belly) and one for Vicodin, which is of zero use. Not sure why folks get hooked on it, unless they're taking superbly high doses. Made an appointment for yesterday to (hopefully) finish, and spent three days eating soft, mushy things because I don't have any molars on the other side to chew with.
Back yesterday, finished up. Another three-and-a-half hours. Same dentist because I requested it--I'm sick of the "fast food/assembly line" dentistry where I get a different doctor every time. I like this guy, even if he did burn my lip twice. He listens, he pays attention, he actually reads my file, and he put a hell of a lot of effort into this--more than most dentists there would have. He's new in the office, and, honestly, I think he's a poor fit--the other dentists come across as employees (which they are--this is a "one main, older dentist running a stable of fresh-out-of-school dentists" situation), whereas this guy comes across as a dentist. He'll have his own office sooner rather than later, I'm thinking.
That his name is a Doctor Who reference?
Icing.
So now I have a temp crown for two weeks, during which time I'm not supposed to eat on that side of my head. Gonna make Thanksgiving interesting. On the "bright" side, it does make me eat a LOT slower. Ever gummed a Builder's Bar? Takes a while.
Hopefully, this root canal will take. If it doesn't, I'm going to feel super-stupid having blown that credit on a root canal instead of an extraction and bridge.
_____________________________________
Don't do that. If you're not an expert on repairing old headstones, don't whip out the damned GORILLA GLUE and do THIS. Whoever did this made no effort to mask the lower half of the stone or even to remove the excess before it set/bonded. There's no getting it off now without chipping away at the stone. I'm sure the person who did this thought they were doing a good thing, but fact is, they were screwing up. The road to vandalism is paved with good intentions? In this case, definitely.
Photographing these cemeteries has put me out on various family history and gravestone sites, which has, in turn, reawakened my interest in our own family's history. I've discovered a lot about my own family, including stuff I had no idea about. Like my Great-Grandfather Philip dying in the state penitentiary of TB, which explains why Great-Grandma remarried. And what Philip did to wind up in prison?
Explains pretty much everything about Grandma Mary's psychological makeup.
 |
| Great-Grandfather Philip |
________________________________________
Enlisted. A Specialist. I'm hoping she shoots for Officer Training. With a six-year enlistment, she should make the most of it. I also hope she stays safe. As a woman in the military, she has more to worry about from her male counterparts than from any enemy combatants. Our military members rape and abuse female soldiers with impunity.
I'm only just getting to know her, and I like what I'm finding. She's smart, practical, pragmatic, and funny. She (along with her siblings) comes from our dad's second marriage. Her mom was "the other woman" (or ONE of the "other women," actually) in my mom's marriage. She loves her mom, and so I don't ever say anything, but recently her sister (my other little sister) went nutty on our dad's newest wife--the one he left their mom for, calling her a slut, a whore, a homewrecker, etc. It was all I could do to keep from saying, "Yeah, sucks, doesn't it, when some other woman gets involved with your mom's husband and destroys the marriage?"
Glass houses, but fact is, it's not my little sister who lives in that glass house. I'm not going to smack her for not recognizing that her own mother did to my family exactly what the new wife did to hers. She's not likely to see the parallels at this point in her life. Maybe in 20 years.
I have no hard feelings . . . mostly. I do have to compartmentalize, though--bitter past experience has left me no love for women who knowingly dally with married men. I don't tend to use terms like "whore/slut/tramp/slag," but when I do, I am, without fail, referring to women who have sex with other women's husbands, knowing they're married.
Anyway, my beautiful little sister. I hope this works for her, I hope she gets out of it what she's looking for. I hope she's safe, happy, and comes out of it the person she wants to be.
_______________________________________
Came across a particularly silly Utah name today. It would be silly regardless of gender, but this was a man's name, and that made it all the more ridiculous. The name?
Deronda.
I know, right?
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