Never in my life would I expect to utter those words! I’m not going to lie, today, I really believe it! After the work I’ve had done so far, the root canal was a breeze. I will tell you that my jaw is very sore, it hurts to talk and yawing about kills me – and I’m running a small fever. Have no clue why, so I’m chalking it up to stress.
About 20 years ago, I had a root canal done. Well, that is the tooth that a few weeks ago changed my life. The crown came off, and took the tooth with it. You know this story. I had it extracted. It sucked. Today was the root canal on the tooth in front of it, in preparation for the permanent bridge. It wasn’t bad. If you are squimish about teeth though, do NOT read any further.
My mom called me this morning when she realized that the root canal was today. She goes “Who is taking you?” Ummm, no one? I’m driving myself. “You can’t do that. What time is your appointment?” 10:00 am. “Well, I can take off and come get you.” Mom, you really don’t have to, I’m pretty sure I can drive myself. No, really mom, they would have told me if I couldn’t drive. (Now, as a side note, my mom does NOT do teeth. We cannot discuss teeth in front of her. We can’t show her a loose tooth. Sometimes, we can’t even smile too big in front of her. She walks into the dentist office and checks in, goes back to the car, takes a couple of Valium and waits for them to come get her, from her car, cause there is no way she’ll sit in the waiting room.) Now that you know that, you understand how awesome it was that she offered! That was like a huge deal for her to offer. Being the awesome daughter I am, I told her that when the office opened, I’d call them and verify that I could drive. Which I did. And they confirmed, I’d just be numb, I’d be fine.
I get there and let them know that after breakfast I did brush and floss… but I had pizza for breakfast, so, uh, don’t judge if you find a random piece of dough. Then they stick me with those awful needles. My jaw immediately starts hurting when they jab that needle in there. But, it’s for a good cause. I’ll tolerate it. The Price is Right is on the TV above me, so I have fun watching them bid while the entire left side of my face goes numb.
Not a bad way to pass the time…
Okay. It’s time to begin. Whirl, Buzz, Suction… I’m starting to regret not having brought headphones. Nah, it’s okay. I am a big girl, I am tough. OH MY GOD! My entire body flinched before I even realized that all of the sudden, it really hurt! The dentist was awesome – before it had even fully registered to me, she was out of my mouth and going “Kate, I’m going to numb you some more.” Ya think? I was like – yeah, I felt that.
After a very short delay, we were back at it. Whirl, Buzz, and then a weird vibrating thing happened. It was odd. I’m not even going to go there. But then, then, oh my goodness, then the Dr. goes “Wow, look at your root. Look how big it is!” Okay, I don’t want to see this, I don’t want to know this, I keep my eyes shut for a reason, but when you say something like that to me — I’M GOING TO LOOK!!!
Y’all, there was my root, just sitting on the drill bit. And the doc is going on and on about how big it is. I’m nodding and saying what I think is the appropriate response – all the while I have this inner dialog going “oh my goodness, that is so gross… **shudder**. Wait, go look again. Look at that, is it big? It seems big. Gross, gross, gross, why is she showing this to me?” Then, I about die, when she wipes it off the drill bit and onto her finger and puts it right in front of me and states again “Look at how big this is.” I don’t know if I should be proud or ashamed?!? I mean, is it good? Is it bad? I don’t know!!
Fortunately, I was saved from further inner dialog as she got back to work. Very soon I heard the words “Okay, I just have to finish and close you up.” Oh thank you Lord. It’s almost over. My jaw is killing me. I’ve just seen parts of my body that I never wanted to see – that I never even thought was possible to see. I’m feeling very traumatized!!
Before I know it, I’m checking out. They hand me scripts for the usual antibiotics and pain killers and I’m on my way. I survived. I was able to come home and get some work done. Then I took a small nap, I couldn’t help myself. I think that the dentist office just makes me sleepy. That or the pain pills!
True to course, my dad called a bit ago to make sure I had food and see how I was feeling. I was prepared this time! I didn’t need him to bring me anything, which made me feel good about myself! Of course, as we all know, third time is a charm, because for the first 2 dental issues, I did have to have dad bring me food! I’m a slow learner sometimes, what can I say? 🙂
So yeah, that happened, I saw the root that was removed from my tooth. That is an image I will never forget. Ever.
Did That Just Happen Blog 