I’m Done! Yes!

I’m done! Complete! Finished!

Well, with my tooth work at least!  I got my crown on earlier in the week and today went back and had them shave it down a little bit.  So far, so good.  I think I may need one more adjustment, but I’m going to take it for a spin for a bit to see if it is just something I have to get used to, or if I do need an adjustment.

You can’t know how happy I am right now.

Pulling out my Happy Tooth right now!!

Of course, now I have to figure out how to pay for it, but that’s for future Kate to worry about.  I’ll be provided for, I always am.

But… and you knew there was a but coming…

Since my work is done, it was time to start on T’s.  His mouth is pretty healthy, a couple of placed to watch; however, I knew he was going to need a root canal.  I got my first one about 17, so the fact that at almost 15 he needs his first one breaks my heart.  We just have weak teeth.  The dentist asked what caused my first root canal – I told her: I sneezed.  The power of the sneeze cracked my tooth in half.

Tuesday we started T’s root canal and today they finished it.  We are just waiting for his crown to be made and he’ll be done.  Fortunately, his root canal was a breeze compared to mine.  He was done in 20 minutes for the first appointment!  His pain was minimum.  He was a trooper!  Today he’s struggling.  They did two appointments at once, so they finished the root canal and prepped the tooth and took impressions – so it was a bit more invasive and his pain level is higher but he is still expected to recover pretty darn quickly.

Lucky him.

And, I was a good mommy.  I took him to Orange Leaf (a DIY frozen yogurt place his grandmother recently introduced him to) and spent $8 for the two of us to get a cup of fro-yo to sooth his mouth.  I’m still reeling over the fact that it’s easily $8-$10 for two frozen yogurts.

Okay, the ones we got were 1/4 this size – I guess this one is like $50 at check out! But, it is super yummy! 

Root Canals Aren’t That Bad!

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.

And The Hits Just Keep On Coming!

So, I had a dental appointment the other day, discovered that I needed two root canals (not just the filings that I wanted) and that the dentist was willing to perform the extraction I needed.  We know I got the extraction cause that was the day that we found out my sister was 6 months pregnant.  That is healing nicely, by the way, cause I know that you all were wondering!  I’m putting the root canals off until I can pay cash for them. My plan is in place!

Saturday I worked with my mom for four hours, walking the aisles of the antique mall where she has a booth.  I took a shift for my dad.  It wasn’t bad.  Dad brought me lunch and took over for the second half of the day.  I was eating my chicken sandwich as I was driving home and bit down and was like “Crap, a chicken bone? Is that even possible??”

Yeah, not a freaking chicken bone.  I have a tooth that has a crown from a root canal about 20 years ago.  The crown fell off.  AND IT TOOK THE TOOTH WITH IT!!!!

So, I’m driving down the road, discovering that I have a shear plane in my mouth and a freaking tooth still inside the crown in my hand.  I’m so not a happy camper.  Fortunately, since it’s a tooth that had a root canal, it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t bother me.  I make it through the weekend and call the dentist on Monday, got a Tuesday appointment set up.  Scheduled a teeth cleaning for Mr. T at the same time.  Two birds.

Okay, remember me mentioning that I have two root canals I need and am putting them off?  Yeah, well, in order to fix the tooth that broke this weekend, I have to have one of the root canals done immediately.  Sigh.  So, I go in next week for the extraction of the roots of the broken tooth.  Then I’ll go in and have the root canal done on the tooth next to it and then, after it’s all healed, I get a replacement tooth.

Really?? Can I have one break.  Just one.  Please.

Let end by saying, I’m not lacking in my dental hygiene skills. I brush, I floss – all the darn time!  Ask my fellow blogger Erica, she will tell you that my favorite habit when on the phone is to floss my teeth.  Well, not my favorite habit, but she does hear me do it at least in every other conversation!  I don’t sip sodas, I drink them down so that the acid doesn’t sit on my teeth.  I drink a ton of water.  I take care of my mouth.  I think it’s genetic.  My mom and my grandmother have all gone through this, so I’m blaming them!

Enough about my tooth issues.  Maybe one day I’ll have a post to write that doesn’t involve my teeth… one day… but since I’m currently fixated on this issue, that day is not today!

And the hits just keep on coming…

Happy Spring Break!