A few weeks back, I went in to address a broken tooth. They thought it would only need a crown but upon further investigation, this girl was due for root canal number two - hooray! So, they dived into part one (pulps and cleaning) and set up an appointment for part two, which was supposed to be this Wednesday (aka today).
Cue Saturday, when I realize that the Seder shenanigans of the night before has caused part of the temp filling to go missing. How did I realize? Oh, well, the liberal doses of pain suddenly radiating out from my jaw, of course. I sucked it up though, as I had evening plans (yay Alton Brown!), and carried on into Sunday with my gameface on. Years of orthodontia work and I'm no pansy when it comes to a little tooth ache.
Monday morning, I was basically dying. It hurt worse than that time I found out I was (likely) allergic to tea tree oil.** So, I showed up at my dentist two days early and fun fact: infection! That's what makes your glands puff, your head go foggy, and your skull feel like it's trying to escape the bod to which it is attached. To get it out they had to do some lovely "irrigation" of the canals. BONUS fun fact: the numbing stuff doesn't work so well on infection. So guess who got to fulllllly enjoy that irrigating experience?
Monday/Tuesday were filled with antibiotics and a lack of regard for "take no more than xx in a 24 hour period" labels. All post-work obligations were ignored as I drooled and slept my way around the apartment. Pills to be "taken with food" were taken with orange juice, just like my grandma uses to do. (If you're looking to lose weight, I recommend severe tooth pain.)
Then came Wednesday, in which I crammed 8 hours worth of meetings into 4 and then fled to the dentist once more. I discovered why the one hygienist is always angry: she never gets a lunch break due to me and all my noon-time appointments.*** After discussing this, I gave her the thumbs up to have cookies while working on my root canal - she declined. An hour later and my roots were all rooted. I just chilled at that point until they brought me my shiny new tooth.
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| That's my new tooth! It's his BIRTHDAY! |
As I walked to my car, I nearly stepped on a little butterfly on the asphalt. He was just chilling there, which seemed odd, given the fact that he'd almost been smashed. Then I realized the poor fella was injured, with a bit of a jacked up wing. Knowing this could be the last moments of his little fluttery life, I offered him a hand. He climbed on up and I took him over to the grass. We were both a bit battered, and I figured everyone deserves a little peace on a stressful day.****
En route home, I noticed a post office, which was perfect since I had letters that needed sending. Stopped in, with my puffy, numbed up face and attempted to smile at the postman who ended up helping me. He was a spitfire. When I apologized for making him break a twenty to pay for two stamps, he smirked and said, "What was that? Keep the change?" I quoted a classic (Smashmouth) song and said back, "We could all use a little change. Unfortunately, I'm not yet at the point where I can say keep the change on a twenty. Hopefully someday." The postman recounted one of those definitely-found-on-the-internet tales of a waitress who got a thousand dollar tip for some Australian tourists or something. I said how they must have received some damn amazing service for a grand, or maybe they thought the waitress just needed it more than they did. We both shrugged and as he waved me off he responded, "Well, you never see a U-haul behind a hearse. Can't take it with ya, I guess! Have a nice day!"
So, even though these past few days haven't exactly been a high point in my month, there's been some decent takeaways... Take care of yourself and others, because eventually we're all down. The best we can do is help out where we can. Whether it's shiny teeth or that thousand dollar tip, it's all just stuff. So don't fret, because you can't take it with ya! (Nailed it, Mr. Postman!)
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| Fly free, little friend! |
* I actually looked up "red letter day" to make sure this wasn't another one of those phrases I had just always made up. There are an odd number of things I say that are just plain made up that I swear are idioms or actual legit strings of words but are definitely not (and that I've been saying, without being questioned, my whole life).
** Definitely owe y'all that story. Life lessons learned about home remedies: important stuff.
*** There are other patients in the world, but I'm selfish when it comes to feeling bad about inconveniencing someone. Hanger is the worst kind of anger, and I have been hijacking this poor woman's meal time for days.
**** OH man, I'm loving these asterisks today! But seriously, the irrational part of my brain was like "I should bring him in my car and take him home. I can nurture him with my orange juice and he can do his PT recovery work on my window sill and one day he'll fly away and it will be MAGICAL." The rational part of my brain said, "This little guy is on death's door. His lifespan is probably a month tops anyways so he's like a 90 year old man who got hit by a car - he's just probably not coming back from this. It's okay to give him a grassy knoll on which to spend the winter of his life." Just FYI, that's how my brain works. That all happened in about 0.5 seconds.
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