First the pain….

I was eating lunch yesterday and decided that after a week, I didn’t think I could blame my aching tooth on my sinuses any longer.   It was just a dull sore feeling….the last tooth on my upper right side.  So, I called the dentist to see if by chance I could get in to get it looked at.

“Can you make 1:50 today, just for an x-ray?”

“Sure…”

I. am. deathly. afriad. of. the. dentist.    Just so you know….

I went for the x-ray….trying not to freak out.  I worked at a dental office in high school and college summers.   I know what a tooth ache means…and what that entails.    “Only an x-ray” I kept telling myself.

Thankfully, somewhere in my chart, it recommends the nitrous oxide for an x-ray.  🙂   THANK YOU to the person who scribbled  that in there!

Nitrous mask in place……breathing deeply…she gets me all set for the x-ray.    I’m still reciting “Only an x-ray” in my head.

They now have digital x-rays.   Another bonus today!   You don’t have to lay there with that damn thing shoved into the depths of your mouth while they leave teh room and dink around with the machine out in teh hall.  Super sweet……she placed the thing in my mouth, took the picture, and up popped the image on the screen in the room.

oh.  oh.

Being as though I have worked in a dental office as a dental assistant, I can read the x-ray.

My dentist comes in to “Take a peek…”

Then comes the “talk…”

“You have the beginnings of an abcessed tooth… you have three choices……..leave it……root canal……or pull it out…. can you stay for another 45 minutes?”

In my happy-nitrous world…… “Sure….I just need to make a quick phone call back to school to get my last hour covered.”

So, I called school (THANK YOU Kristin for helping me out YET AGAIN!) and laid back down….breathing through my nose……trying to get all the nitrous I could as fast as I could!

The assistant tried to put that rubber dam thingy in my mouth, but it wouldn’t stay…….(THANK YOU, dear GOD!)  The dentist said forget it, I’ll just do it without.   (BIG SIGH OF RELIEF…..keep breathing through the nose……get all that nitrous……..I will be ok…….. UGH.)  

So, there I sat… intently watching the flourescent lighting above me and trying to make designs out of the holes in the ceiling tiles….all while he is filing out the 3 nerves in my tooth….

“You did a great job!  Thank you!  We’ll put you on oxygen now.   Just so you know it’s going to hurt like a bitch for a couple of days, but then it will feel better!  I promise!”

What?  I’m done?  BIG SIGH OF RELIEF.   I am still alive…..I made it!!!!!!

Now, I have to go back for several appointments for the crown.  I’ll just take it one visit at a time… 

Then the sweet….. 

Wednesday night, I was down in the basement/office working on a digital scrapbook that ABSOLUTELY must be done in the next few days…and I was getting crabbier and crabbier the later and later it was getting! I was so tired. I went upstairs, and there on the kitchen table was…………. a dozen red roses and a beautiful card from Hubby. It read:

Ten years ago today,
December 12, 1997,
I met Tendrils*,
My little Piece of Heaven!

*ok, he used my real name!

Isn’t he sweet?   🙂  I love him!