Doing better, finally
I hope I’m not jinxing it by saying that, but I think my tooth may be doing better. As I mentioned before, I was supposed to call my dentist back this week with an update on my pain. It was still there, so we finally decided to move forward and do the root canal. Is it sad/disturbing that I was actually looking forward to this? Not that I like pain, of course. Actually quite the opposite – I so wanted to be rid of the pain that I definitely wanted to do whatever I needed to do, even if it involved possible pain and novocaine-induced heart racing that freaks me out. Really, if she had suggested more filing, I would have offered to do the root canal myself.
But anyway, I found out Tuesday that we’d be doing the root canal, my appointment was yesterday (very thankful my dentist got me in so quickly with the specialist), and today I seem to be doing better. A little soreness at the injection sites (no freak-outs or laughter in the dentist chair this time, though!), but I haven’t experienced the ache (yet – gah, I hope never do – *knocks on head*).
And! This weekend, Chris and I are having a couple’s massage! Very looking forward to that! 
Filing my teeth into points
Another trip to the dentist today. She’s still mostly convinced my problem is an uneven bite, though I did seem to get through to her a bit about my concern that it might be something more, seeing as how the pain I’m having is reminiscent of the pain I had before my first root canal 4 years ago. But I agree that I want to rule out a simple problem like the bite before jumping into another root canal and the bite was definitely uneven – I could feel it and she showed me where my teeth were hitting too much using that blue bitey paper stuff – so she did some more filing.
After hearing about the filing from last week, Chris (who’s never had a cavity, lucky him, so didn’t know about the possible problems after getting a filling. Ok, maybe it’s not luck. Maybe it’s the 10 minutes he spends methodically brushing his teeth – you could compare it to something Monk would do.) joked that the dentist was trying to file my teeth into points. Unfortunately, I thought of this conversation and pictured my pointy teeth in my head mid-file and started laughing uncontrollably. Luckily there was no harm done to my teeth, but I think the dentist thinks I’m crazy. She thought she’d hit a tickley spot and I tried to explain why I was laughing, but could barely get it out I was laughing so much. I don’t know why I found it so funny. Actually one of my teeth is rather pointy now, but the bite is much more comfortable and even feeling and I’m sure the tiny spot will file down naturally.
So, now I wait another week to see if the pain subsides. If there’s no change or it gets worse, I call again. I don’t know what’s next. Unfortunately, I keep remembering that I’ve got another filling appointment in 3 weeks, so I’m worried this will just repeat every time until I’m done with the fillings. But I guess the root canal I had a couple months ago never gave me any problems, so maybe it’ll all be fine.
In other news, the release date of the new WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King was finally announced – November 13th! And I managed to preorder 2 copies of the Collector’s Edition! Yay! November’s going to be a busy month for us with that release (we’ll be attending the midnight release at our local GameStop, followed by playing for hours on end – yup, we’re dorks. Big ones.), the TSO concert, visiting my family for Thanksgiving, and a certain movie which I will talk about tomorrow (it requires a post all it’s own, teehee). Apparently Metallica, Chris’s favorite band, is playing in Houston, where Chris’s family lives, in November as well, but I don’t think we can afford to fly down to see it, so unfortunately we’ll have to give that a miss. But anyway, at least there’s some fun stuff on the horizon!
Can I Move In?
With the dentist, that is. I was back there today, again. My teeth were feeling fine after my last adventure at the dentist until about Sunday night when they started to ache. It’s hard to pinpoint a tooth, but I know it’s the general area of where I had the fillings put in. It’s been a while since I had just a regular filling, so I wasn’t sure if it was normal post-drilling irritation or what.
I went in and the dentist did an X-ray, which showed nothing unusual, so she filed the fillings down some in hopes that it’s just an issue with the bite. It might have been, but any unevenness before was barely noticeable – can that be enough to cause a toothache? I don’t know. Maybe? It feels different now, and I can’t tell if it’s for the better or not. The pressure seems like it’s on different teeth now, I think. I guess we’ll see. She said that if it was just the bite, the pain would subside over the next few days (lovely, a few days). If it gets worse, we’re back in possible root canal territory. DO NOT WANT! *sigh* I guess for now, I’ll go back to popping Advil like candy (not really. I try to be very sparing with the Advil. It’s got potassium in it and that makes me nervous that I’d have a heart attack or something if I took too many.)
Tell me something happy so I can stop thinking about my teeth and how I want to just rip them all out.
Whadayouh mea youh ca’ uddethan meh?
*Sigh* Well, dentist appointment 3 out of 6 is done (yes, my teeth are a mess). Two more fillings, another numb mouth. I feel like Sylvester Stallone. My entire bottom jaw is numb, as is half of my tongue. Everything I say comes out as a drunken slur. And yet, I can already feel the pain of the novocaine injection site. Tonight’s gonna be fun.
I also feel like I spent the last hour and a half at a water park. By the time they were done, my face was covered in water spray and whatever else came out of my mouth while they were drilling and spraying and sucking and filling. Luckily they gave me goggles in the beginning, so at least it wasn’t in my eyes.
My next appointment is Oct. 7th. *Whine* I don’t wanna go!
Some Updates
Well, my sister has informed me that I’m going too slow with the posting (which I am…what can I say, things are slow around here), so here’s some updates on things that are going on:
-No, I have not gotten up the courage to get that haircut yet. I do feel that I’m getting closer. I really just need to find a salon around here that I trust to do it, since it’s a big change. I’ve just been getting my trims at MasterCuts, which is fine for trims (how can you screw that up?), but they’re a bit cut-quickly-and-get-you-out-fast for a big change that I’m nervous about. I also need to find a happy medium between walking in and saying, “Well, this is what I want and if it ends up looking bad I guess its ok…” (said in a progressively quieter voice) and “If you mess it up I will protest outside your salon and sue you all!!” …Ahem. I’m not crazy… Really.
-We’ve got a friend coming to visit in September or October, so that’s exciting! I’m also hoping to have some family visit (you hear me!?). I really like when people come visit.
-I got a new pair of shoes last week for $12! They were on clearance for $24 and the cashier gave me 50% off just for the hell of it (I asked to make sure he hadn’t made a mistake, aren’t I a good girl?)! They’re different and fun, which is why I like them.
-Chris is away till tomorrow evening for more trial work on his project (more long, long hours) in Charlotte. I miss him.
-Women’s team gymnastics is tonight at 10:30! Yay!
-The worst of my dental work is done. This is not to say I don’t have a lot left, but at least the root canal and subsequent permanent filling is done. I should only need 3-4 more visits to finish the rest. This will be done over 3-4 months though. I’m not looking forward to getting more novocaine, especially if it makes me freak out like last time.
This seems appropriate here.
-I currently have 16 application requests on Facebook. Just from today. You wonder why I have so many, Nicki?
-Ooh, we found out Trans-Siberian Orchestra is coming back to town this November!! I’m so excited! We got ourselves put on the fan list to be informed as soon as tickets get put on presale so we can get some actually good seats this year. We had a blast last year. If you like Christmas music and orchestras and rock, totally check them out if they’re going to play near you this year! It’s an amazing show. Added bonus – they actually stick around after the show to meet anyone who wants to meet them (this may not be every location, but they said they do it regularly). The tour of gymnastics superstars is also coming to town in October, so I’m hoping we can get tickets to that too. I’ve never seen that level of gymnastics in person, so it would be really cool to go.
Well, that is all for now. I’ll post again if I think of anything I forgot here. What is everyone else up to?
A Mishmash of Things
It’s been a long week. My tooth is finally feeling mostly better and I’m able to eat most food on that side, although somewhat ginergly. I hope to have it fully functional by the time I need the permanent filling put in in a week or so.
While I was healing up, my hubby had to travel for business. It was only 3 days, which is nothing compared to the 2 years we spent apart while I was finishing up graduate school, but I still missed him a lot. A king size bed is awfully lonely with just me in it (even the cat only spent part of the nights with me! I think she missed him too). While he was gone, I was able to watch a few movies that he wouldn’t be into – 27 Dresses, Definitely, Maybe, and Fool’s Gold. I really liked 27 Dresses, but the others were only ok. Definitely, Maybe had a cute premise, but it seemed a bit cheesy at times and Fool’s Gold was funny and somewhat action-y but nothing special.
I also got in some reading time. I finished up The Hound of Rowan: Book One of the Tapestry, which was pretty good. I’d been looking for a new series to get into after finishing up the Harry Potter books, and this is one of a few series that I like so far. While I definitely got into the book and had a few nights where I didn’t want to put it down, I did find a few problems with the book. First, some of the chapter transitions could have been clearer. There were some points where I found myself thinking, “Wait, is this the same day or is this weeks, even months later? What happened with x? When is this??” I also found far too many similarities with Harry Potter. I don’t know whether or not it was intentional (I know the whole “kid discovers he can do magic” thing is pretty popular now), but I noticed it a lot, some of which just seemed like blatant rip-offs (instead of Quiddich, there’s a soccer-like game with magical obsticles, and of course, the main character, who has some sort of special magic about him, is surprisingly good at it for his age.) I will read the next one when it comes out in the fall, but I really hope it starts to take on more its own story.
The hubby got back around 11 am on Saturday morning (he had been working a mix of days and nights while gone, sometimes both in one day) and we decided to go see The Dark Knight with some friends. As expected, it was really good. I really like Christian Bale as Batman. And Heath Ledger was good as well; very creepy and quite scary at times – I had started to wonder if the Oscar nomination rumors were based solely on his untimely death, but I do actually believe he did a great job and deserves the nomination if he gets it. The plot was interesting, the action was good, and it packed a few surpises. All in all, a great movie. I won’t say anymore, to avoid spoilers, but I definitely recommend it. Once again, the hubby and I are in search of the original movies, which we don’t remember. Anyone know where to get them cheap?
Sleepless
So much for my blog name tonight. It’s 4:30 am and I just can’t sleep. I’ve tried watching TV, I’ve tried reading, I’ve tried closing my eyes and just laying there. Nothing seems to be working. Which is odd, seeing as how, before bed, I took one of my tylenol with codeine that the dentist prescribed to me. It’s supposed to make you drowsy. Not so much of that here. It’s also not doing so much for the dull ache in my jaw. The tooth doesn’t hurt, but I kind of feel like I’ve been punched in the face a day or so ago. At least the tylenol with codeine isn’t making me nauseus like it did when I was prescribed it after having my gall bladder removed. It didn’t work then either, I guess I should have remembered. <sigh> I guess I’ll just surf around a bit for an hour until the hubby gets up.
Dental Update
Sorry for a dull topic here, one that I’ve kind of beaten to death already, but it was pretty much the only thing that happened today, so too bad!
Anyway, the root canal is done (except for the permanent filling, but that’s nothing) and it was relatively painless, luckily. And much quicker than I thought. It only took about an hour. I did have to stop the dentist once because I felt a twinge of pain, but otherwise the worst part was actually getting the novocaine. Mostly, it was injected the same way I’d had it injected before, but this dentist also injected some very close around the tooth. It did a good job of numbing, but it required him to push a very pointy needle very hard into my tooth area. I’m not entirely sure exactly where it was going in (I think he said something about bone, but I’m sure I must be wrong). It wasn’t painful, but he warned me it sometimes makes your heart rush, which it did with me (it probably doesn’t help that I was completely rigid in the seat, probably blocking blood from all sorts of places). It just made me feel very shaky and panicky, so I had to take a 5 minute breather. The dental assistant, who was very sweet, seemed very concerned about me passing out, so she turned on the fan and got me a Sprite. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have passed out or anything, I really just needed a few minutes to breathe and calm down. I especially didn’t want the root canal contraption put immediately back on my face (it’s like a sheet of thin rubber they cover your mouth with and hook into the tooth to prevent bacteria from getting into the rest of your mouth – you have to breathe out of your nose and try not to drown on your drool). After I calmed down, everything went smoothly. The novocaine has also mostly worn off, so I’m no longer a slurring drool bucket!
I’m supposed to eat mushy food for the next few days, so I’m off to see what I’ve got that fits the bill.
Frustration
Ugh, I don’t even know what to say. I’m just really frustrated right now. I had my follow up appointment with my regular dentist. She was happy to hear that I didn’t need the root canal, but is still adamant that I get the filling replaced because she still sees decay under the current one. She hasn’t gotten a letter back from the referred dentist yet, so she doesn’t know exactly what he found and my explanation is probably not very helpful, but she thinks I misunderstood his suggestion to keep an eye on the tooth. She thinks he meant in regards to a root canal, whereas I thought he would have just told me to get it filled regularly if that’s what he meant. I could be wrong of course.
The thing is, she originally had 2 choices for this tooth. The first was to take a risk and do a regular filling, knowing that it may irritate the root because the previous filling, and therefore the decay, is so deep. If it irritated the root, I’d end up with tooth pain and I’d need a root canal, which means I’d be paying for both the regular filling and the root canal and eventually a crown (and with really sucky dental insurance, we pay most of the very high price). The other option was to just have the root canal, and since she thought the decay was deep enough, she recommended this option. Clearly, she thought the chances of root irritation on option number 1 was high.
So now, I have one dentist telling me I don’t need a root canal, and the other dentist basically telling me that there’s a good chance her attempts to fix me will just end up causing me to need a root canal. And costing me more money along the way. All this for a tooth with no pain. A tooth that now has a good chance of having pain after she’s done with it. Grr.
UPDATE: Well, I got a call from the referred dentist and apparently he has changed his mind and is now telling me that I need the root canal. It seems my regular dentist focused on the possible infection in her referral note, so that was all he was looking for (even though I’m sure he mentioned not seeing much decay). However, once he found out that she was going to replace the filling anyway, he said it would be better to do a root canal than risk needing one after a doing a regular filling (I suppose I should at least be thankful they don’t want to milk the extra few hundred dollars out of me to do both). So, next Tuesday, I’m having a root canal. Lovely.
No root canals for me!
Boy, I am still tired today. We’ve been back for 3 days now and I’m still really tired when I get up in the morning. I’ve always had weird sleep habits (I fall asleep late and can sleep quite late if I allow myself), but man, one week of getting up at normal-person hours and walking around all day, going on rides really kicked my butt. It probably doesn’t help that I’m way out of shape. Need to work on that…
So, the good news, which I forgot to write about yesterday, is that I didn’t have to have a root canal yesterday!! I went to the dentist about a month ago and found out I had quite a few cavities, including one that appeared to need a root canal. I’ve had a root canal before, and it really wasn’t too bad, but I’ve heard root canals on bottom teeth can hurt a lot more than those on the top because it’s harder to numb the bottom, so I was pretty nervous about it.
Anyway, I was referred to a specialist to have the root canal done. He took an x-ray, did some tests (poking and prodding, bite test, cold test) and decided I didn’t need to do anything to the tooth. He said we should keep an eye on it, but he didn’t see the level of decay or the possible infection that my regular dentist said she saw (not to mention, I have absolutely no symptoms). I’m inclined to believe him, since he’s a specialist. Plus, hey, it saves me money and pain, so I’m happy.
But now, I’m in a predicament. I have an appointment tomorrow with the regular dentist to start work on another tooth, and I’m wondering how to bring up the possibility of the other cavities not being cavities. I don’t want to insult her, and the cleaning/exam was really thorough, so I don’t think I want to change dentists, but I’d really like to be sure there are cavities before digging in. Any ideas?
