Random Thoughts

I'm reading The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes and I'm really trudging through it. Thanks to my chronic medical book obsession and brief inexplicable fascination with Guillain-Barre syndrome a few years ago, I knew right off the bat that that was what the main character was going to be diagnosed with. And I figured, what the heck it will probably be interesting. But it's not. I'm getting kind of bored with it, actually.

Since yesterday, my Facebook newsfeed has been flooded with posts of people bitching about the hens on the View making snide comments about nurses. Actually it's not so much nurses I am friends with making the posts, but rather they being tagged in posts by others. And it's starting to get on my last nerve. There's people actually calling for a ban on it. Calm the fuck down, people. It's the View. If your wittle ego is going to get bruised by something they said, then you have bigger problems then you realize, because 99.9% of what comes out of their mouths is pure stupidity. It is not the first asinine thing they said and it certainly won't be the last.

I am not looking forward to work the next couple of days. Out of nowhere, the work has gotten kind of backed up. We have a few charts that need to be done for next week, preferably a few days before the appointment, and they're all a hefty size. And I am starting to feel anxious because I still suck and take forever to do anything because I still have such a damn hard time concentrating and I'm starting to get panicky that someone is going to pick up on it and fire me. I started to feel so overwhelmed on my way home that I wanted to drive my car into a tree.

I indirectly confronted my FWA the other day about that comment that she supposedly said about me last October (don't ask; it was just hanging in my mind that day). She swears up and down that she didn't say it. I don't doubt that the MA who told me she said it could have lied, but I also don't believe a lot of what my FWA says. I don't trust my FWA as far as I could throw her, but I trust this particular MA even less. I don't even know who to trust anymore.

Video Of The Day

One of the best Simpsons scenes ever:

Random Thoughts

My new manager seems nice. But I can tell you right now that little, if anything, is going to change in that place.

I am starting to become convinced that my tooth is cursed. As I said before, the temporary crown cracked and broke my last full day of vacation. When I had the root canal done, the assistant told me that it wouldn't be a big deal if it came off. What I was failed to be informed was that by the crown not being on there, my tooth could shift. I think I might remember reading that before, but it never crossed my mind. So when I went on Tuesday to get the permanent, of course it didn't fit properly anymore. And broke in my mouth. So now I have to wait even longer to get the damn permanent. And hope that the new temporary doesn't break in the meantime. I can't believe my tooth shifted that much in 4 lousy days.

And as if I wasn't upset enough, I come home to a letter from my dental insurance informing me that "A licensed Utilization Review Agent has reviewed all of the available documentation submitted for clinical review.  It has been determined that the services requested do not meet your dental benefit plan's clinical review criteria for being a necessary dental service" and that "Documentation does not support the need for a crown or onlay. There is no evidence of an excessively large existing filling, decay or fractured tooth on x-ray".

Let me find everything wrong with this. First off, I am so glad that this "licensed Utilization Review Agent" who has never been in my mouth can make the determination that this crown was not necessary. Second, if this is a dental professional, then he or she should know that fractures are notoriously hard to diagnose and often don't show up on x-ray. There being a crack in the tooth was determined by the fact that whenever the bite stick was placed on a certain spot of the tooth and I bit down, I nearly flew off the seat from the pain.

Now all I need to do is to receive a letter telling me the root canal was not necessary and I'll really hit the roof. And that's another thing- the tooth underwent root canal. There is no debate that I need the crown now.

Oh and now there is a lump between the cheek and gum on my lower left side. It's not visible in a mirror, but I can feel it and I don't have any tooth pain or anything (knock on wood) and it only feels a little sore if I press on it really hard, but I'm terrified that it's an abscess. And I'm so jaded with going to the dental office anymore that I don't even want to call about it, but I also don't want it to be an infection and end up spreading or something.

Damn Nature

So I am reading the book Storm Prey by John Sandford and one of the characters is a surgeon working on separating craniopagus twins. I had an idea of what they were based on the terminology, but I decided to google it to get an idea of what they looked like. And while doing so, I came across the term craniopagus parasiticus. So I decided to google that and OH GOD WHY

Random Thoughts

So my last summer vacation is now officially over. The good parts:

- again, not as ungodly hot as previous years
- I only managed to get mild spots of sunburn
- the stores at both Barefoot and Broadway stayed open later than last year
- Ben & Jerry's and Kirk's ice cream (and I could enjoy it without feeling like my tooth nerves were being electrocuted)
- as always, LOTS of good food; one night we finally went to this place at Broadway called Sweet Carolina's that I have been dying to try and holy crap, the BBQ pork sandwich was awesome
- I retried the regimen my gynecologist suggested for my stomach and it actually helped big time
- it was not crowded at all
- I kept up with my exercise regimen, working out every day but last Saturday

The stinky parts:

- we were almost put in the room with the bug infestation again
- it rained the first two days
- I had to share a bed
- twice someone shit in the kid pool area and closed it down for the day
- my brother-in-law's attitude and patience with my nephew were gear-grinding, once causing me to storm out of the room and slamming the door as hard as humanly possible because his screaming at my nephew was upsetting my mother and pissing me off
- my temporary crown over my root canaled tooth broke into pieces on the last day at breakfast
- my mother's car's brakes started malfunctioning when we hit the Washington DC area on the way home, making for one very anxiety-inducing 4+ hour ride home
- it's over and I still want to punch all of my coworkers in the face (thank god I have off Monday for Labor Day)

That last one especially applies to my FWA. A new law just went into effect in NJ this past Tuesday regarding car seats and when babies can be turned around and apparently my FWA and her piss poor excuse for a boyfriend blatantly refuse to abide by the law. And have no qualms about posting their feelings on Facebook. On Monday, her fat boyfriend posted a picture of the baby in her forward-facing car seat and wrote something like "I do what I want to do" and my sister, who is friends with him on Facebook, laid in to him about it and said how it's an American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation and not just a weight and age requirement, it has to do with their immature heads and spines, etc. He of course made no argument against my sister, but my FWA piped in later that she (the baby) meets the weight requirement for the car seat. Honestly- what part of "immature heads and spines" does this stupid bitch not get? But I guess she knows better than the AAP, right? I swear, some people are so fucking stupid, sometimes I have to wonder if eugenics is really all that bad to use at times.

On a positive note, the pumpkin pie Blizzard is back! I was afraid with the 75th anniversary stuff going on that DQ might not bring it out this year. Thank god they did or I would have rioted.

Random Thoughts

So I did it. I made it through my first root canal. And yes, it was not nearly as bad I thought it would be. Although it is not quite as long, I actually think getting fitted for a crown is more annoying than a root canal. When it was started, I wasn't quite numb enough so I had to get another shot and then the fun started all over again. The actual procedure of removing the nerves and filling the canals seemed to take no time. But when I was x-rayed half way through, it took the assistant 3 times to finally get an x-ray of my tooth with the full root area showing, because apparently I have some long ass teeth roots. And thanks to those long ass roots, I had to spend a little more time getting more filling put in the canals. Then the tooth was filled. And then my temporary crown was put back on. And then I was finally done! And $316 poorer!

I was afraid when they went in, that an infection or something would be found. Luckily there was no infection or abscess or necrosis or anything, but the nerves were apparently very inflamed. 

I was given an ibuprofen 600 pill to take before the numbness wore off and prescriptions for the same and for Vicodin. I still have ibuprofen 800 pills, so I probably won't bother to fill the 600 and I am definitely not filling the Vicodin (I have a horrible fear of opioids and addiction). I haven't even really had much pain. Occasional soreness but that's about it. And all of the cold sensitivity is gone. Woohoo! I am still afraid to chew even soft things on that side of my mouth, but I am also worrying that I am going to put too much stress on my other teeth and crack more.

Ugh

In less than 12 hours, tooth #30 will undergo root canal. Because the poor toof hasn't been through enough trauma. I hope to God the third time is the charm (by which I mean the third treatment- it's technically undergone 3 procedures already, but the first two were the same thing).

I also hope I am not making a huge mistake having this done before vacation.

I'm Ready, I'm Ready

Just woke up about 10 minutes ago with tooth pain. I took Motrin and it's subsiding, but good god I am ready for this damn root canal.

More Teefs Update

The tooth is still bothering me. Last night I spontaneously woke up at almost 1:30AM and my tooth was hurting. Not anything terribly serious, maybe a 3 or 4 on the VAS pain scale at the most, but annoying enough to make my climb out of bed and take a Motrin 800 (prescribed by my dentist before I went down the shore) and lay awake for a while, although I think my anxiety over the pain was keeping me awake more than the pain itself.

I called the office again today and was squeezed in at 1PM and was only in there for a few minutes before I was sent next door to an endodontic office. Where root canal was strongly recommended and I am scheduled to have done a week from today. And I am fucking bugging over it. I don't even think I am so much scared of the procedure itself as I am of the post-procedure part. All I know is I better not even THINK of googling root canal complications.

I also called the dental office because the gum around one of my upper molars is red and sore and I am panicking that I have an infection and/or abscess. I mentioned it repeatedly and it was not addressed once. In either office. And I am very anxious about it. I am anxious that my cracked tooth will get infected and/or develop an abscess before next Wednesday. I am worried either place will get so infected it will spread to my brain or blood. I am worried I will get an infection following the root canal. It just never stops.

And I never though I'd say this but I'd rather be worried about premature menopause right now.

FMT Part Infinity

So I have my temporary crown now....and it still hurts to chew on it. I don't know if the nerve is still just irritated from before and having my tooth drilled down to fit the crown or there is something going on that is not being caught. All I know is I am really freaking frustrated and am ready to get a pair of pliers and yank the damn tooth out myself. At this point I don't even care if I have to undergo root canal because I just want to be able to eat on that side of my mouth without pain. And preferably before I go away in a couple weeks!