Party in my Mouth

12/12/05

Dani wakes up early. Dani always wakes up early. Mostly. Always by 6AM before I got sick. Now mostly before 8-9AM. She gets me an emergency 12:30 appt. for that day. Why don't people go to the dentist more?

Because: Dentists almost always cause you some kind of pain. MD.'s generally only cause a little discomfort while squeezing you and maybe give you some pills to feel better.

The office is.........odd. Lots of glass everywhere. You can see "work rooms" from the waiting room. You can hear Drilling from the waiting room. I really want to leave. I have to fill out forms and give my life up:

No Insurance.
Scripts I'm taking.
Cancers I have.
Chemo I'm doing

Blah, Blah, Blah.

I get in the room with Dani. The put me in an exam chair with a flat screen Dell TV/PC thingy. They take pictures which show up immediately on the PC and then we get to watch TV. SNL on Comedy Central.

Later the Doc comes in with the good news: Shows my tooth on the PC and says those words everyone wants to hear: ROOT CANAL.

Root Canals Suck. I had one that was really bad before this. They could not give me enough Novocaine. I felt everything as they pulled out the nerve and flushed. This one isn't as bad but I know it will suck.

I notice everyone is kind of looking at us with a little...........pity perhaps. It's the Cancer. It's the surgical scar on my neck from the lymphectomy. maybe they don't see a lot of Cancer patients? We have started to call this the "Cancer Card". It trumps a lot.

The Main Dentist comes in with an estimate of the Bill. @1200 for the RC, @2800 total with the Crown/Cap thingy. I tell him I will have to ask Dani if 'we" can afford it. I give him my look of my God-we-have-a-lot-of-med-problems/money-problems.

Cancer card.

Dani had to leave the room. She needed to call my Dr. The Dentist asked if I needed to be pre-medicated before work can be done since I have cancer. "I dunno" was my response. And that I was already taking Sulfameth/Trimeth 3x/wk. The Onco Nurse called Dani back and freaked out that i was getting dental work done, worried that I might get an infection. Dani, gave it right back. Plus, she said, the tooth was already infected, should we let the infection go?

Love that Women.

Dani comes back and looks at the estimate. She has a worried look on her face. Not from the money but from the overzealous onco nurse. The dentist offers to knock one of the fees off.

Cancer card.

Dani takes the estimate to the receptionist desk. Meantime, They start the party in my mouth.

Dani asks if we can do some kind of payment plan. The receptionists asks if we want to pay it in 2 or 3 payments. Yeah, that helps. Dani asks for a monthly plan. Sure, if we get approval for a "dentist credit card". She does. I wouldn't have. Thank God.

I won't bore you with the gruesome details. I have a high tolerance to locals. I lost track of how many shots they gave me. It hurt some but I was happy. You ever notice that you grip the chair expecting pain? Or is that just me? While they worked I noticed I was feeling pain in another tooth. Yay.

As I leave the Doc offers me a script for vicadin. Not sure if my insurance will cover that so I refuse the offer. I have some Tylenol 3 from my lymphectomy I can use for pain. Everyone there says goodbye to us and wishes us luck.

Cancer Card.

Dani wants to go there now. The Doc didn't Tsk Tsk me for the condition of my teeth and he had a great sense of humor. Can't say I've ever had such a pleasent experience at the Dentist. I mean, minus the pain.