Maliheh, who wished me well at the dentist, said she didn’t mind my seeing where she lived but was spooked at the idea of others seeing where she lived so she isn’t returning to Blogger. I told her I could have the entries automatically emailed to her if she wants.

Ok, now for yesterday’s nightmare at the dentist. I’ve had all my wisdom teeth and one impacted baby tooth pulled and never had a problem. The wisdoms came out in seconds and while the baby tooth took a few more than a few seconds, it was hardly a nightmare. Just a little pressure for a minute or two and that was it. It was over. Yesterday, however, was like nothing I’d ever experienced before and OMG! I thought I would die there for a while and it seemed to take forfuckingever! I actually found myself missing my old dentist in Arizona whom I haven’t seen in a decade.

The staff wasn’t nearly as friendly and as comforting as they were in Arizona. They seemed to have no empathy for me whatsoever. I won’t go so far as to say they were cold and rude, but they weren’t warm and friendly, that’s for sure.

Even though the assistant put a topical numbing gel on the area of the back bottom tooth they were after, the Novocain needle stung like hell anyway, worse than I remember it to ever sting. Not only that but I started trembling like crazy. Novocain can sometimes make your heart race and it did with mine once, but never before did I tremble so uncontrollably. I figure part of that was anxiety as well as having been up for 15 hours.

After what seemed like an eternity, the doctor started pulling. I thought it would be out in a few seconds, but not only does he have to numb me 4 more times along the way, but it takes forever to get the damn thing out! It was really lodged in the bone really well. The pressure was horrendous! I thought my jaw would come unhinged for a minute there. They were trying to get it out in one piece so they wouldn’t have to go digging.

A part of me wished Tom were suddenly there, even though he’d have been grossed out, LOL, but like the less-than-sympathetic assistant said – what good would that do?

Part of me wanted to tell them to stop and just up and run out of there, and even they suggested another dentist if that’s what I wanted, but I couldn’t just up and leave with it partially extracted. They were at least able to loosen the fucker right away. And also, there was nowhere else to go but to the county, since we have no insurance.

Finally, after drilling the area where the root connection is, they were able to get the damn thing out in one piece. The word “relief” took on a whole new meaning for me at that point! It looked nasty as hell it was so damn decayed. I’m glad to have that thing out of my mouth for good! It was totally unsalvageable.

As a small compensation for my stress and pain, they fucked up on getting the $12 co-payment from us, and I didn’t need any prescriptions. I’ve had to take over-the-counter pain pills a couple of times since it was pulled nearly 12 hours ago, but all in all, I’d say I’m doing pretty well now. I always used to love to brag about how tooth-tough I was and would laugh at Tom’s so-called “silly” fear of dentists. Not anymore! If that nearly killed me, it would’ve wiped him out for sure! Next time I have to have a tooth pulled I’m going to be shitting bricks instead of having an it’s-no-big-deal attitude.

Anyway, today’s Tom’s 54th birthday and we’re both going to look forward to doing a big fat nothing for the day. In fact, I’m getting back into bed now. :)