Adventures in Dental Work

Well Today has been one for the Dental books. I went to bed last night at about 6:30pm with a migraine that was out of this world and a vague idea that Mike had a tooth ache.

I woke up at 10:30 pm needing food and a still had the migraine. Mike is on the computer and fixes me food and mentions that his tooth really hurts.

I wake up at 2:30 am and the migraine seems better. No Mike, he is out on the computer, seems he can't sleep because his tooth is killing him. He has an appointment to get it looked out but who knows if they will do anything about it or just refer him to someone else. We have to love the insurance companies and how they work.

The alarm goes off and it is now 7:20 am and Mike in major pain from the broken tooth and it is wiggling around in his head. We have both had it with all of the run around from the dental office so we decide to go to the Dental School up in Maryland to have the thing pulled out by the emergency center up there.

So we call into work, grab the directions off the net and pile into the car for a road trip. I have my music going from IHOP-KC Mike is trying to deal with everything on only an hour and a half of sleep and the drive to Baltimore is pretty uneventful.

We get to the school district. Don't know how many of you have ever been to Baltimore but the signs and the parking are crazy. I drop off Mike to go sign in at the Dental Emergency room and set off to find a place to park. I am so not parking on the street and after going up and down a few one way street I find a parking garage. Great, I pull in and start the around and around game. No parking on the first two floors. No problem there is always parking further on. This garage goes down instead of up, novel idea, accept I think I have reached the bottom and there is still no parking. Okay, so I start back up, maybe I will find some on the up side. Everything is color coded and has different fish on different levels, didn't I just pass a blue sea bass? Okay, there is the correct ramp for up. I get to the attendant and let her know that the lot is full. It is a good thing she doesn't charge me as I only have $2 cash as I was planning to find an ATM at or on the way to the clinic. I am soooo glad that God provides and watches out for me.

The nice lady gives me directions to the next lot and the valet stops traffic to let me out. I get to the new lot with out error and find a parking place and get everything settled and they even have business cards so you can remember which garage you are in. I am even good to pull out a pen and write down 5S where I am parked. Good for me. Time to take the elevator down and go find Mike. I am sure he is all checked in and ready to be taken care of by the fine students. Now just to find him as I have no Cell phone. The Dental school can't be that big and God is with me so I am sure I will have no problem at all.

I see lots of wonderful flags on the sidewalks that tell you which Baltimore School is where and as I thought it is not hard at all for me to figure out which direction I need to go to get to the Dental School. Off I go and the walk is down hill, life is good. About half way down the hill I see someone that looks like Mike to me standing out on the sidewalk in front of what I believe is the Dental building. Problem I wonder? Nah, It is just going to be a little while so he thought he would come out and wait for me so I would not get lost, how sweet. How wonderful he is. It is all over cast out but it is a wonderful day and Mike is going to get his tooth fixed and will be out off pain. Everything is wonderful.

I get to about a block and a half from the Dental School and Mike spots me and starts towards me. He does not look happy. I kind of look a question at him. He says, "They are all full"

In confusion I sputter "Do what? No, let me go talk to them."

"They open at 7 am, it is a first come first serve and everything the emergency, the clinic, everything is already booked. I already fussed at them here and there is nothing you can do. I have a 2pm appointment with the Dr back in Manassas" he replies.

I take a deep breath as he strides past me back up the hill the way I just came from. Okay, so this didn't work out the way I thought it would. After slowing him down so I could keep up we make it to the top of the hill and go in search of an ATM. I still only have the $2 on me and it is $4 for up to an hour for parking. Fortunately the next block up has a Starbucks and at this point I want a green tea frappachino and what do you know right next door is an ATM.

Frappachino and Cash in hand we head back to the parking lot. I have not been gone long enough to forget which garage I am in so I didn't really need to business card but it is nice to know that I parked at 5S. We take the elevator to the 5th floor. We get out of the elevator and see 5N, so the car should be close.

It turns out that 5S is for 5-South and we are at 5-North. If we go up the ramp we go to 6-North. We go down the ramp a little and see 4-North and a wire fence. As we look across the wire fence I can see 5-South but I can't see a way to get to it accept for across the wire fence. This may be because I have already had an asthma attach and I am not thinking well but it seems like the best and only thing to do is climb over the fence. So my brave champion Mike, who is also not thinking clearly with all of the pain, climbs the fence and holds my purse and green tea so I can climb after him. Let's hear it for the tom boy that this was accomplished with no embarrassing incidents. Now that we are in the correct area we are able to make it to the car and head back towards Virginia.

As we get onto the freeway I mention how sweet the Green tea is and offer some to Mike who tries some after much discussion of what the ice may do to his sensitive tooth. Oddly enough the ice seems to give the pounding a moment of pause so he tries several more sips and this gives him another odd feeling that he can't seem to describe and wonders if it has to do with the Green Tea.

This reminds me of Oil of Cloves the wonderful, yet strong and tasty, tasty stuff the dentist uses if you have a dry socket. When we get back to town we have about 45 min before the Dr apt so I decide to stop by the CVS and see if they have some of the wonder drug of the orient called Oil of Cloves. Nope, but they do have liquid Advil, extra strength, ambesol, and something called Red Cross Toothache with 85% eugenol. I pick these up and Mike immediately bites a Advil liquid cap so that all the liquid flows all around his throbbing tooth. *Shudder* This seems to hold him until we get home. Once we get home I open the Red Cross Toothache, which is a bottle of liquid, Cotton tabs, and mettle tweezers. I smell the liquid and guess what? It turns out that eugenol is clove oil. :)

I fix up a nice cotton tab of clove oil for Mike to put on his tooth. There is a bit of fumbling and well lets just say a couple of tabs latter Mike finally puts one in his broken tooth.

Now you may not know this but, Mike HATES cloves. As I watch from the bathroom door expecting to see relief cross his face all I am getting is this face like he smells something foul and he is drooling like a great Pyrenees about to get a turkey sandwich. He tells me his mouth is burning and he can't take it anymore and reaches for the tweezers to remove the offending tab of clove oil. Now I feel terrible because not only is he in pain but his mouth tastes terrible and I think what could get rid of the cloves he hates?

Listerine!!

So I tell him to rinse his mouth with the Listerine honestly thinking this will help.

Mike grabs the Listerine and proceeds to spew minty green all over the sink area of the bathroom. "What possessed you to suggest Listerine" Mike chokes.

At this point I have stumbled to the bedroom because I am laughing so hard and don't want him to know and be hurt that I am laughing at him.

He follows me thinking I am crying because he barked at me so I have to fess up that I am to busy laughing to be upset at which point he begins to give me detailed descriptions of what the effect of oil of cloves and Listerine together have on the senses and that I have no right to complainer about anything not being seasoned correctly and that this more than makes up for the wasabe in the green tea thing he did to me when I had the massive sinus infection and could not breathe(I will admit it cleared my sinuses, as well as my stomach contents). At this point I am just trying to catch my breath as I am laughing so hard.

We finally make it to the dentist and they are nice and kind of trying to get me to move my dental work over to there office as we get ready to see the Dr. The Dr comes in and takes a look at his tooth and finds out we have been to Baltimore and back already and says you can get a tooth out anywhere on a Friday afternoon. Oh, if only that were true. He goes out to do something and the receptionist comes in she has found Mikes insurance and the Dr will take out the tooth for $125. WOO HOO. Mike is over joyed, I am so happy. The Dr comes in and applies Novocaine to Mike and lets him sit. The Dr has like 4-6 nurses and rooms going and only him so he is very busy and juggling all of this well. They come in several times to ask Mike how he is doing to the point that he is really surprised. I think it is because he growled at them before.

They gave him another shot just before they started to take out the tooth and it was still pretty painful, but kind of cool to watch. The top part of the tooth ended up breaking off just below the gum line where it had a cavity the went almost all the way through. The root was really cool as they used a slender tool and drilled it up from the side almost like a nail that has lost the nail head. They showed us the abscessed portion that was still intact and connected to the root before they wrapped it up and gave it to Mike. They also gave him a prescription for Vicodin.

We get to the front counter and go to pay for the extraction and they tell us how lucky we are as the Dr has just come from the Philippenes and joined the practice. He is the only Dr at the practice who is willing to do a tooth extraction. He did so many in the Philipenes that it is just no big deal.

God works in misterious ways and sometimes we go around in circles but in the end God does work and the tooth is gone and Mike is happy in Vicodin land. :)