What Now

OK, so now that I have recovered from the trauma, I can tell you about getting a root canal. It's actually funny when I think of it now!

When I posted about having to go and have the procedure, I told you that I had to take some pills before I left. I was afraid that the pills were all that I as going to get. When I got to the dental surgeon, or whatever they are called, they told me that they didn't do sedation. I was freaking out, but not as badly as I thought I would. They did tell me I could have nitrous, so I was very much "Yes, PLEASE!" I shouldn't have worried, though. By the time I got called back, the pills were working in full force. I was nice and high. Of course, I didn't really know it at the time, so when they strapped on the nitrous nose thing, I was breathing in really deeply and thinking "crap, this isn't doing anything!" I was wrong, though, because by the time they walked in, I was in la la land for sure. The guy put some kind of numbing stuff on my gum, and told me they what they were doing, I didn't think they were at the right place, so I asked "Is it the bottom one?" " Yes" they said. "Number nineteeeeeeeeeen?" I said. "Yes" they said. After that, it's all a haze. They talked to me, I mumbled to them, they gave me a shot of Novocaine, which hurt, but I didn't care. They gave me another shot of Novocaine, I still didn't care. I was breathing in the happy stuff. The doc showed me something that looked like the thing on a Clarinet that holds the reed on and told me what they were going to do with it. I said "Sounds good to me." Well, I think that's what I said, anyways, but I can't be sure. I was vaguely aware that some serious business was going on in my face, but I couldn't focus. The doc was humming, so I starting humming along. They kept asking me to hold this thing (still don't know what it was) so they could take x-rays of my tooth, and then getting irritated that I couldn't hold it still. Well, surprise, surprise! Imagine that. There was a flat screen TV over my head playing a soccer game or something. I tried watching it, but I couldn't keep up. I probably said some embarrassing stuff around all of their hands, but I don't remember. Then they took off the paper bib and told me they were done. I remember getting up and paying the receptionist, going to get into the car, but I have no idea what happened after that until I got home. While I was working out the rest of my nitrous, Steve went to get my pain medication and something for us to eat. When he came back, I was loopy and starving. I hadn't had anything to eat all that day and it was about 5:15 or so. Steve had gotten me some chicken fingers, which I was able to tear apart and chew on the right side of my mouth. I still had numb face from the Novocaine, so I didn't realize that while I was eating, I was destroying the inner part of my left cheek. I'm not kidding, I chewed it to pieces. Of course, when the Novocaine wore off, I knew...Lord, did I know. I went into the kitchen to get one of my pain pills and saw a stack of three different medicines. I knew I had only gotten a prescription for one, but for a second I thought I had been mistaken. I had a bottle of Lexapro (antidepressant), some kind of ointment for fungal infections, and about 6 packages of Estrogen tabs. I thought, what the hell did they do to me in there?! Of course, then I realized that the pharmacy had handed Steve a package of someone else's meds because they had a similar name as mine. Similar, but not exact. Steve had to leave again to go somewhere, but I have no idea where he went. I called to tell him I had the wrong medicine and he was going to come back to get it and take it back. Then the pharmacy called and I can only hope that I actually said what I think I said. I was still pretty loopy to tell you the truth. So I finally got the wretched pills and took one. Steve had to run some errands after that, so I can only be glad I didn't have a bad reaction to them since I was home alone! I think I slept, or tried to. Then I woke up at about 3:30 the next morning and couldn't go back to sleep. Good times.