Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Last week I was in increasing pain from my lower jaw. To the point that I scooted to the doctor’s on Tuesday afternoon, convinced I had bone cancer! (The pain wasn’t muscular, or specific to a tooth, not even sensitive to touch – it felt like it was in the bone.) My kind doctor sent me off to get an x-ray taken which happened Wednesday morning. He got the results that afternoon – nothing obvious. No bone disease (relief!), no infection that they could see. Nothing.

But hell – something was there as the pain was getting worse. By late Wednesday afternoon, the pain had localised to a tooth… a left rear molar that had had a crown some years ago. My first thought was “root canal”! I still had some strong painkillers left from May when I had previously had a tooth infection that required root canal work (yuk!). So I dusted them off in order to sleep on Wednesday night. They worked – too well! I was like a zombie on Thursday morning and incapable of driving a car or even moving my limbs too much.

So no work for me on Thursday. I got in to the dentist in the afternoon and my worst fears were confirmed – her x-ray showed an infection at the base of the tooth where the nerve has died and root canal work is now scheduled for mid-January (something to look forward to – NOT!). She also prescribed some antibiotics and some more pain killers.

So after paying $60 for the Dr’s visit, $70 for the x-ray, $100 for the dentist, and $30 for the drugs, I’m finally (5 days later) starting to feel half human again now that the antibiotics are taking control of the infection.

Though I’m not looking forward to the dental bill for the root canal work. I’ll get some of this back on private health insurance but nowhere near what it will cost me.

Bummer.