WDM, IA - Drill, Baby, Drill

Not often that I quote Sarah Palin or John McCain but I thought their sentiments fit my day today, or at least an hour of it. Yesterday, I got a call from my dentist that they had an opening and could fit me in. Great, is that good news or bad news? Doesn’t matter, I’ve got to go and at 10:30 I was firmly ensconsed in the dentist chair, the center of attention, waiting to be crowned. It began with the dentist arriving with a cheery ‘how ya doin?’ What kind of question is that for someone who’s in the position I’m in? Not well, that’s why I’m here.

Then the usual poking and prodding and, sure enough, the huge needle comes out and I’ve got to get 2, count them 2, shots of novocaine. Then they leave me while my mouth goes numb, swells and I begin to drool. They they reappear and the drill comes out. My favorite. Remember how dentists used to say, open wide and you had to hold that postiion? Well, now they put a rubber block into your mouth and it holds your mouth open by itself. And, for 45 minutes at least, he drilled in my mouth, all around the tooth that he was going to ‘crown’ to make it smaller so that he could get the crown on it.

Here’s a picture of the drills he used. Ouch. No, just kidding, these are some drill we found in Gary’s father’s garage.

All in all, it wasn’t so bad. He took the time to answer my questions, told me in detail what he was doing at each step, kept reassuring me that I was doing ‘perfect’ and the whole procedure was painless. Uncomfortable but painless. Uncomfortable for 105 minutes. Gary, who was in the waiting room, thought I had gone out the back door to the ice cream shop next door without him. I finally emerged, a little the worse for wear and we left with my next appointment card in my hot little hand.

We had to some paperwork for Cathy, Gary’s sister, so called her and asked her if she would like to meet us for lunch. Sure enough, and Panera it was. I had some vegetable soup which was delicious but my mouth was pretty numb still and I tried to be dainty. Unfortunately, I guess I was biting the inside of my lip and it began to hurt as the novocaine wore off.

The rest of the day was errands, especially since we are expecting a large snow storm beginning tomorrow in the afternoon. We hit Costco for gas and groceries. Oh, boy, nibbling our way through Costco. But, with a snowstorm coming, we want to have lots of bread and milk. Actually, I’m just trying to replenish some things we’ve used over the last 2 months as we’ve been traveling. Because we’ve been on the move so much, I haven’t had much time for shopping and I’ve been using up what we’ve got in the freezer. Not a bad idea.