Ow

Today was just beautiful here. I was able to enjoy it, on my way to and from the van, when I went to the dentist. As I mentioned in an earlier post, half of one of my molars broke off last Wednesday. I was worried that my dentist, Dr. Howell, would just pull the tooth. Much to my relief, he put on a crown. I'd never gotten a crown before, so I was entertained by the process, particualrly the purple silly putty, used for making the mold. One of the funniest things was when I was told to bite down for ten minutes and they went away to work on another patient. Not five minutes later, one of the ladies working at the front desk came by and asked, "When would you like your next appointment, Lenore?" Mild panic set in. Through expressive eyebrow wiggling and varried "mmmM!" noises, I communicated the best time surprisingly quickly. "3? Morning? 8? 9:15?" It occurred to me later that holding up nine fingers would have been faster, but I don't seem to be at my best when I've had two shots of novacaine and from what little I could feel, a mouth full sculpey, cotton and tin.

No, hours later, I was still not at my best. I need to work at home this weekend, so I carefully wound up my power cord for my laptop and brought it with me. The problem is, I forgot the laptop. I'll have to waste over an hour this weekend, driving over there and back, to pick it up. The only good thing is that I'm unlikely to ever let myself do this again.

Actually, it was amazing how quickly the novacaine equivalent wore off. I left my office and was fine. I still really couldn't feel my face and my tongue felt decidedly strange. Minutes later, by the time I got to the van, my mouth was hurting and nothing was numb. It was pretty weird, but I'd say it was exactly five hours after he gave me the shots. The pain got a lot worse, but it seems to have subsided, for the moment.