The Dentist, New Phones, and Flu Shot
So, I was having lunch last Saturday. I was eating a quesadilla when a piece of something came out in my mouth. I thought maybe it was a filling that had come out because I was feeling some nagging sensitivity up there when I'd bite down on a certain spot on the tooth. But me being me, I tried to ignore it hoping it would go away. Well, it didn't. My dad suggested that I could have broken my tooth. No way. I wasn't in any pain, but now there was a horrifying gaping hole I could feel with my tongue in that spot. I was incredibly distressed and of course this had to happen on the weekend. Now I knew I had no choice but to go to the dentist, which I had been avoiding since the pandemic started. Maybe if I had just gone earlier this wouldn't have happened or maybe they would have caught it and did the repairs. So I had to chew on my left side until Monday when I got an appointment for 1pm that day. Chewing on one side is not fun and unsatisfying when you have to eat that way. I was completely nerve wracked worried I might need extensive work done like a root canal or crown. The crown would have been a problem because that takes time, and I may have had to show up for jury duty the following week possibly interfering with that, plus we were getting our new phones soon (I'll get into that next). So, needless to say I was super stressed out.
I get to the dentist office and the receptionist/dental assistant lady has her mask slipping down her face with her nose showing (I remember my dad talking about this before when he went to the dentist) Ugh. I didn't say anything. She got my temperature checked though, which was a cool 97 degrees. Alien. :) Then I went back. She got an x-ray of the tooth and told me there was a cavity in it. I was surprised by this. I don't know why I was surprised. I haven't been good about going to the dentist. And yes the tooth did break. She took a picture of it so I could see. It looked like it had chipped off of the side, which is interesting because I thought it was broken on the surface. And it didn't hurt, so maybe it was on the inside vs outside because I couldn't see the breakage in the mirror when I checked. And I'm still not sure if it was one of my teeth that had a filling in it, but I'm guessing not. The dentist said I wasn't feeling pain because the cavity hadn't reached the root and it wasn't too deep, but he said it's good I came in when I did because the tooth could have split in half. Well fuck. I mean I would have come in on Saturday if that was possible. Luckily he said they could get away with just filling it rather than a crown. Thank god. That part wasn't too bad. Whenever he drilled I tried to count backwards from 100 to distract myself, which sort of worked. The dental assistant lady comments how I always do so well whenever I have to get a filling. Apparently I hide my anxiety all too well. My mom told her that, and she actually said she does too. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse to be able to hide anxiety. I feel like it's more the latter. So glad that's done and over with now. I had no idea a cavity could break a tooth though. Yikes. I really should get a cleaning appointment sometime. Now the only thing left to do is worry about potential jury duty, but for some reason I'm less nervous about that. I have to start checking tomorrow to see if I'm doomed. D:
The other thing that has happened over the past week is everybody got new iPhones. Let me rewind a bit first. So my dad is officially retiring. Actually he was laid off, but he was going to retire anyway. His last day is actually tomorrow. He's been working from home all this time since March. And he had to return his work phone and get a new one, so he asked my mom and I if we wanted to get new phones too. My phone still worked fine, although the screen was separating for some reason (I'll get into that too), but I thought why not. It's been almost six years since I got my iPhone 6. My dad told me to make a decision on getting the iPhone 11 or the new iPhone 12, which was soon coming out. Initially I leaned towards the 11 because I really didn't need all the bells and whistles of the latest and greatest. Even the 11 would have been way superior than the 6. But then my dad mentioned that he would be getting a deal on the 12, so I'm like OK. We also decided to switch providers to T-Mobile because AT&T sucks. So we went to the T-Mobile store last Thursday and ordered the phones, got that set up. My mom and I were going to trade in our phones, however my phone was deemed unacceptable because it was damaged, but the manager suggested a tech repair shop down the street. We'd get my phone fixed and bring it back when my mom and I were ready to get our data transferred to the new phones and then trade them in.
So we go to the shop and the guy there says my battery had swelled up and that was causing the screen to separate. I read on the internet that that could happen, and it's a safety feature so the phone doesn't explode :O (Ever hear of those exploding Samsungs?) My phone was working fine in spite of this. He would be able to replace the battery, I think it was for $46. Pretty good deal. It was going to take a half hour. I had to go to the bathroom at this point, but the public restrooms were locked so we had to go home and come back. My dad was having data transferred to his new phone at T-Mobile at the same time. He was able to get the phone in the store because he got an older version, but my mom and I had to wait for our phones to arrive in the mail. I think they showed up on Monday. We thought they were coming to the store, but no they arrived as a package on our porch. An expensive package that could have easily been snatched. D: The next day I think we brought them in for the data transfer. And that was going to take over an hour so we had to kill some time. We also planned on getting our flu shots on that day finally. Had several life things happen preventing us from getting it sooner.
We went to CVS first. They were actually all out of flu shots. I thought they were producing a flu vaccine surplus this year? Then we went to Walgreens. My mom had to pick up a prescription there. We inquired about the flu shot there and they said it would be a wait because the pharmacist who'd do it was on a lunch break. Then I suggested we go to Pavillions. And they actually had it there. We filled out forms first and then sat in the waiting room. I was kinda of nervous because it's a shot and it was my first time getting the flu shot actually. But in reality I barely felt anything and it was quick. I did get the soreness in my arm later, but that's gone now. My mom said she felt like a jackhammer was taken to her arm lol. We are protected now. And the overall immune boost may help against nasty other prevalent viruses running rampant right now. We went back and got our phones. The iPhone 12 is nice. The most obvious differences are the quality and battery life and having no home button, but otherwise it works pretty similarly to my iPhone 6, so it was pretty easy to adjust to. You'd think everything had gone smoothly then right? Well, no. Thus comes the next story of yesterday.
As it turns out my mom couldn't use the phone part of her phone. She couldn't make or receive calls, couldn't send texts. My phone was fine though. I tested it with my dad. Something really got screwed up when they were setting up my mom's phone, and that is exactly what she was afraid of: something going wrong. She felt sick to her stomach. Back to T-Mobile she went to get that sorted. Somehow the guy screwed up and I think made my number her phone number and completely got rid of her number. Or something. I don't know. Luckily she was able to get her number back. That would have been a nightmare because she needs her phone to stay in contact with her tennis group. I was at home while this was going on and suddenly I got texts from people that were sent to my mom. I thought it was some group text thing, so I turned it off, but it was part of the screw up. My mom came home and told me to bring my phone. She was given instructions and a key to reset my phone. She didn't know they would need my phone too. Well, she couldn't get the key to work, so we had to go back to T-Mobile, and finally we got things fixed. This was such a hassle that I hope switching to T-Mobile was a good idea. My mom had noticed when we first got our phones transferred the guy was working really fast swapping sim cards around and now obviously he had made a major mistake. The manager also swore that he called my mom's phone to make sure it was working, but my mom never saw him do that. :S Anyway, that's all resolved now hopefully, and hoping we don't have any more issues.
I've never been out and about for so long in such a while, but I kept masked up. Thinking I'm good. I think the big risks are lots of people gathering together, especially unmasked, and not too risky doing every day errands. At least I hope not. Obviously I've been more relaxed about doing such things since the end of September. And we haven't been having a huge spike in cases like in other states right now so far. Maybe it helps seeing that my mom has been doing a lot and has yet to get sick. *Knocks on wood it never happens.*
I get to the dentist office and the receptionist/dental assistant lady has her mask slipping down her face with her nose showing (I remember my dad talking about this before when he went to the dentist) Ugh. I didn't say anything. She got my temperature checked though, which was a cool 97 degrees. Alien. :) Then I went back. She got an x-ray of the tooth and told me there was a cavity in it. I was surprised by this. I don't know why I was surprised. I haven't been good about going to the dentist. And yes the tooth did break. She took a picture of it so I could see. It looked like it had chipped off of the side, which is interesting because I thought it was broken on the surface. And it didn't hurt, so maybe it was on the inside vs outside because I couldn't see the breakage in the mirror when I checked. And I'm still not sure if it was one of my teeth that had a filling in it, but I'm guessing not. The dentist said I wasn't feeling pain because the cavity hadn't reached the root and it wasn't too deep, but he said it's good I came in when I did because the tooth could have split in half. Well fuck. I mean I would have come in on Saturday if that was possible. Luckily he said they could get away with just filling it rather than a crown. Thank god. That part wasn't too bad. Whenever he drilled I tried to count backwards from 100 to distract myself, which sort of worked. The dental assistant lady comments how I always do so well whenever I have to get a filling. Apparently I hide my anxiety all too well. My mom told her that, and she actually said she does too. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse to be able to hide anxiety. I feel like it's more the latter. So glad that's done and over with now. I had no idea a cavity could break a tooth though. Yikes. I really should get a cleaning appointment sometime. Now the only thing left to do is worry about potential jury duty, but for some reason I'm less nervous about that. I have to start checking tomorrow to see if I'm doomed. D:
The other thing that has happened over the past week is everybody got new iPhones. Let me rewind a bit first. So my dad is officially retiring. Actually he was laid off, but he was going to retire anyway. His last day is actually tomorrow. He's been working from home all this time since March. And he had to return his work phone and get a new one, so he asked my mom and I if we wanted to get new phones too. My phone still worked fine, although the screen was separating for some reason (I'll get into that too), but I thought why not. It's been almost six years since I got my iPhone 6. My dad told me to make a decision on getting the iPhone 11 or the new iPhone 12, which was soon coming out. Initially I leaned towards the 11 because I really didn't need all the bells and whistles of the latest and greatest. Even the 11 would have been way superior than the 6. But then my dad mentioned that he would be getting a deal on the 12, so I'm like OK. We also decided to switch providers to T-Mobile because AT&T sucks. So we went to the T-Mobile store last Thursday and ordered the phones, got that set up. My mom and I were going to trade in our phones, however my phone was deemed unacceptable because it was damaged, but the manager suggested a tech repair shop down the street. We'd get my phone fixed and bring it back when my mom and I were ready to get our data transferred to the new phones and then trade them in.
So we go to the shop and the guy there says my battery had swelled up and that was causing the screen to separate. I read on the internet that that could happen, and it's a safety feature so the phone doesn't explode :O (Ever hear of those exploding Samsungs?) My phone was working fine in spite of this. He would be able to replace the battery, I think it was for $46. Pretty good deal. It was going to take a half hour. I had to go to the bathroom at this point, but the public restrooms were locked so we had to go home and come back. My dad was having data transferred to his new phone at T-Mobile at the same time. He was able to get the phone in the store because he got an older version, but my mom and I had to wait for our phones to arrive in the mail. I think they showed up on Monday. We thought they were coming to the store, but no they arrived as a package on our porch. An expensive package that could have easily been snatched. D: The next day I think we brought them in for the data transfer. And that was going to take over an hour so we had to kill some time. We also planned on getting our flu shots on that day finally. Had several life things happen preventing us from getting it sooner.
We went to CVS first. They were actually all out of flu shots. I thought they were producing a flu vaccine surplus this year? Then we went to Walgreens. My mom had to pick up a prescription there. We inquired about the flu shot there and they said it would be a wait because the pharmacist who'd do it was on a lunch break. Then I suggested we go to Pavillions. And they actually had it there. We filled out forms first and then sat in the waiting room. I was kinda of nervous because it's a shot and it was my first time getting the flu shot actually. But in reality I barely felt anything and it was quick. I did get the soreness in my arm later, but that's gone now. My mom said she felt like a jackhammer was taken to her arm lol. We are protected now. And the overall immune boost may help against nasty other prevalent viruses running rampant right now. We went back and got our phones. The iPhone 12 is nice. The most obvious differences are the quality and battery life and having no home button, but otherwise it works pretty similarly to my iPhone 6, so it was pretty easy to adjust to. You'd think everything had gone smoothly then right? Well, no. Thus comes the next story of yesterday.
As it turns out my mom couldn't use the phone part of her phone. She couldn't make or receive calls, couldn't send texts. My phone was fine though. I tested it with my dad. Something really got screwed up when they were setting up my mom's phone, and that is exactly what she was afraid of: something going wrong. She felt sick to her stomach. Back to T-Mobile she went to get that sorted. Somehow the guy screwed up and I think made my number her phone number and completely got rid of her number. Or something. I don't know. Luckily she was able to get her number back. That would have been a nightmare because she needs her phone to stay in contact with her tennis group. I was at home while this was going on and suddenly I got texts from people that were sent to my mom. I thought it was some group text thing, so I turned it off, but it was part of the screw up. My mom came home and told me to bring my phone. She was given instructions and a key to reset my phone. She didn't know they would need my phone too. Well, she couldn't get the key to work, so we had to go back to T-Mobile, and finally we got things fixed. This was such a hassle that I hope switching to T-Mobile was a good idea. My mom had noticed when we first got our phones transferred the guy was working really fast swapping sim cards around and now obviously he had made a major mistake. The manager also swore that he called my mom's phone to make sure it was working, but my mom never saw him do that. :S Anyway, that's all resolved now hopefully, and hoping we don't have any more issues.
I've never been out and about for so long in such a while, but I kept masked up. Thinking I'm good. I think the big risks are lots of people gathering together, especially unmasked, and not too risky doing every day errands. At least I hope not. Obviously I've been more relaxed about doing such things since the end of September. And we haven't been having a huge spike in cases like in other states right now so far. Maybe it helps seeing that my mom has been doing a lot and has yet to get sick. *Knocks on wood it never happens.*