Implant : Round 16 Fight! & serious atomic mass issues
I really miss my brains. And now have Accountancy Shanty stuck in my head. Accounting is lots slower when your head feels as though it has been invaded by marshmallow peeps. Which is how it has felt for the last three days. I feel seriously stupid. I really do hope this thing isn't eating all of my precious brain cell. (Yes, the singular was intentional.)
So besides being stupid, sick, and useless today, I stumbled down to the Dentist's office in the afternoon for round 16 of implant fun. I am beginning to suspect that I should stop going to Dentists (but I always say this) because it seems that I am merely providing them with excuses to buy interesting new equipment. Also, every single appointment that I have always mysteriously turns into two more that need to happen.
After the last appointment, where impressions were successfully taken with the angle-measuring-post-thingie, the Dentist had some problems with the lab. (Oh, big surprise.) To make a long story short, there is too small of a gap between where the standard abutment part will go, Thus, they had to custom build this special extra tiny abutment piece, and will also need to shave off some of the back tooth even then to get the crown to fit. So, I went in today to have yet another impression done with the new and exciting abutment piece.
I nearly swallowed the screwdriver at one point. (This is not something that you get to say very often.)
After that near disaster was averted, I then got to feel what it must be like to be on the OTHER end of ratchet driver. Do you know how odd it feels to have someone ratcheting something into your head? At any rate, he tightened the new abutment up some more, took x-ray's to be sure it was where it should be, and then the impression was done. He also has a very exciting new digital camera on a stick with it's own special camera condom, so that he can take a picture of things in your mouth and show them to you. He did this. It was anti-climatic.
After all of this, my poor Dentist went to place the protective cap over the implant piece. He tried and tried (this hurt). He tried some more. It would seem, that my gum has grown up too far. So he tried prying it away (this hurt a lot) for a while, but still to no avail. So then (at this point I have been given anesthetic) he tried using a teenie-tiny scalpel, to start cutting away at little bits of my gums, in hopes to, er, trim them back I suppose. (As if my gum tissue were an overgrown hedge.) There was a lot of pulling, tugging, cutting, and more pulling. There was also a lot of re-loading on the anesthetic. In the end, he had to give up.
The new plan is that he is getting this exciting new machine that can somehow electronically reduce my gum tissue in this area, so I won't need full surgery to have this done. (See, it is all a ploy to get new toys.) We'll do this once he has the new electric gum-eating machine, and then, this appointment that we just had will have to be done again, since it is unclear if that impression he made today will really be valid given all of this. I am left with the new abutment in, but no protective cap thingie (which mostly serves to keep the gum tissue away from the abutment). Since the gum tissue has to be reduced anyway, it is not a big deal. Oh, and ow. Ow. Ow.
In all fairness, I feel kind of bad for the Dentist. He didn't know what he was getting into when he took me as a patient. I am a dentist's worst nightmare. Now he's swearing, "I'll get that crown in, if it's the last thing I do." You have to appreciate that.
After all of that fun, I stumbled home, plonked Lester into a duffel bag, and took him to the vet. He had thrown up again this morning, making it several times in the last few days. I was growing a little concerned. Poor Lester, he really hates to leave the house. He was so scared at the vet's office. He kept trying to hide in the sink. It was really cute. The long and short of that experience ended up being that the cat's seem to have recently picked up fleas (oh the joys of living in row-houses) fleas. Also, it is likely that he has just been licking himself too much and getting too much fur in his tummy, but they did some blood-work just to be certain. Armed with anti-flea stuff for Pumpkin and Lester, cat laxatives, some kind of hairball prevention medicine, and so on I left $400 poorer. Arrrrrgggghhh! I felt kind of like crying after all of this.
Instead I tried to get some more work done after pissing off both cats by giving them their medicine.
Jo was good enough to pick up a cat brush so I can try to defurr lester myself to prevent him from eating so much of himself. I've given him a bit of brushing tonight. That cat is 90% hair, I swear.
I am becoming increasingly despondent and am losing the will to live. I demand my head back!
Oh yes, and in other news, I had this dream: It is Oakland, California and it is raining heavily. For some reason I am transporting a nuclear weapon in a carpet bag. I had nearly made it over to the guys I was supposed to be bring the weapon to, when I had to set it down and go behind a hill, due to this gang fight that was going on. In the middle of all of this, people from the government show up. Of course, given the nuclear weapon, this makes me very nervous. I see one of them checking the bag. More stuff happens, the gang fight is breaking up. The guy who was checking the bag comes up to me, and I am very relieved to discover that he is one of my friends. All he says is, "Nice atomic mass in that bag there." And that is about all I remember.
So besides being stupid, sick, and useless today, I stumbled down to the Dentist's office in the afternoon for round 16 of implant fun. I am beginning to suspect that I should stop going to Dentists (but I always say this) because it seems that I am merely providing them with excuses to buy interesting new equipment. Also, every single appointment that I have always mysteriously turns into two more that need to happen.
After the last appointment, where impressions were successfully taken with the angle-measuring-post-thingie, the Dentist had some problems with the lab. (Oh, big surprise.) To make a long story short, there is too small of a gap between where the standard abutment part will go, Thus, they had to custom build this special extra tiny abutment piece, and will also need to shave off some of the back tooth even then to get the crown to fit. So, I went in today to have yet another impression done with the new and exciting abutment piece.
I nearly swallowed the screwdriver at one point. (This is not something that you get to say very often.)
After that near disaster was averted, I then got to feel what it must be like to be on the OTHER end of ratchet driver. Do you know how odd it feels to have someone ratcheting something into your head? At any rate, he tightened the new abutment up some more, took x-ray's to be sure it was where it should be, and then the impression was done. He also has a very exciting new digital camera on a stick with it's own special camera condom, so that he can take a picture of things in your mouth and show them to you. He did this. It was anti-climatic.
After all of this, my poor Dentist went to place the protective cap over the implant piece. He tried and tried (this hurt). He tried some more. It would seem, that my gum has grown up too far. So he tried prying it away (this hurt a lot) for a while, but still to no avail. So then (at this point I have been given anesthetic) he tried using a teenie-tiny scalpel, to start cutting away at little bits of my gums, in hopes to, er, trim them back I suppose. (As if my gum tissue were an overgrown hedge.) There was a lot of pulling, tugging, cutting, and more pulling. There was also a lot of re-loading on the anesthetic. In the end, he had to give up.
The new plan is that he is getting this exciting new machine that can somehow electronically reduce my gum tissue in this area, so I won't need full surgery to have this done. (See, it is all a ploy to get new toys.) We'll do this once he has the new electric gum-eating machine, and then, this appointment that we just had will have to be done again, since it is unclear if that impression he made today will really be valid given all of this. I am left with the new abutment in, but no protective cap thingie (which mostly serves to keep the gum tissue away from the abutment). Since the gum tissue has to be reduced anyway, it is not a big deal. Oh, and ow. Ow. Ow.
In all fairness, I feel kind of bad for the Dentist. He didn't know what he was getting into when he took me as a patient. I am a dentist's worst nightmare. Now he's swearing, "I'll get that crown in, if it's the last thing I do." You have to appreciate that.
After all of that fun, I stumbled home, plonked Lester into a duffel bag, and took him to the vet. He had thrown up again this morning, making it several times in the last few days. I was growing a little concerned. Poor Lester, he really hates to leave the house. He was so scared at the vet's office. He kept trying to hide in the sink. It was really cute. The long and short of that experience ended up being that the cat's seem to have recently picked up fleas (oh the joys of living in row-houses) fleas. Also, it is likely that he has just been licking himself too much and getting too much fur in his tummy, but they did some blood-work just to be certain. Armed with anti-flea stuff for Pumpkin and Lester, cat laxatives, some kind of hairball prevention medicine, and so on I left $400 poorer. Arrrrrgggghhh! I felt kind of like crying after all of this.
Instead I tried to get some more work done after pissing off both cats by giving them their medicine.
Jo was good enough to pick up a cat brush so I can try to defurr lester myself to prevent him from eating so much of himself. I've given him a bit of brushing tonight. That cat is 90% hair, I swear.
I am becoming increasingly despondent and am losing the will to live. I demand my head back!
Oh yes, and in other news, I had this dream: It is Oakland, California and it is raining heavily. For some reason I am transporting a nuclear weapon in a carpet bag. I had nearly made it over to the guys I was supposed to be bring the weapon to, when I had to set it down and go behind a hill, due to this gang fight that was going on. In the middle of all of this, people from the government show up. Of course, given the nuclear weapon, this makes me very nervous. I see one of them checking the bag. More stuff happens, the gang fight is breaking up. The guy who was checking the bag comes up to me, and I am very relieved to discover that he is one of my friends. All he says is, "Nice atomic mass in that bag there." And that is about all I remember.