Memo To Self: Next Time, Get Dental Insurance
Today is 30 days post-layoff. Something somewhat scary about that.
Dumped TWX stock options available for $10; netted nice return on investment.
Job hunt is progressing. Lots of resumes sent. Hired a professional resume service to rewrite my resume (and they did a freaking awesome job; I highly recommend Alesia Benedict of GetInterviews.com if you're on a job hunt, because she turned my resume from a 5-page ramble into a 2-page thing of beauty), which I've just started submitting this week. That one actually resulted in a phone call from a headhunter, so I consider that a win.
I also got a rejection letter from advertising.com, the advertising arm of AOL. I applied on a lark just to see if they'd either recognize me or reconsider me. The response was priceless:
"I recently received / reviewed your resume for the Director, Infrastructure position that you submitted it towards. Unfortunately, that position has been filled by a contractor that will convert into full-time in December/January. Until then, it must remain posted."
Direct translation: "Um, we're hoping to outsource all of our IT positions. We were hoping nobody would notice we still had vacancies posted."
All of this pales, though, to waking up Sunday morning just three weeks after surgery to remove a periodontal abscess with a toothache that I would have had to die to have felt better from. I e-mailed my dentists' office with a plea for an appointment, which I finally had on Wednesday. In the interim I had brushed and washed and flossed and rinsed to remove any stuck food particles for hours until I finally felt the last piece of food wash free from around that broken molar filing (which again felt newly cracked), making the pain a bit more tolerable. By Wednesday, I forced myself to get up and out of bed and head into NoVA once more, pretty much resigned to the inevitable: I had another cavity and it would likely be difficult if not impossible to clean out without root canal surgery.
Sure enough, in just three weeks, X-rays (which had been unable to spot any decay in the teeth themselves just 3 weeks prior) now spotted the molar with the cracked filling of the tooth in question--upper right molar #1--and had gone from having barely-visible surface decay to one root being decayed all the way down.
Now I had a choice to make. Or rather, two choices.
Choice #1 was root canal on the offending tooth, followed by an extensive rebuild and crown. I hate root canals. Root canals on molars have a short life expectancy and an alarmingly high tendency to break down over time, the end result of which is an extraction. Total cost of root canal: $1275, if everything goes well.
Choice #2 was extraction. $310 for the office visit to remove the tooth, followed by rebuild of the surrounding teeth to prepare them to anchor a non-removable partial bridge, followed by the installation of the bridge. $3500 total cost, provided everything goes well post-extraction.
Now, since I had not bought AOL's somewhat expensive dental plan as a separate insurance carrier, I carry health insurance but no dental insurance. Worse, my dentist did not accept Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the basis of my health insurance, so both $$$$ figures did not sit well with me. Worse still, I'm on prednisone, which (1) makes you prone to infections, especially dental infections for reasons doctors don't fully understand, and (2) results in slow-healing wounds that are prone to developing infection, which (3) leads back to point 1.
I thus chose the easier and cheaper of the two methods: Extraction, no rebuild yet.
Sedation starts. Once again, Dr. Bomer presses an acupressure spot on my cheek near my jawbone, and I once again notice the needle going in but no real pain so far. However, because the dose of novacaine was more than twice what it had been previously, I ended up with a bad case of the novacaine shakes. Once that calmed down, extraction efforts began.
It took over 90 minutes to extract the tooth--one side of it was so healthy and bright white on X-ray that it proved impossible to extract as a whole, so the gums were cut away, the old filling drilled out, and the tooth itself carved in thirds (it had three roots, only one of which was decayed). It was a long, drawn-out, messy and completely pain-free experience.
Dr. Bomer sutured the cut gum lines to stop the gums from bleeding, but because I'm on medication that thins my blood (a necessary evil since I have hypercalcemia, which thickens blood and makes it prone to excessive clot formation), I literally bled all afternoon and most of the night long. They sent me home with a gause packing bandage and two prescriptions (penicillin and Tylenol #3 for the pain--heck, they might as well have given me baby aspirin because Tylenol #3 is pretty much useless to me), and today I feel better.
So, I'm now missing a tooth and $310 and I have a hole in my mouth that will take at least 3 wks. to heal up.
Next time, I'm buying dental insurance. Phooey on this.
Dumped TWX stock options available for $10; netted nice return on investment.
Job hunt is progressing. Lots of resumes sent. Hired a professional resume service to rewrite my resume (and they did a freaking awesome job; I highly recommend Alesia Benedict of GetInterviews.com if you're on a job hunt, because she turned my resume from a 5-page ramble into a 2-page thing of beauty), which I've just started submitting this week. That one actually resulted in a phone call from a headhunter, so I consider that a win.
I also got a rejection letter from advertising.com, the advertising arm of AOL. I applied on a lark just to see if they'd either recognize me or reconsider me. The response was priceless:
"I recently received / reviewed your resume for the Director, Infrastructure position that you submitted it towards. Unfortunately, that position has been filled by a contractor that will convert into full-time in December/January. Until then, it must remain posted."
Direct translation: "Um, we're hoping to outsource all of our IT positions. We were hoping nobody would notice we still had vacancies posted."
All of this pales, though, to waking up Sunday morning just three weeks after surgery to remove a periodontal abscess with a toothache that I would have had to die to have felt better from. I e-mailed my dentists' office with a plea for an appointment, which I finally had on Wednesday. In the interim I had brushed and washed and flossed and rinsed to remove any stuck food particles for hours until I finally felt the last piece of food wash free from around that broken molar filing (which again felt newly cracked), making the pain a bit more tolerable. By Wednesday, I forced myself to get up and out of bed and head into NoVA once more, pretty much resigned to the inevitable: I had another cavity and it would likely be difficult if not impossible to clean out without root canal surgery.
Sure enough, in just three weeks, X-rays (which had been unable to spot any decay in the teeth themselves just 3 weeks prior) now spotted the molar with the cracked filling of the tooth in question--upper right molar #1--and had gone from having barely-visible surface decay to one root being decayed all the way down.
Now I had a choice to make. Or rather, two choices.
Choice #1 was root canal on the offending tooth, followed by an extensive rebuild and crown. I hate root canals. Root canals on molars have a short life expectancy and an alarmingly high tendency to break down over time, the end result of which is an extraction. Total cost of root canal: $1275, if everything goes well.
Choice #2 was extraction. $310 for the office visit to remove the tooth, followed by rebuild of the surrounding teeth to prepare them to anchor a non-removable partial bridge, followed by the installation of the bridge. $3500 total cost, provided everything goes well post-extraction.
Now, since I had not bought AOL's somewhat expensive dental plan as a separate insurance carrier, I carry health insurance but no dental insurance. Worse, my dentist did not accept Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the basis of my health insurance, so both $$$$ figures did not sit well with me. Worse still, I'm on prednisone, which (1) makes you prone to infections, especially dental infections for reasons doctors don't fully understand, and (2) results in slow-healing wounds that are prone to developing infection, which (3) leads back to point 1.
I thus chose the easier and cheaper of the two methods: Extraction, no rebuild yet.
Sedation starts. Once again, Dr. Bomer presses an acupressure spot on my cheek near my jawbone, and I once again notice the needle going in but no real pain so far. However, because the dose of novacaine was more than twice what it had been previously, I ended up with a bad case of the novacaine shakes. Once that calmed down, extraction efforts began.
It took over 90 minutes to extract the tooth--one side of it was so healthy and bright white on X-ray that it proved impossible to extract as a whole, so the gums were cut away, the old filling drilled out, and the tooth itself carved in thirds (it had three roots, only one of which was decayed). It was a long, drawn-out, messy and completely pain-free experience.
Dr. Bomer sutured the cut gum lines to stop the gums from bleeding, but because I'm on medication that thins my blood (a necessary evil since I have hypercalcemia, which thickens blood and makes it prone to excessive clot formation), I literally bled all afternoon and most of the night long. They sent me home with a gause packing bandage and two prescriptions (penicillin and Tylenol #3 for the pain--heck, they might as well have given me baby aspirin because Tylenol #3 is pretty much useless to me), and today I feel better.
So, I'm now missing a tooth and $310 and I have a hole in my mouth that will take at least 3 wks. to heal up.
Next time, I'm buying dental insurance. Phooey on this.