continuing saga
Tried to get my wisdom teeth out again today. Failed again.
Last time was the consult they didn't tell me about. Back in January when I was trying to schedule this I called like six places and this was the only one that didn't say 'consult' just agreed to make an appointment for extraction. That's why I went with them, because I was in pain and wanted the teeth out asap. Then the appointment turned out to be a consult. Glad I followed their instructions and fasted and had Tyler take a day off work for that. Arg.
So today he discovered that, apparently, the massive facepain is a symptom of infection. And they can't remove lower wisdom teeth if there's infection present, because it risks spreading to the whole neck and lymphatic system. So I'm on antibiotics and I have an appointment for next Friday.
I'm not saying the dentist made the wrong call there. Not getting a neck infection sounds good to me. I am saying this whole thing has been a debacle and that I don't think the office staff has done their jobs very well, and the dentist himself could have been less of a tool about it all.
I'd already breathed a couple minutes of the nitrous before he found the infection, so I was confused and emotional for our whole conversation, but it was kind of awful. He tried to tell me it was my fault because I should have recognized the infection and called him to let him know. Dude, my face has hurt progressively worse for the last four months because there are teeth coming in under the other teeth, and when I saw you a month ago you refused to acknowledge the word 'pain' and kept telling me it was just normal pressure.
Then he said his staff always tells people to look for the signs. No, no they didn't. They never said anything of the kind. They also didn't ask any questions when I called them said that it hurt too badly to wait another week for my new insurance to kick in, so I wanted to go ahead and pay the full out of pocket cost.* If that's not a red flag for medical staff, why am I supposed to think it's out of the ordinary?
Then he said he was just as upset about this delay as I was. That's when I started crying and yelling. No, no you aren't, your face doesn't hurt, and mine does, so no.
*Insurance will be retroactive when it does come through, so I'll get most of it back eventually, but paying out of pocket still sucks.
So. Rough morning. Now taking painkillers and antibiotics. Hopefully next time goes better.
Last time was the consult they didn't tell me about. Back in January when I was trying to schedule this I called like six places and this was the only one that didn't say 'consult' just agreed to make an appointment for extraction. That's why I went with them, because I was in pain and wanted the teeth out asap. Then the appointment turned out to be a consult. Glad I followed their instructions and fasted and had Tyler take a day off work for that. Arg.
So today he discovered that, apparently, the massive facepain is a symptom of infection. And they can't remove lower wisdom teeth if there's infection present, because it risks spreading to the whole neck and lymphatic system. So I'm on antibiotics and I have an appointment for next Friday.
I'm not saying the dentist made the wrong call there. Not getting a neck infection sounds good to me. I am saying this whole thing has been a debacle and that I don't think the office staff has done their jobs very well, and the dentist himself could have been less of a tool about it all.
I'd already breathed a couple minutes of the nitrous before he found the infection, so I was confused and emotional for our whole conversation, but it was kind of awful. He tried to tell me it was my fault because I should have recognized the infection and called him to let him know. Dude, my face has hurt progressively worse for the last four months because there are teeth coming in under the other teeth, and when I saw you a month ago you refused to acknowledge the word 'pain' and kept telling me it was just normal pressure.
Then he said his staff always tells people to look for the signs. No, no they didn't. They never said anything of the kind. They also didn't ask any questions when I called them said that it hurt too badly to wait another week for my new insurance to kick in, so I wanted to go ahead and pay the full out of pocket cost.* If that's not a red flag for medical staff, why am I supposed to think it's out of the ordinary?
Then he said he was just as upset about this delay as I was. That's when I started crying and yelling. No, no you aren't, your face doesn't hurt, and mine does, so no.
*Insurance will be retroactive when it does come through, so I'll get most of it back eventually, but paying out of pocket still sucks.
So. Rough morning. Now taking painkillers and antibiotics. Hopefully next time goes better.