Root Canal Number Five... OUCH.
Before I go into today, I need to mention that I colored my hair yesterday (the roots). It never turns out perfect when I only do the roots, but it will hold me for a couple of weeks, at least! (Maybe longer.) And I wanted it to look nice for Thanksgiving week, so... It turned out pretty good, really.
Anyway, on to today! My kind sister Sue took me to my appointment. She's soooo nice about that!
And I need to say that I have an amazing dentist (Mary) who makes me feel good just talking to her. She's the woman who got me past a lifelong fear of dental procedures, so I'll always be grateful to her. And it was NOT her fault that I was in pain today. She told me several times to put my hand up if I had pain so she could deal with it for me. But I didn't do that, even when the pain was really bad. So she can't be expected to automatically KNOW, now can she?
She gave me three huge shots before starting the work -- two, let them work, then a third and let it work. I don't think I've ever been that numb in my life! She must have sensed this would be a difficult tooth to work on. It was the upper right-hand side of my mouth, the tooth that is now the most outside one (having had other teeth that used to be beyond it pulled). I was numb up into my hairline, way past my nose to the other side of my face and way around the right side. You'd think all that numbness would have taken care of any potential pain, right? Wrong.
Mary hadn't planned to do the root canal today, which surprised me. But maybe she felt she should cut me some slack, considering how many other root canals I've had recently. Or maybe she just didn't want a session that would run that long. When I told her it was giving me pain she immediately set up to do it -- which even required her telling the next patient that she'd be late for her (!!!). This might be one of my longest sessions ever with Mary, as generally she works in blocks well under an hour. But I'm NOT complaining, even though we went quite a bit over an hour, considering Marilyn's two and a half hour session this past Monday!
It's annoying that somehow being diabetic means I don't deal as well with mouth pain as I used to. I wonder WHY that is? I'd gotten to the point where often Mary didn't even need to numb me that much, because I'd be fine with less than the normal amount. But now she really has to numb me like crazy -- and it still doesn't always work (as proved the case today). Oh well. It's a fact of life now.
My next appointment wasn't supposed to be until December 5 (the day after my birthday). But she wanted to see me back sooner, so now I'm going in on November 28 (in the morning). I also set up for Marilyn to go in and see her on November 27 (in the afternoon), to have her crown taken care of (which will probably take at least two sessions).
Bored with my dental woes, yet??? I am! Hahahahahaha. Maybe I'll write more later.