Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Uh, don't think so...

So last time I posted, I mentioned that I had been having gum issues and that I went to see my dentist and he said it was just due to stress. That was Wednesday.

Every day it got worse and worse. Until finally on Sunday, after drinking a room temperature slim fast (thinking this was my only option left - liquid diet), I was literally on the floor crying. Rocking back and forth, sobbing. Sunday night, I stupidly decided to brave pizza and ended up jumping out of my chair, blinded by pain and wanting to crawl out of my skin. Each time I kept telling Dave, "There HAS to be something wrong. It can't be stress. I don't know what to do."

I tried to isolate and identify triggers. First I thought it was solid foods, but then I went to a party on Saturday night and ate mosticiolli just fine. HOWEVER, I did drink several beers because the alcohol was numbing the pain. So I thought beer would help. Sunday night, beer did not help. I had soup on Saturday afternoon and thought maybe the main trigger was HOT, but again, mosticiolli was fine. So on Sunday afternoon I resigned myself to liquids and hoping my gums would heal. I was upset about it because I was quickly realizing just how important chewing actually is... So I had my room temperature Slim Fast (terrified to make it cold) and went through the roof. And that made me kind of depressed - did this mean that I would seriously have to fast until healed? I didn't think I could do it.

Part of my problem was that the pain would go away after about 15-20 minutes (and a LOT of direct pressure and ambesol) and by the next meal time I couldn't leave well enough alone and I would try to eat again. And evidently I had worse results each time.

So Dave called a dentist that he met in the OPACC and asked him to get me in yesterday for a second opinion.

Uh yeah. It wasn't stress related.

My appointment was at 12:30 and Dave offerred to take all three girls to his office for the whole afternoon since the market was closed. I was looking forward to an afternoon of getting Georgia's room back in order, making menu plans and grocery lists, vacuuming and general picking up.

Instead I spent 12:30 - 5:30 in the dentist chair getting a root canal and two additional crowns. And lets just mention that $2900 was not something that we had really been planning to spend this year, let alone this month.

I will also mention this... At the end of high school and the beginning of college I was bulemic. Not sure if I've mentioned that before. Due to genetically soft teeth and that specific issue, I effectively destroyed my teeth. To the tune of 16 cavaties in the course of one year in high school. And the end result is I'm paying for it 15 years later - literally. This is not my first, nor will it be my last root canal unfortunately.

And last Wednesday was my last visit to my previous dentist. Dave is steaming about it - he simply does not get this angry about stuff, but he is fuming. And needless to say, I don't trust him with our girls either... so the new dentist it is:)

6 comments:

Anonymous 1:28 PM  

Oooohhhhh, Jana...I'm SO Sorry!!!
I just read your previous post and immediately a red flag went up in my head. That dentist doesn't have a clue! I'm sorry you were in such excruciating pain...that is miserable! I'm also sorry you got stuck with such a huge bill to have to add to everything else. I know God will provide the $$ to cover it, but I know it's also hard not to worry about it.
Hope you're feeling better today!

Skooks 4:23 PM  

Oh my goodness Jana. That sounds so horribly awful. At least you are now on the road to recovery and not just in excruciating never ending pain from an unknown cause. Still though. I hope you feel more of a sense of relief today!

Mommy Brain 6:38 AM  

Glad you feel better...excruciating pain is NEVER good. Poor girl!

Missy Eagen 5:48 PM  

I'm sooooo sorry you had to go through so much pain! I am thankful the new densist found the problem and was able to do some work... to bad he wasn't holding some 2 for 1 sale to lessen the cost, good grief!

Praying your mouth heals fast! You've been though enough with it.

April 9:42 AM  

oh my, oh my! I can't beleive that you had to be in such pain for so long and you were untreated!!! Praise the Lord for the second opinion!!!!

Brenda B 1:25 AM  

Ugh! I can't believe that your old dentist missed something that huge! Root canals and crowns are doubly painful the pain of the work and than the pain of the money you have to shell out! I'm so sorry!

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