Day 196: Dread

I have to have a tooth pulled tomorrow and the dread is creeping up on me slowly but surely.  It actually isn’t as bad as was afraid it would be though.  I’m actually coping pretty well in spite of my dental-phobia that has been a part of my life for 42 years.  I was actually a bit surprised yesterday that I chose nitrous oxide over anesthesia.  I chose it for a couple of different reasons.  Rick is not up to the hike from the parking lot to the doctor’s office that he’d have to make and I thought that it would probably take longer…and be more expensive…for them to arrange the extraction with anesthesia.  I want this tooth out.  I’m tired of the pain and chronic infection that became acute this past weekend.  Thankfully, there were 4 clindamycin capsules left over from something and they knocked the infection back down to chronic.  I picked up my prophylactic dose of Amoxicillin earlier today and will have to take those an hour before the procedure.  I’m kind of worried about a dry socket since this tooth is on the bottom.  I got dry sockets when both upper wisdom teeth and another molar were extracted and that’s not supposed to happen.  I am the queen of “but that’s not supposed to happen.”  I’ve gotten used to it.  I saw my PCP today to follow up on my blood work.  I was talking to him about what I thought was diabetic neuropathy on the outside of 1 of my thighs and he told me that it was actually pretty common.  I told him that I didn’t want to be common…I wanted to be special.  He then told me that it was a very special uncommon thing.  I love that man.  He is 1 of the best, most caring doctors that I have ever known and I’ve had some truly great doctors.  I think that he also has the secret to endless youth.  He is my age but looks like he’s in his early 30’s.  I’ve been seeing him for at least 12 years and he hasn’t aged a day.  And he always has a smile on his face and is in a great mood.  I leave every appointment in a much better frame of mind than I was in when I came to see him.  But back to my tooth…I’m not sure what my downtime will be after he pulls it.  I figure that I’ll be out of work tomorrow and Thursday.  That’s a tough way to get some time off!  I hope I’m up to the SARK mentoring call on Thursday night.  I hate missing them.  Because of my tooth pain, I’ve been a bit hit and miss in our Facebook group but now that I’m getting my tooth yanked I will be in it more often.  Yea!  Well, it’s time to get out of here.  I’ll let you know tomorrow how I feel after the tooth thing.      

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