trying to soldier on

ETA: Things are a lot better. See bottom of post.


Well, IF the one dentist in today has a cancellation or gets ahead of schedule, he can see me. But apparently he is scheduled to leave the office at 1 pm, and that sounds like a hard deadline from what the receptionist said.

My mother reminds me of a time when we were on a family trip and she cracked a tooth and had to go for several days (until we got home) with it that way, but....the problem seems bigger, somehow, when it's your problem. 

So the next opportunity will be noon Monday - which raises the question: should I cancel lab to go get my tooth fixed, or should I ask if there is an appointment Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon? I never know if problems like this rise to the level of lab cancellation. I know I'm afraid to eat and afraid to brush my teeth on that side lest I knock loose the fragment I imagine is hanging by a thread. I guess I could live on juice and (low-sodium) broth for a few days if I have to. I ate a little yogurt but food doesn't appeal.


Which leads to the second issue. I think I'm having a low-grade bad reaction to the antibiotic. Yesterday I had far more hives than I've had in months, and they itched (normally when I get hives from just environmental allergies, they don't itch that much). Also, last night I had chills and sweats, another symptom. And the circular from the pharmacy said "mood changes" could be symptomatic of a bad  reaction and I am not at all sure if some of this freaking out over the screwed-up tooth is purely me freaking out over pending dental nastiness, and how much could be the weird fungal compounds circulating in my system. I didn't take this morning's dose (I'd be less scared if I weren't going to be largely alone for today and tomorrow) and I'm going to call my doctor's office shortly.

Problems upon problems. That's how it is - never one thing neatly one at a time when you have the energy to manage it.

***

Shortly after posting that, the dentist's office called me - the first appointment of the day hadn't shown, so if I could come in right then they could look at it. I thought he'd just look at it and make a later appointment to deal with it, but when he saw the tooth - it had, in fact, cracked down the middle and what I had felt as being like a "flap" was - he said, "I don't want to leave you hanging with this" and started doing a crown prep. Even though there were other patients he had to duck out and see during the points where there was waiting (for the Novocaine to work, for the gooey stuff for the impressions to set up).

It was not fun, but it's actually a lot less not-fun (or perhaps more tolerable) having something like that done when you have a genuine problem you can feel, rather than the dentist going, "I don't like that patch next to that old filling; you need a crown in the near future. I only whimpered a little during the injections (4, as it turned out).  One sort of gross thing I'll put at the very end so you don't have to read it if you don't want to.

Also, my doctor's office called back. I am to stop taking this antibiotic and she is calling in another one. Good. I hope I don't react to this one; the hives were quite miserable and the chills were kind of scary.

So now I'm tired and sore. I have low-sodium chicken broth so I think I'll make some chicken-noodle soup. I probably better eat soft things for the next day or two. (I have a temporary crown; the only warnings on that were "Don't chew gum or taffy; don't crunch down on really hard things like ice with it.")

And the gross thing is below here:



As he was working, the old filling (which must have been QUITE old; it was a metal filling and it's been at least 12 years since the dentist did those) fell out. I was tipped WAY back  (small mouth, back tooth on the top) and it landed on my soft palate - narrowly missing my swallowing it. I started to gag and the dentist pulled the instruments out of my mouth, grabbed my shoulder, and pulled me forward, at which point the offending filling fell out onto the towel I was wearing. He kind of breathed a sigh of relief and remarked "Nice catch!" (I have a very strong gag reflex - getting the x-ray was hard). I don't KNOW that swallowing a metal filling is hazardous but I'd rather not test it out.