Monday, November 29th, was a day I was both waiting for and dreading. I want this painful tooth pulled out, but that meant I would have to have this painful tooth pulled out! The process of having a tooth removed was not one I was looking forward to, and there would be no conscious sedation this time. (Well, there could be, if I wanted to pay big bucks for it, but that was not a choice I was willing to make for a single tooth.)
Dr. Stewart definitely remembered me, and his questions, while not rude, were still edgy; I’m pretty certain he thought I was crazy for choosing a hole over a root canal or implant because he is, afterall, and oral surgeon! I had two pages of paperwork to read over and initial next, and I questioned everything I wasn’t sure about, which he said what the right thing to do (and which was a grudging compliment, I think.) Then, after a brief discussion about what he could do about the temporary bridge I was going to lose, we decided on a course of action. Taking it out, he cut the crowns and bridge into separate pieces (crown attached from tooth 2 in the back, bridge over the extraction site at tooth 3, and then crown attached to tooth 4) so we could reuse the crown over tooth 2 and extract tooth 4. The extraction site over tooth 3 and the new one over tooth 4 will remain uncovered, and there isn’t anything he or I can do about that.
So, after two shots of Novacaine took hold, the tooth came out. Rather easily, I’m glad to say, as well as rather quickly. Happy about that myself, I also surprised Paul when I was out of the office in 45 minutes. The team (the doctor and two nurses) cut apart the crown, pulled the tooth, and reglued the crown back in, in less than an hour, and that was good news. With a prescription in hand for pain meds and directions for care of the new hole in my mouth for the first 24 hours, we left the office and headed for the local pharmacy. I’d asked the doctor before the extraction if I could get the same pain meds I’d had in Texas, which had worked very well and had had no side effects, and he’d agreed. So imagine my surprise when Paul came back out of the pharmacy to where I waited in the truck and said that Darvocet had been pulled off the market. In the last week, no less. Something that works well, without any side effects? Of course that couldn’t have lasted. Over the last 30 years of dental work (the only time I’ve ever needed pain meds) I’ve had problems with codeine-based medicine, as well as several others, so this one was certainly too good to be true! No wonder the FDA took it off the market: It worked. Not willing to take any other medicine, we ended up not getting any prescription at all, and just came home. I’d continue spending time with my best friend Motrin, and see how that went.
I neglected to mention that all this took place on my daughter’s riding lesson night (of course!), which meant we had to find and alternative for that problem for the second week in a row. Last week a horse-owning friend took Joely to her lesson for me because Paul was out of town and I’m not driving anymore. This week my mother said she would, and we passed them on the road just as we were returning home. My mother didn’t much like the cold or the time spent at the barn, but it was only for one evening, thank goodness. I would have gladly changed places with her (I love going to the barn and being around the horses), but she couldn’t have done my part, so we both did what we had to, in individual versions of toughing out the inevitable.
My ‘caregiver’ husband made his reappearance after our arrival home, and we were both glad I was pack rat when I dug out the jaw bra (an ice pack!) we’d used in Texas and then brought home. We ice packed my cheek (30 minutes on, 30 minutes off) for the rest of the evening, and then went to bed at 10:00 PM. The Motrin worked well, I wasn’t bleeding, and I wasn’t in a lot of pain.
As far as I’m concerned, I couldn’t ask for much more on this day.