My First Root Canal

It started off as a routine Sunday: Mass in the morning, followed by football at The Chan's. Eat lunch, more football and baseball. Play with Dylan and Jordan.

Ken made burgers, hot dogs and onion rings for dinner.

I made myself my burger (not much to it: burger, cheese, bun, no condiments), grab myself a soda and sat down to eat. I take a bite and start chewing. I felt something hard, but I thought it was the meat, so I swallowed it. I take another bite, then a take a drink of my soda. OWWWW!!! Sharp pain travels down my neck and up my head. My tongue goes to the spot it my mouth...and... a big hole! I spit out what I had in my mouth and start looking around for a sign of a tooth.. Nothing. I feel the spot with my finger just to make sure. Then I run to the bathroom and look in the mirror. Half of my molar is missing. Where is the other half??? Flashback to that hard thing in the burger that I thought was meat. I swallowed my own tooth!

I call the emergency number for my dentist and talk to an incompetent receptionist. Apparently, I spell too fast. and Jordan and Dylan are too noisy for her. She says a dentist will call me back. Half and hour later, the dentist calls me back and tells me that all he can do is call in a prescription for pain and advise me what to do until I can come to the office in the morning. He said to go buy a temporary tooth repair kit from a pharmacy (something I never knew existed). We go to CVS and I pick myself up one of those kits and Orajel. A worker walks by me, Mark and Rob and tells us that we have to take off our Giants jerseys because he is an Eagles fan. That we are in feuding territory. Whatev!

I go home, fill in my tooth, pop a Percoset and eventually go to bed.

This morning, I make an appointment for the dentist. The dentist said that I did a good job with my temporary filling (pat myself on the back) and that I had two options: a root canal or an extraction. Root canal, please. Who would ever think that they would utter that sentence?

Three Novocaine shots later, waiting to feel numb, I hear a girl in the next adjoining room to me. She said her pain was an 8. The dentist said, "Yup, definitely a root canal". All of a sudden I hear bawling and hyperventilating. Apparently she came in March and had a cavity and was supposed to come back for a filling and never came back. This was her first cavity. The dentist asked her mom if she, herself, has had cavities before. She said she has had plenty, but she's been afraid of all of them. So the dentist said that she knows where the girl gets it from. The next thing she said cracked me up. "Some people say childbirth hurts, but people still have babies" HAHAHA! Two other nurses had to come in to calm down the girl. She put her iPod on to calm herself down. All this just to get one novacaine shot.... Meanwhile, I had three and I am poking myself in the face to entertain myself.

Time for the root canal. It actually wasn't bad at all. I tried to stare at the ceiling the whole time so I wouldn't see what she was doing or what tools she was using. 20 minutes later and I'm done... with the first part anyway. I have to come back next month and get the rest of the root canal done. Then, three months later I have to get a permanent crown.

Right now, I have a temporary filling. And the Novocaine is starting to wear off. I need to go to the pharmacy and get my drugs.

And how was your weekend?

Our Pumpkin Carvings

Mark, Michelle and I carved pumpkins, made pumpkin pie and pumpkin seeds over the weekend.




Michelle's Pumpkin:



Mark's Pumpkin:



Ging's Pumpkin: