OMG
First, I figured the tooth would have to be pulled when I went into the dentist's office.  Never had one pulled before, wasn't looking forward to it, but I guessed that's what the dentist would tell me.

The tooth was in such pain I didn't care what they had to do, I needed it dealt with.  So, they took an X-Ray and said they couldn't see anything bad.  I replied that I saw a line going down the tooth last night that appeared to be a crack. 

The dentist did more looking and said, yup, we're going to have to pull it.  Well, at first he was like, trying to talk me into it.  But I needed no persuasion, lets get this over with, I'll have to deal with replacing it at a later date.  So, he injected a half vial of Novocaine into the gums. Came back in a while and I said - still in pain.  He dumped the rest of it in. Pain. Another vial - pain started to subside. But by the time he got back - he left for 45 minutes - the pain was there again.  So even more of this stuff.

He finally got it all numbed up and then went about the business of pulling the tooth. The tooth broke coming out and he had to use a grinder to make ledges to be able to pull the remaining root out.  He got that out, wrote me a prescription for Tramadol and probably 10 minutes later, the novocaine wore off and I was in excruciating pain. Like nothing I had ever experienced before excepting possibly when I burned the fingerprints off of my fingers or the episode with kidney stones.  It was in the top 3 pain level I've ever experienced.  My insurance covered 2/3rds of the bill, so I didn't end up having to pay that much. 

I rushed over to CVS to get that prescription filled.  I told them I had just had a tooth pulled and my mouth was in severe, nauseating pain.  They said 15 minutes, but the pharmacist saw me walking around wincing in pain and got it done in 5.  I blew off the diet - hadn't eaten all day, got a large chocolate shake at whataburger and downed one of those pain pills right there. Drove home - that stuff didn't really start working for over 2 hours.  I just couldn't believe how much pain this thing was causing. 

I put ice in my mouth to help with the pain, it helped a little.  My manager sent me a run to Brownsville tomorrow, I immediately got into a conversation with her about what I had just had done.  She gave me all kinds of advice, said hold tight I'm trying to get someone to take your load tomorrow. Yes, please and thank you! I wanted the run, but I had no idea how I would feel in the morning and it was the first load.  I decided better safe than sorry.  So, she got that covered thankfully.

Oh, the tooth? was split from top to bottom. I have a faint recollection of chewing on something many months ago and hitting a bone in some food that shouldn't have any bones in it.  I remember the pain, but it didn't last long.  I guess that's when I did it. 

So what's next? They told me $4,500 for one single implant. The heck?  I'll be shopping around, see if I can find somewhere to do it cheaper. I know there is a process to it and that it includes surgery, but for that much money?  But looking at dental bridges, they're in the 2k range.  I was thinking something temporary until I get a couple of loans paid off, but not at 2k.  That's not temporary pricing.  Implants are best, that's my opinion after having had read about them in numerous different articles. 

Well whatever. It's done and over with. I'm feeling mighty high right now with this Tramadol stuff.  Actually a bit nauseated. But it finally cut the pain down to a level that I can deal with. 

Well, that didn't work out so well.  Dentist out for a week.  His daughters Spring Break, they shut the entire operation down...?  Okayyy then.  I thought dentists got someone to come in and sub for them when they took vacations, not just say okay, peeps, we be gone, if you have a problem, call someone else! But, someone did answer the phone - obviously - to give me the info.  And then direct me to another dentist in town taking care of his emergencies if such arises.

Of course, calling that dentist, they knew nothing about them being his back up.  But, they said they'd work me in tomorrow.  Which is good, because one of the teeth is in on and off agony mode. It's either not hurting or it's causing me to lose my marbles.  I've never had tooth pain before, nothing of note anyway.

I mean, it wasn't all that long ago I was in the dentist office getting the last of the work that I am getting done - done.  I dunno how they could have missed this, taking x-rays of all of my teeth.  I will assume without any proof whatsoever that the fillings they put in weren't done correctly, even tho it was done by the dentist himself.

In other news, James job has reduced his hours to 30 or less. The company lost some contracts, workload is way down, apparently this company has gone through this before. But, the last time it was 4 years worth?  Lol.  I come home today and he's already here. Early afternoon.  He's going to truck driver training school as soon as he gets a student loan worked out.  Nope, that didn't come from me.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend a truck driving career to anyone.  I'm stuck in it, tho I'm trying to get out of it, it's going to take - quite - some time to get there.  James has had trucking in his mind for a long time, long before I met him.

This situation at his current job has been deteriorating for a while now.  But less than 30 hours? When he was working twice that not that long ago?  He's bound and determined to do it, too. A 5 week course, the training school claims they can help him find a "local" job.  Tho it sounds more like regional, but he has to get the income going to pay for everything.  I'm paying all the utilities here, they have a lot more than just utilities to think about. These sick kids have been costing them a small fortune.  I mean, it can be a lucrative career - maybe.  I wasn't trying to discourage him from it.  You gotta do whatever you have to do, especially when it comes to supporting a family.

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And the next day.  My tooth was hurting so bad last night .... I just .... yikes.....I can't wait until 1:00 pm, when I'll head over there and they do what they have to do.  I don't care if they have to yank it. I'll leave it an open hole until I get a quote from my regular dentist about how much it will cost to put an implant in there.  I have 3 teeth that are hurting, but the other two are just on and off.  Today, I just want to get this really bad one dealt with.  I used my insurance up in January having 2 more crowns put in, I don't think there's anything left on insurance so it's going to be completely out of pocket today. 

In other news, the Dow has already dropped 1,000 points this morning. I'm afraid to look at my 401k's, so I'm not going to. I just have to trust that eventually the markets will come back up and so will the amount of money in those accounts. As they always say, you are in it for the long run. 

On February 12 of this year, we were at 29,551.  Right now, we're at 24,056.  I do find it interesting that some stocks are going up even tho a lot of them are going down and down and down.  If you could just predict those stocks going up, lol, you could get rich!