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Fish meat is practically a vegetable.
So I had a really terrible dental experience this morning. OK, considering the woman who was unknowingly impregnated by her dentist when she went (I think that's a real story), my experience was not that bad. But for me it was probably the worst dental experience I've ever had. I don't blame my dentist; I mean, I'm sure you could say that maybe it wouldn't have happened at some other dentist's but there were factors outside of her control. I've been seeing her for over a decade and I like her a lot. She tends to be very, very conservative about procedures, and I appreciate that because I think my childhood dentist was way too aggressive, which makes me wary of doing anything.
Anyway. I went this morning for a crown. Yes, another one. I had postponed it from December in order to take advantage of insurance benefits. I'm not generally afraid of the dentist (though I hate the high-pitched drill), but I was kind of stressed out getting there, because my appointment was moved (with my approval) from the afternoon to the morning, and morning traffic can be kind of unpredictable. So yeah, there was definitely some stress there. When they took my blood pressure, the diastolic reading was at 101. Now... I don't remember if I have mentioned my blood pressure issues on LJ, but a couple of months back, my mom was visiting and she had her BP cuff with her. Since it was there, I took my readings as well as hers, and I noticed that my diastolic readings were always very high, way above the recommended number, which is like 70 or something. It was usually in the 80s or 90s, and even hit above 100 one time. Concerned, I made an appointment to see my doctor. This and that happened, and I ended up seeing a doctor who isn't my normal PCP. She was unconcerned, because every time I go in there, my blood pressure readings are normal/good, and if I was going to have high bp, it'd be when I'm at the doctor's. She suggested that maybe my mom's BP monitor was off, that we could take it in to get it checked against their BP thingy, etc. Well, since she was unconcerned, I stopped being concerned about it as well.
Until this morning. The BP monitor they use is like the same kind of home BP monitor that my mom uses, so I don't know if there's something about that. Due to health risks, they don't apply anesthesia until your diastolic reading is under 100, because the anesthesia makes your BP go up. So the dental assistant had me watch some TV so that I could calm down (I didn't FEEL stressed or anxious or anything) from my commute. Except the second reading was even higher, at 104. They tried a wrist BP cuff, and that was at 100. At that point they were like, well, we don't have to do the procedure today, etc. Then my dentist asked me if I wanted to try nitrous. She said that they used that to relax the patient sometimes, that the feeling was kind of like being tipsy, etc. I wanted to go ahead with the procedure so I said sure. Part of me wondered if this was a good idea, because I don't actually associate being tipsy with feeling good, given that I am physically intolerant of alcohol. But I figured, that's because when I'm usually tipsy, there's poison (alcohol) coursing through my veins, so of course I don't feel good. This will be different, it'll be like being tipsy without the bad effects from alcohol!
I immediately didn't like it when they put the nose mask thingy on. The assistant (who was nice) said that they had it on a very low setting, but that different people responded to it differently, and to let her know if I wanted it turned up or down. At first I couldn't feel any difference. I was like, oh man, I must be one of those people who need it turned up because it's not affecting me. And then suddenly I was feeling it. I totally got all 'tipsy' in the head, blinking reallllly sloooowly. But then my body felt heavy in a bad way, my heart felt funny, and I didn't like it at all. I wondered if I even had the capacity to tell her that, though. Thankfully I did, asking her to turn it down. She did, but by that point another symptom had kicked in -- I was starting to feel very, very queasy. The dentist came in to check on me, and I told her about that, and she gave me a plastic bag just in case and told the assistant to turn the nitrous off and do just oxygen in order to flush the nitrous out of my system. But I didn't ACTUALLY feel better until the mask was off my nose -- I felt totally nauseated and like I wanted to rip it off my face. It was definitely better when it was pure oxygen, but I still just wanted it gone. My stomach settled after awhile but still felt slightly queasy, and I had started to get a headache (which I currently still have). So NO MORE LAUGHING GAS FOR ME. It so did not make me want to laugh! It just made me want to puke! Thankfully I hadn't eaten anything that morning or I might actually HAVE puked.
However, the irony is that it worked, a bit. Even though I was totally feeling kind of claustrophobic about the nose mask and my heart felt like it was pounding madly from wanting it to be GONE, my BP went down to 96. My dentist knew I was kind of in distress from the nitrous so again reiterated that they could just reschedule, that it didn't have to be done today, etc. But after all that I was more determined than ever to get the procedure done, so that I wouldn't have to do this all over again.
Unfortunately (and here's where another dentist might've been better -- my endodontist, for instance, did it REALLY well... but then it was a different tooth/location), she didn't do the anesthesia correctly or something because the topical gel didn't work and I could totally feel the first needle. Then I didn't feel properly numb around my lips, but my tongue was, so when she started with the drill I could feel it. It wasn't horrible, but I was afraid that the more she did, the worse it'd feel, so I stopped her like 2 or 3 more times for another topical and then needle injection of more anesthesia. Finally I was like, this is crazy, I'm just going to live with it, and even though there was still this one stupid nerve that was still awake, making it feel yucky, it was mostly okay and again I didn't want to stop (though she again offered to, saying that if she couldn't get those last nerves to sleep she wouldn't continue), so I just soldiered through it. It wasn't bad at all once the drill stopped (which didn't take too long), it's just the dam that gets tiring.
Finally she was done, and she was like, "Okay, so a few interesting revelations." And I was like, NOW WHAT? At that point I was so done with my stupid teeth. So apparently when she went in to remove the silver filling and removed the decay, she looked and looked and didn't see any cracks inside. Thus she felt that there was still enough tooth structure that I might not need a crown after all, and would just require a new filling. This is where her being conservative is awesome, because she's always happy when she doesn't need to do some big procedure to save the tooth. However, once she had filled it, she noticed that there was some cracking... around the outside of the tooth. However, given my bite, she felt that it was not in any immediate danger. Her recommendation was to just leave it as a filling, keeping an eye on it for symptoms, and to not place a crown on it until she no longer felt comfortable leaving it as it was, which could be another year or more. OR, if I told her I wanted to just do the crown, she could do it, everything she did today serves as a foundation for one, anyway.
So I have to think about that. Part of me wants to just get it over with, because if it needs to be done eventually anyway, I might as well take advantage of my dental benefits now. Another part of me wants to preserve as much of my own tooth as possible, and if it can last for years more, why not let it? The good thing is that she won't have to undo anything she's done today, everything from today serves as a foundation for a crown anyway. Plus the filling is a natural color, so my tooth looks way better than it did before with the silver filling. The other thing is that today will cost me like $60... a crown would cost me like $800. O.o
And of course the other thing I am now stressing about is my blood pressure. I've requested another appointment with my doctor, and this time I'm determined to see my PCP. Since her next available appointment is always so far off now, I'm going to keep track of my BP daily until I see her, so that there will be some record of what I'm talking about, and they won't just rely on their records from when I go in to see them and my BP is always good. I suppose I could always go, "NO REALLY BELIEVE ME MY BP GETS REALLY HIGH WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN" and raise it myself while I'm there. :P
And that's my looooong distressful story. The good news is that the tooth where I had the root canal that other time is feeling just fine now.
After going through all this, I am now very sad that I let my orthodontist pull 4 of my perfectly good teeth when I was a teenager, so that my teeth could be straight. THEY WERE PERFECTLY GOOD TEETH. Ugh. I should've just lived with crooked teeth and had four extra.
But so that this post isn't just about traumatic things happening to me, here's also something my brother sent me. As Jade says,
Anyway. I went this morning for a crown. Yes, another one. I had postponed it from December in order to take advantage of insurance benefits. I'm not generally afraid of the dentist (though I hate the high-pitched drill), but I was kind of stressed out getting there, because my appointment was moved (with my approval) from the afternoon to the morning, and morning traffic can be kind of unpredictable. So yeah, there was definitely some stress there. When they took my blood pressure, the diastolic reading was at 101. Now... I don't remember if I have mentioned my blood pressure issues on LJ, but a couple of months back, my mom was visiting and she had her BP cuff with her. Since it was there, I took my readings as well as hers, and I noticed that my diastolic readings were always very high, way above the recommended number, which is like 70 or something. It was usually in the 80s or 90s, and even hit above 100 one time. Concerned, I made an appointment to see my doctor. This and that happened, and I ended up seeing a doctor who isn't my normal PCP. She was unconcerned, because every time I go in there, my blood pressure readings are normal/good, and if I was going to have high bp, it'd be when I'm at the doctor's. She suggested that maybe my mom's BP monitor was off, that we could take it in to get it checked against their BP thingy, etc. Well, since she was unconcerned, I stopped being concerned about it as well.
Until this morning. The BP monitor they use is like the same kind of home BP monitor that my mom uses, so I don't know if there's something about that. Due to health risks, they don't apply anesthesia until your diastolic reading is under 100, because the anesthesia makes your BP go up. So the dental assistant had me watch some TV so that I could calm down (I didn't FEEL stressed or anxious or anything) from my commute. Except the second reading was even higher, at 104. They tried a wrist BP cuff, and that was at 100. At that point they were like, well, we don't have to do the procedure today, etc. Then my dentist asked me if I wanted to try nitrous. She said that they used that to relax the patient sometimes, that the feeling was kind of like being tipsy, etc. I wanted to go ahead with the procedure so I said sure. Part of me wondered if this was a good idea, because I don't actually associate being tipsy with feeling good, given that I am physically intolerant of alcohol. But I figured, that's because when I'm usually tipsy, there's poison (alcohol) coursing through my veins, so of course I don't feel good. This will be different, it'll be like being tipsy without the bad effects from alcohol!
I immediately didn't like it when they put the nose mask thingy on. The assistant (who was nice) said that they had it on a very low setting, but that different people responded to it differently, and to let her know if I wanted it turned up or down. At first I couldn't feel any difference. I was like, oh man, I must be one of those people who need it turned up because it's not affecting me. And then suddenly I was feeling it. I totally got all 'tipsy' in the head, blinking reallllly sloooowly. But then my body felt heavy in a bad way, my heart felt funny, and I didn't like it at all. I wondered if I even had the capacity to tell her that, though. Thankfully I did, asking her to turn it down. She did, but by that point another symptom had kicked in -- I was starting to feel very, very queasy. The dentist came in to check on me, and I told her about that, and she gave me a plastic bag just in case and told the assistant to turn the nitrous off and do just oxygen in order to flush the nitrous out of my system. But I didn't ACTUALLY feel better until the mask was off my nose -- I felt totally nauseated and like I wanted to rip it off my face. It was definitely better when it was pure oxygen, but I still just wanted it gone. My stomach settled after awhile but still felt slightly queasy, and I had started to get a headache (which I currently still have). So NO MORE LAUGHING GAS FOR ME. It so did not make me want to laugh! It just made me want to puke! Thankfully I hadn't eaten anything that morning or I might actually HAVE puked.
However, the irony is that it worked, a bit. Even though I was totally feeling kind of claustrophobic about the nose mask and my heart felt like it was pounding madly from wanting it to be GONE, my BP went down to 96. My dentist knew I was kind of in distress from the nitrous so again reiterated that they could just reschedule, that it didn't have to be done today, etc. But after all that I was more determined than ever to get the procedure done, so that I wouldn't have to do this all over again.
Unfortunately (and here's where another dentist might've been better -- my endodontist, for instance, did it REALLY well... but then it was a different tooth/location), she didn't do the anesthesia correctly or something because the topical gel didn't work and I could totally feel the first needle. Then I didn't feel properly numb around my lips, but my tongue was, so when she started with the drill I could feel it. It wasn't horrible, but I was afraid that the more she did, the worse it'd feel, so I stopped her like 2 or 3 more times for another topical and then needle injection of more anesthesia. Finally I was like, this is crazy, I'm just going to live with it, and even though there was still this one stupid nerve that was still awake, making it feel yucky, it was mostly okay and again I didn't want to stop (though she again offered to, saying that if she couldn't get those last nerves to sleep she wouldn't continue), so I just soldiered through it. It wasn't bad at all once the drill stopped (which didn't take too long), it's just the dam that gets tiring.
Finally she was done, and she was like, "Okay, so a few interesting revelations." And I was like, NOW WHAT? At that point I was so done with my stupid teeth. So apparently when she went in to remove the silver filling and removed the decay, she looked and looked and didn't see any cracks inside. Thus she felt that there was still enough tooth structure that I might not need a crown after all, and would just require a new filling. This is where her being conservative is awesome, because she's always happy when she doesn't need to do some big procedure to save the tooth. However, once she had filled it, she noticed that there was some cracking... around the outside of the tooth. However, given my bite, she felt that it was not in any immediate danger. Her recommendation was to just leave it as a filling, keeping an eye on it for symptoms, and to not place a crown on it until she no longer felt comfortable leaving it as it was, which could be another year or more. OR, if I told her I wanted to just do the crown, she could do it, everything she did today serves as a foundation for one, anyway.
So I have to think about that. Part of me wants to just get it over with, because if it needs to be done eventually anyway, I might as well take advantage of my dental benefits now. Another part of me wants to preserve as much of my own tooth as possible, and if it can last for years more, why not let it? The good thing is that she won't have to undo anything she's done today, everything from today serves as a foundation for a crown anyway. Plus the filling is a natural color, so my tooth looks way better than it did before with the silver filling. The other thing is that today will cost me like $60... a crown would cost me like $800. O.o
And of course the other thing I am now stressing about is my blood pressure. I've requested another appointment with my doctor, and this time I'm determined to see my PCP. Since her next available appointment is always so far off now, I'm going to keep track of my BP daily until I see her, so that there will be some record of what I'm talking about, and they won't just rely on their records from when I go in to see them and my BP is always good. I suppose I could always go, "NO REALLY BELIEVE ME MY BP GETS REALLY HIGH WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN" and raise it myself while I'm there. :P
And that's my looooong distressful story. The good news is that the tooth where I had the root canal that other time is feeling just fine now.
After going through all this, I am now very sad that I let my orthodontist pull 4 of my perfectly good teeth when I was a teenager, so that my teeth could be straight. THEY WERE PERFECTLY GOOD TEETH. Ugh. I should've just lived with crooked teeth and had four extra.
But so that this post isn't just about traumatic things happening to me, here's also something my brother sent me. As Jade says,