Can I get a break, please??

My body is slowly falling apart...

Exhibit A: See posting from the other day which required me to leave the office at 3pm last Tuesday.

Exhibit B: Strange UFOs in my vision prompted me to get an eye exam at my local Lense Crafters. The nice Doc noticed a funny thing going on in the back of my retina, and said I had an "Atrophy of the Chorioretinal area". Hmmm. She sent me to a specialist two weeks ago. The good news is that it isn't an Atrophy so much as scaring. And probably not a big deal. The UFOs in my vision, he said, are most likely to be Ocular Migranes. So, my eyes are having headaches? I don't get it either. I should mention I had to come in to the office several hours late, and even when I got here I couldn't get much done since my pupils had been dialated and I couldn't see anything clearly.

Exhibit C: This damn cold I have had now for over a week that just does not want to go away. Bah! (which didn't stop me from having a really great date Saturday night!) I should mention, that meant I came into work late and left relatively early on this past Friday.

Exhibit D: In my life I have been relatively lucky in terms of my dental health, except for the strange fact of having 6 wisdom teeth. SIX! I've only ever had one single cavity, in my last top molar on the left side. Of course, this came up while I was living in Holland, which is where I then of course had the cavity filled. I guess I was eating too much hagelslag (that's a great website by the way).

It's a strange thing when you have dentists and nurses peering over your wide open mouth and muttering in a language you can't really understand. They were probably saying:

Nurse: She really does have a set of horse teeth
Doctor: Yes, indeed. Stupid Americans and their need for straight teeth, who does she think she is?
Nurse: You just better hope she doesn't actually ask for your license to practice.
Doctor: Good point. By the way, have you visited Mr. van de Kamp in the hospital since that procedure?
Nurse: No, he's too frightening to look at ever since.
Doctor: Ja, True. Your breasts look beautiful in that uniform. Fancy coming to my house for lunch?
Nurse: That would be lovely...
Doctor: Oops, I just drilled the wrong spot. Oh well, we'll just patch it up and she will never notice. I am sure she's not staying in Holland for long.

etc. etc. etc.

So then I returned to the US and learned, they had drilled the wrong spot, patched it incorrectly and as a result I needed A Root Canal. When my dentist told me (in English at least) that I needed a root canal I started to cry. When they told me how little of it my insurance would cover, I started to sob (remember Ashbloem when I called you sobbing afterwards when you were still in Lucerne?). I sat there while the technician finished cleaning my teeth with tears running uncontrollably down my face.

Not long after the root canal, I started to feel uncomfortable. The gold cap wasn't sitting right or something. So I went back to the Dentist and he sautered down the cap to line better with my bite. But the pain continued, so I went back again. He sautered again and I changed dentists.

My new dentist sent me to an Endodontist to look at the roots that were supposedly excavated when I had the root canal. X-rays proved that 2 of the roots were not completely excavated and the remaining nerve tissue was infected and the cause of my worsening pain. However, my insurance would not cover the procedure a second time, until a full year had passed from the first procedure. Whhaaaa? Crazy bastards.

So when the pain flared up for a day or two at a time, I would just take a shit load of Motrin and deal with it. Until this weekend. The pain has been so bad that I just cannot live with it anymore. And it has been a year, so the procedure to repair it should mostly be covered (I hope!). So, I am going back to another Endodontist later this afternoon (leaving the office early) for a consultation to see what's up. I know I am going to have 2 options:

1) Pull the tooth (which strangely I am OK with, it's the last tooth, do I really need it?)
2) Cut through the gold cap (that I spent like ONE MILLION dollars on) and re-excavate, and shore up the base of the tooth with some other substance, keeping the gold around the sides of the tooth. Ugh.

I have no idea what or how much of this I will have to pay for, but it all just makes me so mad. I think my boss, who is being kind about this, is starting to wonder what the hell is going on with me. I have one drs appt after another and another and another. I bet he thinks I am a hypocondriac or something. I wish that were my excuse, but in reality I really am just falling apart.

Send get well cards. I need the karma.