Wednesday Night -- Not for the Squeamish

Things are looking up. Doctor called tonight right when I got home from work. Had some good test results. I'd been a little worried about some possibly skewed test results.

Next I have to deal with a dental problem--a tooth has to go. I don't like getting teeth pulled--who would?--and it's a first molar. But it's loose and basically useless and is now causing pain. (The oral surgeon administers Valium before the procedure.) I'm afraid if I don't get this attended to ASAP, I'll get an abscess, which I've had before.

Two years ago, while we were vacationing in San Francisco, I woke up one morning with one side of my mouth swelled up to the size of a grapefruit. That day we were scheduled to take a really nice guided minibus tour of the local wine country (Napa and Sonoma Valleys). We went on the tour anyway, though I was basically out of commission and couldn't really enjoy it. After the tour, I went to a dentist next door to the Inn on Castro, where we were staying, and got prescriptions for an antibiotic and a pain killer (Vicodin). (Fortunately, this was toward the end of our vacation.) The Vicodin made me nauseated and I stopped taking it. The swelling went down, though, and a few days later I had a wisdom tooth and a 2nd molar extracted back in Miami. Now the first molar must go. Apparently the teeth in that particular region don't do well, for whatever reason.

In any case, all of my wisdom teeth have had to be extracted except for one (and they all grew in correctly). Maybe it's best to get them extracted right after they grow in. (A dentist once told me that.)