Root Canal, Part 2

I thought I'd better write to you, my faithful readers, before my prescription narcotics start taking affect.  Today was Part 2 of the root canal.  I was laid back in the big chair getting drilled on from 1:30 till 3:45.  It wasn't fun.  I was numbed up very well, so I didn't feel any pain, but the pulling and pushing and tugging was enough to wear me out. 

The doctor was able to find a second canal, and did a successful root canal on it.  But he drilled and drilled and wasn't able to find the third canal because it was so calcified.  Just my luck.  He plugged up the two canals with rubber, gave me a temporary filling and told me to get with my dentist to get a permanent filling.  I have to go back in 6 months to see if this whole drama was a success or not.  On the plus side, the endodontist said that since the third canal was so calcified, he doubted that the infection was coming from it, and that hopefully cleaning out the other two canals will take care of it.  If not, then this summer when I go back to the endodontist, they'll pull the tooth and put in a bridge.  But until then, I will remain hopeful that last Friday's and today's excavating will do the trick. 

Thank you again for your emails and phone calls.  You are the best blogger's faithful readers ever. 

File Under: WTF?

For the past year on my morning commute to work, I've been listening to "The Bob and Tom Show" on our very cool classic rock radio station.  If you've heard "The Bob and Tom Show" before, or know anything about it, then you already know that some of the jokes and material on there are for "mature audiences only."  So it came as no surprise this morning when I heard a commercial for a local strip club during a break in the show.  The commercial was advertising a special event going on at the strip club. The commercial was for "Little Sisters" - midget strippers.  Yes, midget strippers.  Let me apologize first because I'm sure I'm not being politically correct by using the phrase "midge strippers."  So pardon me if anyone is offended.

I'd honestly never heard of midget strippers before - I had no idea that they even existed.  But after hearing the commercial say that "Little Sisters" would be there December 5th, 6th, AND 7th, I realized that there must be high demand for midget strippers, since they were going to be appearing there for three days.  I mentioned this very interesting commercial to my co-workers, and we tossed around some interesting observations about "Little Sisters."  One co-worker said that he saw an ad in the newspaper about it.  This prompted me to go on a search through the offices, seeing if anyone had the sports section (where the ads for the strip clubs are.)  I found a newspaper, and sure enough, there it was on the second-to-last page of the sports section - an ad telling about "Little Sisters - the world's smallest strippers."  They said that Little Lacey (3'10") and Little Pixie (slightly taller, at 3'11") would be appearing.  We also wondered how they would be doing their show at the strip club - would they have special shorter poles for them to dance on/around?  Or would they have portable little carpeted stairs that they drag up for them to use to reach the pole? 

Link Of The Week

As you already know, I love eBay. Unfortunately for my checking account and/or credit card, not a week goes by that I don't bid on something.  I might not be the winning bidder, but I usually bid on at least one thing every week. The day before Thanksgiving, I was involved in a fierce eBay bidding war on a collector's item, autographed by my beloved Terri Clark (a cool MP3 player, loaded with every one of her albums was included, too).  The auction ended at an awkward time - it was when I would be en route to The Compound after leaving work.  Right before I left work, I got online and put in a pretty high bid to clinch my spot as the winning bid.  I sweated it out, and was the winner, but there was an easier way.  A friend at work told me about a site called ESnipe - they will bid for you in the anxious and fierce last couple of minutes of bidding in the last few minutes of the auction.  I checked them out, and it is very cool.   Sure, it costs you a small,small fee, but with their networks and servers, they're able to get in and make a bid when you might not have been able to.  Their eBay winning bid success rate is very impressive.  See for yourself at http://www.esnipe.com.  You just sign up, and then give them the item number on the item you want to bid on, and then give them the maximum amount you're willing to bid and let them do the rest.  I know I'll use them the next time I bid on a big-ticket item. 

It's Just Cheese And Coffee

I should have known better than to venture out to the store today.  I had a rough night last night with the tooth, and didn't sleep very well, so I don't need to tell you I was a bit on the cranky side today.  But I wanted to go up to the corner and check out a new store that just opened.  It's like Sam's but on a smaller scale.  They had great deals for their grand opening (35 pack of bottled water for only $3.99 - what a bargain) so I bundled up and headed up there.  The place was packed.  The parking lot next door to the store had a huge tent set up where they were giving away samples.  Needless to say it was packed, too. 

I found a shopping cart and made my way into the store. The first snag in the flow of traffic was just inside the door in the coffee aisle.  They had were giving away free cups of coffee.  There were a dozen people there, hovering around the coffee dispensers, getting their free shot glass-sized cup of coffee.  And they couldn't just get the coffee and go on down the aisle- they had to decide on which flavor of non-dairy creamer they wanted to use.  Even little kids were getting the free coffee.  As if having all of these shoppers buzzed on caffeine wasn't bad enough, they were too honery to even throw the cups away - just about every shelf in the store had a couple of the empty or half-empty coffee cups on them.  Sad, just sad.

I found the items I wanted and then attempted to head to the cashiers to check out.  To get there, I had to go through the dairy products aisle.  Big mistake.  BIG mistake.  There were probably twenty people huddled around the dairy case looking at the cheese.  Yes, cheese.  Not fancy cheese, like brie or gouda or anything like that; just ordinary colby or pepperjack cheese.  You would have thought these people had never seen cheese before.  As I said, it wasn't fancy - it was your ordinary cheese, in either brick or small cube form.  If I'd reached into the shelf, I think someone would have taken my arm off. 

The check-out lanes weren't too bad; I guess that's because everybody else was either getting coffee or cheese.  I sure hate to be those people tomorrow morning.  Or even worse, people that live with those people who are trying to get to the bathroom.

Root Canal Update

In keeping with my streak of bad luck, today's visit to the endodontist was no exception.  They did a few more xrays, and found out that the canals in my tooth had a lot of calcification.  So to make the very long story short, he did a root canal on one of the three canals, and I have to go back Tuesday and he'll attempt to do another root canal on a second canal.  If that is successful, then he'll finish with whatever it is he will have to do, and I'll be on my merry way.  If the canal has too much calcification, then I'll be referred to an oral surgeon and he'll have to pull the tooth and give me an implant or bridge.  Either way all I can see on the horizon is $$$$$$. 

I can't chew for a day or two, so I've had Slim-Fast and potato soup today.  I'm on antibiotics again, and on Vicodin for the pain.  Fortunately, ibuprofin has done the trick so far, but as the evening goes on, my mouth is hurting a bit more so I think I'll try to hold off and take a Vic before I go to bed. 

I'd like to send a personal thank you to the faithful readers who have emailed or called today to check on me.  You all rock. 

 

VCR Alert

Even though I had a root canal today (more on that to follow) I'm still in a great mood over tonight's broadcast of "Knots Landing - Together Again."  I've waited a long time for CBS to air a Knots Landing reunion, and as I sit in front of the fireplace tonight, nursing my swolen, sore jaw, I will be in heaven as I watch my beloved Donna Mills as she comments on the exerpts from the Knots Landing episodes.  Please be sure to tune to CBS at 9:00 est  - I'm sure you won't want to miss it.

Pray Fuh Me

As our beloved Bernie Mac frequently says on this show, pray fuh me, faithful readers.  Tomorrow at 8:30, I will be visiting the endodontist for my root canal.  If what my dentist and the endodontist says is true, it won't be nearly as bad and traumatic as I'd anticipated - at first, we thought they would have to take off my crown, do the root canal, put on a temporary crown, and then finally the permanent crown.  But this specialist is going to use sonar to locate the roots in the tooth, and will drill through the crown to do the root canal, fill the canal up with rubber, and then put some porcelain over the top of the crown and then I'll be good to go. 

The root canal has been looming over my head for a month or two.  My dentist and I originally decided to wait till after the holidays for the procedure, but the abscess got worse two weeks ago, and it was more than I could handle.  So after being on antibiotics for ten days, the time has come.  I'm not too nerved up about it; I just want to get it over with so I can chew during the holidays.