Shinn the Writer

It’s Always Something

 

This article was difficult to write. Overall, my health has been pretty darned good for a geezer of 75. Oh, I still have the assorted aches and pains, but my heart has been stable with not one slip into afib for, gee, almost a year now, since my cardiologist added propafenone to my daily dose of pills. The pain in my tummy that had me add yet another “ologist” to my cadre of medical professionals has gone away. My relatively good health simply left me with nothing to write! I’ve even upped my daily walks from two to three miles on more days than not. Today, by the way was a “not” day. And the reason is the topic of today’s discourse.

 

I recently went to see my dentist (actually my dental hygienist) and got a clean bill of dental health. I always love that. I figured it would be clear sailing until my next appointment a few months down the road. Then the aches in my mouth started. At first they were short-lived and seemingly nothing to worry about. But then, three nights ago, they didn’t go away. I couldn’t really localize them, but they were serious enough that I took a dose of my generic Tylenol (acetaminophen) which, though expired for several months now, allowed me to get to sleep.

 

The next day I still had problems but didn’t really need a pain reliever so I didn’t take one. This morning was a different story. The pain was now definitely associated with my #2 molar, the last tooth on my upper right, at least since the next-door wisdom tooth was removed half a century ago. So when I went to take my daily walk in the early afternoon, I stopped into my dentist’s office and asked for an emergency appointment. Lo and behold, they could squeeze me in at 3:10. That worked if I took my 2-mile walk route instead of the three.

 

By the time I finished my walk, the ache had built up to a pretty serious level, so I took a couple of pills to handle it. The dose is 2 pills every 6 hours, but no more than 3 doses in a 24-hour period.

 

The appointment came off as I figured it would. My tooth behaved as anticipated, causing pain at the slightest touch (the drugs hadn’t kicked in yet, but even after they had, touch would definitely be felt, and not in a good way. My prognosis was a probable root canal or, possibly an extraction. Since it’s the last tooth on that side, I guessed that another implant wouldn’t be worth the bother. I’ve already had one and that’s plenty.

 

So, they took an x-ray and I was referred to Dr. Cheung, the orthodontist. Though not really an ologist, I’ve seen him enough to consider him a regular on my list and not just a one-off. I think this will be the fourth time.