This has been a rather traumatic year medically speaking. About two years ago I was eating some chewy candy (Mike & Ike I think?) and whilst chewing the candy pulled out a filling I had in a molar, which I promptly bit down on, which cracked a large portion of my tooth off. Ouch. I didn't have insurance at the time being a poor quasi-homeless bum, so I just dealt with it and tried not to use that side of my mouth. Well back in February I went to the dentist for a checkup, and he noticed the tooth and commented that I should probably get a root canal. No problem I say, I have insurance now! Oh wait, what's that? Preventative only? $2000 dollars? Not only no I say, but.... no thanks. So I figure I've dealt with it for two years with no ill effect, I can wait a little while longer till I get some better insurance. Things were going fine and dandy until I woke up one morning and felt some swelling in my jaw.
Well this isn't good I think to myself, but I was late for work so I took some pain pills and tried to ignore it. By the time my shift was over it felt like someone had stuffed a small pebble in my jaw, and the pain was getting, well quite painful. So I went to the local urgent care and first thing that comes out of the Dr's mouth is, "woah, that's a big one!" Nice. The doctor works her voodoo magic and shoots me up with an antibiotic called Rocephin, gives me some Hydrocodone (huzzah!) and sends me on my way, telling me that if it's worse by tomorrow I should go to the emergency room. I go to bed that night and sleep wonderfully courtesy of Mr Hydrocodone, and wake up feeling refreshed in the morning with a big smile on my face. Wait...what's this, I can't smile! Now it feels like someone has crammed a jumbo egg into my jaw. Oh ***@*@#! I run to the bathroom to have a look and:
Now being the cheapskate I am, I figure the drugs just haven't kicked in yet, I'll give it another day and then go to the doctor. So revisit my old friend Mr HC, and walk to the kitchen to get some grub, my brother Mike (a nurse) see's me and exlaims, "Holy crap dude, you need to go the emergency room!" Shoot. So he calls my mom and brother over so they can give me a blessing before I go. My mom (also a nurse) walks in and exlaims, "Woah! Rulon you need to get to the emergency room!" Great. So after my blessing Mike drives me over to the hospital. I'm met with lots of, "woah, that sucker's huge". The doctor comes in and asks if I went to urgent care, I say yep and they shot me up with Rocephin. "Rocephin?? What were they thinking? That was a waste!" He puts me on an IV with some heavy duty antibiotic juice then gives me a prescription for some additional voodoo goodness. The attending nurse told me if I had waited another day it could have traveled to my heart or brain and killed me. Awesome. So after a few days the infection went away, but the Doc told me it was only a temporary fix and I need to get the root canal done. Bummer. Without getting into too lengthy an description, got my root canal, it was actually quite pleasant, though seeing the x-ray of a bunch of long corkscrew things going through my tooth into my jaw was a little unnerving. Not quite done with the fix, just waiting to get my crown built then I'll get it put in in about three weeks. I'm really tired of my mouth being assaulted by medical people.
Speaking of Idaho, I'm coming up to visit in 4 days, woot! I'll probably write up a nice juicy blog full of mystery, intrigue, and big judd's mushroom burger, when I get back. Peace!
