Friday – ARGH!!!!

Last Friday was a challenging ordeal. It began at about 2:00 a.m. when I woke up with the whole right side of my heard throbbing in pain. The root cause (literally) of this discomfort being a tooth that had a filling several weeks before. The dentist mentioned at the time that he had barely hit the root and that if there were problems with it, I might need a root canal. I was having a sinking feeling that a root canal was in my immediate future.

I drug myself out of bed at about 5 a.m. took a shower and got ready for work. On the way to the park and ride I stopped at Safeway to pick up some aspirin, because the only thing I had at home was Advil PM. That wasn’t going to get through the day.

While I was there I picked up a hot chocolate at the Starbucks, I couldn’t eat anything and thought the milk would help my stomach. Anything cold was out of the questions since the cold would only aggravate my tooth more, it possible. It took forever since the two people working were doing more conversing than cranking out the hot stuff. It felt like I stood in line forever, but it probably wasn’t all that long, it just felt like it.

On to the park and ride where I got the bus driver from Hell. He decided to cop a total attitude with me. Not the morning for that and we got into it bit. I did make a complaint to the local bus company when I got into the office, but I still haven’t heard back.

Into the office to wait until I can call my dental provider for an emergency appointment. Interestingly, my provided informed me I could be seen as an emergency but it would cost an extra $20. Really? I of course agreed, it’s not like I could wait weeks to be seen. I did point out that if the dentist hadn’t nicked my root doing the filling I wouldn’t need an appointment. The customer service person suggested I mention that when I paid my bill. That turned out to be good advice. Goes to show you should poke at every corner.

I madly bang away at work to get a mailing out the door before I have to leave for my appointment. Got out just at the last possible moment.

Dentist informs me that yes I have a bad tooth and will need a root canal. Now here’s the deal, I have really good teeth, but bad plack so I need deep cleanings three times a year by a periodontal hygienist. Think root scraping, and an hour in the chair. I’ve heard all the worst stories about root canals: 8 hours in the chair, horrible pain, failed procedures. I told the dentist all this and let her know I didn’t think I could sit in a chair for hours, and then have to have the tooth pulled later. She really listened and agreed to pull the tooth, but wanted me to give it a try and she would stop at any time and do the extraction. I agreed, reluctantly. Aside from the one shot in the roof of my mouth it was amazingly pain free, and it took just under an hour. Of course this was just the first half of the procedure. The will finish it next month.

Of course by the time the dentist is through the pain is already starting to come back. I go out and wait to be called to pay my bill and my medical reimbursement payment card wouldn’t go through, so I had to pay out of pocket. I then head over to the pharmacy with my prescriptions, one for a pain killer and one for antibiotic. And the payment card still isn’t working so more out of pocket money. I pop those puppies as soon as I get them and head home and into bed. I hit the sheets a little after 2:00 p.m. and slept like the dead for 6 hours when the pain killer wore off. More antibiotics and pain killers, and back to bed.

I was never so glad to see a day end, at least not in recent memory.

Cheney, a bus driver, and the DMV

It’s been a strange morning. First of all, on the radio while I was getting ready for work, I hear that Cheney is writing his memoirs. I wanted to crawl back in bed and pull the covers over my head. I really don’t want to know what goes on in that man’s head. What he lets out is frightening enough.

Apparently he is whining that Bush stopped listening to him during their second administration and started caving to liberal political groups. I’m very sure that what Cheney considers liberal most of us would still consider conservative, because anything we would consider liberal he just dismisses as a crazy bunch of idiots. I personally consider his kind of conservatives a scary bunch of crazies, but hey, that’s American politics. It takes all kinds of crazies to make he run. It may not be getting anywhere but its running.

We had a very interesting bus driver this morning. He welcomed us on board, gave us the time and weather, a traffic report, and an estimated time of arrival. Wow! If that wasn’t enough, he didn’t slam on the brakes, sending us all grabbing for support and having to readjust our seating, even once. The temperature wasn’t too hot or too cold. He apologized for being later than his estimated time of arrival, and he lowered the bus for all stops. This guy deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. It everyone did their jobs so well, the world would certainly be a much better place! I could kick myself for not getting his name, so I could write C-Tran a letter.

As my bus crossed the river and entered the heart of downtown Portland, I noticed an older model Saab with an interesting license plate: CRASH-B. It made me wonder about a lot of things. Like why anyone would want a license plate with the word “crash” on it. Isn’t that like welcoming doom? Also, what happened to CRASH-A? Is it in a scrap yard some where, or at home in the driveway quivering in fear of the road, knowing its days are numbered?

I also wondered what the DMV was thinking when they issued this plate. I know they have people that act as moral sensors who approve all vanity plates. While CRASH is certainly not typically thought of as a word with 4-letter connotations, I would think that the DMV would have concerns with promoting this particular concept, especially on the road. Hey, that just me, it may be crazy talk but I’m just putting it out there. Someone needs to ask the questions.

Bus trauma

This morning on the bus, I was reading a book like I usually do. I was pretty much lost in the story where a witch is in a battle with a banshee and a demon, getting a little help from a ghost and pixy, when I hear a disturbance in the force. I look up and bus swerves as the car in lane on my side try to plow into our side. What can I say? I screamed like a girl. The poor woman in the seat ahead of me jumped a foot, I scared her so bad. I of course, felt like a complete idiot.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had this reaction on the bus. The first time was when I looked up from my book to see our driver going a good clip along the HOV lane and running up onto the much slower car in front and then slamming on the brake. I not only screamed like a girl, I found myself slammed into the seat in front of me. At least I wasn’t the only to scream that time.

Another time we had a semi truck cut in front of us just as I looked up from my book. I’ve decided I need to quite looking up from my book until the bus comes to a complete stop. That probably won’t stop these kinds of incidents from occurring, but it should make the ride less traumatic if I’m not screaming.