My Super Stressful Day

My super stressful day began at 6:30 am (ugh!) when my alarm sounded.  I hate alarm clocks.  I consider myself very lucky that I almost never have to set one.  Isaac typically wakes me up around 7:30 or 8:00 am, which is plenty early for me.  It is much nicer, though, to be awakened by a happy doggie breathing in your ear than by a blaring alarm clock.  This morning, it was the alarm that woke me.  It woke Isaac, too, but he was in a better mood about it than I was.

I took the doggie out, fed the doggie and the cat, ate a protein bar, and attempted to take a shower.  The water would not get hot.  It was barely lukewarm.  I decided to skip the shower.

I got dressed, took Isaac out one more time, and was on the road by 7:30.  Stopped for coffee and made it to the garage by 8:00 am.  I was told the job would take about an hour, and I tell you, sitting in the little waiting room while mechanics worked on my car was stressful!  I kept expecting them to come in and tell me they’d found 27 other things wrong that really needed to be fixed right away and it would cost $7,000 or something like that.  Luckily that was not the case and I got out of there after forking over just $95.

Then I was off to the dentist.  The hygienist scraped several years worth of tartar off my teeth, which was not very pleasant, and then the dentist informed me that, other than this messed up crown, I have excellent teeth.  No cavities, no gum disease, no problems whatsoever.  So at least there was a little bit of good news.  The dentist also made impressions of my teeth, which will be used to design the bridge I need to get.  

At the end of this month, I have to see an oral surgeon to have the tooth, or what’s left of the root, anyway, extracted.  I had a choice of being awake for that procedure or being sedated, and the sedation would increase the cost significantly, so I had to opt for being awake.  I hate having to make health care decisions simply based on cost.  But I guess you do what you have to do, right?

After the remains of the tooth are extracted, I go back to the dentist and he fits me with a temporary bridge while the permanent bridge is made.  There is some reason why there needs to be a temporary bridge, and he explained it to me, but I forget exactly what it was.  I guess I was distracted by my painful gums and all.  They still hurt now, 12 hours later.

Then, to make the experience even more fun, I got an estimate of the cost for this bridge.  $2500.  Plus $300 to have the tooth extracted.  Plus the $150 I paid a couple days ago for x-rays and to have the crown cemented back in place.  Medicaid generously paid for the teeth cleaning today, but will not cover any of those other expenses. 

I was home by noon and slept most of the afternoon.  I was tired from getting up so early, but also mentally exhausted from the stress of it all.