My Hate-Affair with Dentists

For those of you who have been reading this blog for the last 2 or 3 months you all probably remember my days as the “goiter boy”. This was when I had an abscessed tooth that led to a major infection in my neck which led to me having to have emergency surgery. Unfortunately those days are back! My infamous tooth has been acting up again over the last 2 weeks. A week ago I had an appointment with an endodontist because of on going pain in that tooth. The appointment was actually kind of cool as they had this new type of x-ray in which they don’t have to use film. They stick a probe with a flat panel in your mouth and then shoot x-rays at the flat panel. The image of your tooth immediately appears on the screen of a computer. There is no waiting to have the film developed and then put up on a light box. The x-ray of my mouth showed that the root canal that was done in March that lead to this entire problem was messed up. It looks like a substantial portion of one of the roots was missed – which could potentially explain the increasing amounts of pain I have been feeling for the last several weeks. What does all this mean? Well it means I get to do a lot of what I did in March all over again! How fun is that? So this Friday I am scheduled to have a “re-root canal” of the tooth. They are going to open up the top of the tooth, remove all the stuff that was put in as part of the original root canal and then re-do it all. Depending upon what they find, I will most likely have to have another go round of oral surgery. This time it will be much less drastic than the first time. This surgery would be done in the endodist’s office and I would not have to be sedated. Needless to say I am really looking forward to all of this – yippee! It is going to make for a fun Friday. I am just joking as I look at the situation and realize it is not a big deal. Yes – I will feel some minor discomfort for a little bit, but really it is nothing major. I am really just belly aching for the purpose of writing a pseudo-funny blog post. (Notice I said pseudo-funny as I realize my sense of humor is pretty darn poor if I have to attempt to keep a joke clean.) On a totally different note, I just wanted to say this tonight - I am so proud of Zack. Why am I saying that? There is no real reason. When I dropped him off at Sylvan late this afternoon, I sat there in the car and watched him walk into the tutoring center. He made me laugh as he walked in with such determination while carrying the latest book that he is reading. It just struck me as something very special watching him walk in there. He is an amazing strong and resilient kid and I am just so proud of him for all that he has accomplished. I have been parenting him by myself for the better part of three years and I have seen him grow and change so much. The boy is far from perfect, but despite all that he has experienced in life he is one of the most happy, loving and easy go lucky kids that I know. He just makes me proud. Another reason I am so proud of him is the way that he has accepted a number of challenges I have put out there for him. I have challenged him that he needs to take greater responsibility for things. He has always had chores and things to do around the house and I have always tried to run a very structured day-to-day life with him. But since January of this year, I have really asked him to step up to greater challenges and greater responsibility. He definitely has stepped up to these challenges and I am just so proud of him. I love my boy!!! It is time for me to get going for the night. It is late and I didn’t want to miss writing for a second day. Yesterday for the first time I had a case of “writer’s block”. (I guess I really shouldn’t describe myself as a writer – LOL!) There was nothing of which I could think to write. So for the first time in a long time I went a day without blogging – how unlike me! We hope everyone is having a great week! Thanks and peace to all! – J.

Shelly Dierking