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I am feeling no pain
No, I'm not drunk, or stoned,
or any such nonsense. No, I'm honestly sitting at my desk free from
pain.
Yesterday morning my dentist
called saying there was a cancellation and did I want to come in
to start my root canal. Did I ever!
 Bet
you've never heard someone so excited about a root canal before,
eh?
This is the first time
I've been completely pain-free (without resorting to painkillers)
for a month and a half. Man, does it ever feel good. It feels even
better that I can stop popping Tylenol and Advil every couple hours.
So. Yesterday my dentist
did what is called a 'pulpectomy', which is the removing of the
infected nerve from inside my tooth. An hour and a half of drilling
and poking just to remove three thread-thin nerves of 24 millimeters
in length. (Apparently my roots are abnormally long, being about
2 millimeters longer than the average. Woo hoo.)
He was nice enough to inform
me that over half the nerve material was already dead, and 90 per
cent was infected. Lovely.
In May I have another appointment
for the actual root canal procedure, where the roots will be fully
cleaned out and filled. A month after that, a permanent filling
will be placed to cover the hole. And sometime soon after that the
whole works will need to be crowned.
All in the hopes that the
tooth won't break anyway, necessitating an extraction and
a bridge.
Oh, and while waiting for
the freezing to take (three separate injections, plus one special
one right into the bone itself. I guess I'm becoming more of a big
baby as I get older), my dentist glanced around my mouth and noted
a couple more cavities to be filled. I dread my next X-ray.
Anyway. My tooth is still
quite sensitive to pressure and I won't be able to bite on it for
a while. The residual ache from the procedure was bad enough for
me to take an Advil this morning, but I've been fine the rest of
the day so far.
It's alarming how much
you focus on pain. Caring for my aching tooth became the most important
thing in my life. Between fretting about when it would be fixed
and trying to budget enough to afford it, to rationing out my painkillers
so I could go the whole day without being in pain or overdosing,
I was doing nothing but caring for my tooth.
Last night Lisa said the
change was like having me back again. Like I'd been away on some
trip and have now come home. I can think of other things now. Like
work, or family, or Lisa's coming birthday.
Or posting in my journal.
Heh.
As was announced to the
sexy and intelligent people on the Notify
List last week, my supervisor put in her notice. She's one of
those lucky people who doesn't need to work (her husband pulls in
six figures), so can be choosy about where she spends her time.
She likes to work (Whoa!
Weirdness!), but doesn't like the direction the company is taking
with its online department. So she's shuffling off and looking to
broaden her horizons a bit more.
Which is good news for
me.
I don't know if I want
her job. She spends more time in meetings than I can handle: I have
to literally pinch myself to keep from falling asleep every time
I have to watch someone from marketing scrawl all over the whiteboard.
Plus it's been years since I've sat and churned out 5-6 articles
a day.
But. I'm going to my boss
with a proposal that her duties be split between Lara, one of our
writers, and myself. Lara has a marketing degree and will be great
at working with the buyers and marketers in planning our content
strategy and handing out writing tasks. I, on the other hand, want
to take over entirely the production of the website, including handing
out art assignments to our graphic artists and requests to our technical
people. We can then bring in a contract writer to generate content.
It's a different system, but one that I think could work. And it
would garner me a full-time slot.
 On
Survivor: I'm
predicting that Maraamu will continue its losing streak. C'mon,
did you see their lazy performance last week? Kathy is all gung-ho,
but Pascal and Neleh are sheep and Gina is an outsider. The only
chance they have for a win is if Rotu is annoyed enough at Rob and
Sean that they throw the challenge just to give them the boot.
My picks: If Rotu wins
the challenge, Gina is gone. If Maraamu wins, Sean is taking the
long walk.
CBS has given the green
light for the 5th season to get underway. I guess the ratings are
high enough to justify it. Now if they would just let Canadians
into the game.
Quizzes and Tests and
Crap: I thought
it had disappeared in the hack, but my test at FriendTest.com
is back. It might be too tough for those of you who only know me
through this journal, but I'd like to see how
you all do. Plus in a week or so, I'll use it all as fodder
for an entry. Heh.
Oh, and send me an email
telling me how you do. It record everyone's nicknames, but doesn't
tell me who each person is.
Oh, and:
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You are
Gonzo!
You're a bit loopy, and many people have trouble
figuring out exactly what you're supposed to be. You take
pride in your eccentricity and originality.
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Mom
Rating: 5 out of 5. Hey, a combination of no pain and good
job prospects? Mom's gonna love this one!
Previous: Pain
and its effects on the young writer
Next: Long
Post Running
Take
me home, big fella
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