Paula went for her extraction today. Mine is on Monday. Our dentist's dad has an art supply store downtown. I started going there 36 years ago. Before art college. Dr. Gwarztman looks and acts like his dad. Sardonic but humourous. Theye both have the same lean body. Paula's molar x-ray reveals that her roots are too long for the doctor to make the extractio. They are really long. We took the x-ray home. She has a new appointment with an oral surgeon tomorrow. I can't be there with her because I'm teaching in the morning. I wish I could take her. To comfort her. She might be woozy after the procedure. Her tooth is still paining her. Our decayed wisdom teeth are both severely fragmented. Mine is almost gone. Hers is smarting. Well, it's a wisdom tooth right? Mine is torpid. Defunct really. Paula is on the verge of tears all the time. It's really hurting her. Mine is just plain dead.
2 comments:
I missed you so much at the oral surgeon's. It was terrible. Thanks for helping me get through it over the phone.
It was one of those situations where I was afraid I was going to die only I wasn't afraid for myself, I was only afraid for losing you. And Jacob.
Don't forget to floss!
Oh, Paula and Larry! My deepest empathy!
Last year right before Chautauqua and the workshop with Eric Rohmann, my FRONT tooth fell out, from the root! Insult to injury, I was eating a salad, nothing so wonderful as a caramel, ooey-gooey, suck your dentin off yum. I have wicked awful teeth, baby late in life, and that particular tooth had a blemish from birth that every dentist has tried to fix since I was six. Which means whittle here and there, until TIMBER! It still mortifies me, and I have to do something about my teeth as soon as I get over some of this phobia and get some $$ together.
But confession time, this is how you KNOW you're a (children's)writer. I'm sitting in my husband's room in tears for the third day in a row and it just came to me. I remembered what it felt like to be UGLY (kidhood thing). On top of that, the prostethic tooth looked great but was horrible to wear, because my palette is so high and narrow, I couldn't eat, kiss or talk (I can barely do it, now, lol, many people are grateful!). I never had braces as a kid, but realized it must feel an awful lot like this. That was the turning point, realizing this pain would inform my "art". And yah, I have that unreasoning fear with dentists (nearly died a couple of times, when the doctor forgot to turn on the oxygen with the nitrous and they've gone so far as to extract the WRONG teeth, because I need to go under in order to remain sane). I think some people think we overreact, but it's a matter of walk a mile.
Paula, I hope you're feeling better, and fast healing to you too, Lar!
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