Adventures in {Apicoectomy}

I've had bad luck with this tooth for forever.

It's the tooth that crumbled to pieces when I was
in between my freshman and sophomore year of college.
I was living in Iowa with my friend Lori - who was also my boss.

The evening said tooth went south - summer of 1998 -
I was chewing on a caramel as I drove to Girl's Camp
to be a guest speaker.
It just cracked in half.
I had no insurance.
I was living 500 miles away from my parents.
It was terrible.

A family friend took pity on me,
called in a favor to their dentist,
and I was fitted with a temporary crown
that I was supposed to replace as soon as possible.

Um, fast forward to the summer of 2001.
Still have the temporary crown.
Haven't thought about it in forever.
Still don't have dental insurance.
I am probably about 3 weeks from my wedding,
since we were only engaged 6 weeks.
Said tooth goes south again.
Blinding pain south.
Like I want to take an ice skate and bang it out of my head south.
(name the movie)

So I am now living only 68 miles from my parents.
So my kind friend drives me down to their house
and I have a root canal.
Lovely.
And I later get a permanent crown.
All before the wedding.

Fast forward to the Fall of 2008.
I am 6 months pregnant with The Girl.
And said tooth goes south AGAIN!
Now I have dental insurance.
I live 649 miles from my parents.
I go to my own dentist.
He's like, oh sorry, you'll have to go to the Endodontist for this.
The what???

I get to have another root canal.
It's REALLY bad.
After the first treatment,
she schedules a 2nd appointment because
it's so bad, she wants to treat it again.
Of course there is a weekend in between the appointments.
Of course on Friday night it goes WAY south.
Think ice skate south again.
Of course the receptionist routed the phone wrong,
so it doesn't ring to the emergency answering service.
It just rings and rings.
I miraculously make it through the night
and head to urgent care.
The doctor takes pity on a 6 month pregnant
woman and gives me some Vicodin.
I survive til Monday.

The endodontist gets me in ASAP
and performs more root canal stuff.
She puts in a filling.
Tells me to wait until after the baby is born to
come in again and have it checked.
She says if it's not better, then an apicoectomy will be in order.
A what???

Fast forward to February 2009.
I have a beautiful baby girl.
The tooth is feeling fine.
I see the Endodontist again.
She says it's right as rain.
She says I can get a new crown.

Fast forward to April 2010,
I finally get a new crown.

Fast forward to last week.
Gums are swelling.
Mouth is sore.
Not a good sign.

I go see a new friend that happens to be an Endodontist.
He says it's time for an apicoectomy.
(And P.S. I love how the illustration makes it look like they
just nicely reach in and pull out the infection.
Um, no such luck friends.)
Because of my past experience and Google,
I now know what one is.
So yesterday I had one.

This is me after.


I could really do without some adventures for awhile.