Road Trips include Potholes and Alternative Root Canals

Just to answer my last blog, the ginger root and mangos were not available at the Lovell Red Apple. In fact, just to give you a glimpse at what I was up against, there were only two red onions to choose from: bad and worse, and the lettuce was limp. All of it. I miss good produce.

Now to more current news: There has been a pothole in our road trip, aside from the poor vegetables. On Sunday my jaw began to hurt from my ear to mid jaw, and by Monday it was clear that I had an incredibly painful toothache, one like I have
never before experienced. Tuesday I went to my cousin, the dentist, who diagnosed my #19 molar as abscessed and needing a root canal. Fantastic. I hoped to just get by so I could get back home to have the work done, so he prescribed an antibiotic to see if the infection would subside. No going. By Tuesday night I was on the couch nursing glasses of ice water--the only thing that could bring relief. Despite my poor teeth I am happy to report that my kidneys work just fine.

Thursday morning found me in Dr. Scotty's chair enduring the wonderful world of dentistry. When I was a child his father, Dr. Scott Sr., forever ruined me for dentists. He was not pain sensitive, if you know what I mean. His son, on the other hand, is, but that didn't stop me from much nervous twitching, breath holding, and back arching. I am an embarrassment to myself in this arena, but it is what it is at this point. It seems to be uncontrollable.

By the time he finished at 3pm, the left side of my face, cheekbone to chin including tongue, was fairly useless, which wouldn't be much of a big deal except that Mom had scheduled me to sing at the nursing home for their weekly Relief Society meeting at which she was teaching the lesson. I sang Amazing Grace and I sounded a little like Sylvester the Cat:

Amazing Grastch, how stchweet the stchound that stchaved a wretch like me. I onstch was lostch, but now am found, was blind but now I stchee.

My jawline also looked a little like Courtney Thorne-Smith's which I've always secretly coveted. Unfortunately I found that it doesn't look nearly as cute on me. Oh well.

After the old folks home (I know. That's horrible, but it is what we call it up here in Cowley), we bought ice cream for the kids since they had behaved well enough to deserve it. At the Red Apple I ran into an old high school friend whom I haven't seen in probably 15 years. It was wonderful except for the part when she had to tell me I had ice cream on my chin because I couldn't feel it.

Today, though, I happily proclaim that I am feeling much better and more hopeful that I shall indeed reach home relatively pain free, but with the lucky obligation of seeing an endodontist quickly on the heels of my return. May God prepare both he and I for the scene we will most assuredly endure. And if you're lucky enough to see me after, you can give me an opinion on my Courtney Thorne-Smith jawline.