Folks have been asking me where I have been…well, I will tell you, but you may be sorry you asked, you know how I can ramble, get started and not know how to get stopped. But here goes…..
I do not scare easy… But I have come to believe I scare less easily then some, because I do not watch the news and see all of the evil that goes on…. in and around mid Mississippi. I do not imagine there is somebody hiding behind every bush, ready to pounce, intending to do me bodily harm….
But I did have two things that frighten the fire out of me.
Number 1. Driving on the interstate with all of those inconsiderate folks, who have places to go and drive as if they are very very late, weaving in and out, cutting people off, honking their horns, waving fingers in rude ways.
Number 2. The dentist…all of that drilling and scraping. Very unpleasant. I remember growing up…Friends that went and had there teeth cleaned often had a sore mouth and were bleeding, from the gums.
Well, a couple of weeks back, I begin to have a toothache…not terrible, but nagging….I chose to ignore it…. In fact that’s how I deal with most aches and pains….surprisingly that strategy seems to work for me…my aches and pains just seem to go away on their own…or maybe it moves to another spot…from my knee to my elbow…shoulder to back etc.
So anyway, I have two broken teeth…they have been broken for years…and never caused me even the slightest problem. I would probably still be waiting for the tooth to quit hurting…but I discovered a lump in my left breast. I remembered seeing an advertisement in the Gazette for a dentist in Utica…Martha Lewis, I called and got an appointment….she also has an office in Clinton, I went to Clinton…She is only in Utica Friday and Saturdays..
Now I haven’t been to the dentist many times in my life…I am guessing less then five times, they were uncomfortable occasions….I didn’t not the sound of the drill and it hurt….I had not been to a dentist since before 1979 and my teeth had never been cleaned.
On the drive to Clinton, I prepared myself for a lengthy lecture, shaming me, concerning me not tending to my teeth…one of the dental assistance took me back to an examining room for X-rays….she did not fuss at me…….But I still had to deal with Dr. Lewis….That is who was going to fuss.
While waiting for the Dr. Lewis to come pull my broken tooth ….I noticed three certificates, framed and hanging on the wall….you all! one certificate was concerning dealing with “The Challenging Patient”. I was thrilled! My dentist was certified to deal with wimpy, whinny persons like me!!…and if a dentist can get a certificate to deal with difficult people…there must be a lot of us! I breathed a sigh of relief!!
It gets even better….It was not my broken tooth that was giving me fits, as I understood it, the pain was, caused by a build up of plaque, under the gums, of a tooth very close to the broken tooth. So the solution to that was cleaning the plaque from there and all my teeth…Dr. Lewis didn’t even try to pressure me in to getting the broken tooth pulled….still lots of enamel covering the nerve.
I am here to tell you, dental procedures and tools have changed in the last 30 years! They are not poking, prodding and scrapping you with sharp, pointy steal tools…with names that sound like they came from Sears.
What my teeth were cleaned with was a device . …there was a fine mist of water, I think, maybe it agitated the build up off…I know it was not painful…and I was not bleeding when I got out of the chair. Now, I only have one great fear left…that is the interstate.
I was blessed with incredibly sturdy teeth…That is not just my opinion, Dr. Lewis said so. I can open just about anything but a tin can with them.
My teeth tended to, I went on and made an appointment for a mammogram…Then started, mowing, cleaning house, paying bills, tidied the shop, even washed my truck…I contend you can face anything if you are organized , have a clean house. …and with out a toothache
I had a mammogram, sent to see my oncologist, who sent me to my surgeon, who removed the lump…..I have clean bill of health!
That’s what I have been doing.
Call if you need me.
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