A Dental Drama
When we moved to this wonderful house in Apex, we got a referral for a new dentist. I still had a free cleaning with our dentist in Cary, but Mike went in with the new one. There were hurdles to take because the handicapped parking on-ramp was all the way at the end of the parking lot, so then we had to walk all the way back on a gently sloping sidewalk to the office entrance. Mike did that with his walker. Then to get out one time and find it was raining was even more challenging. They had an umbrella at the door, so picture me opening and closing the door with one hand, then again, down the slope and into the car, followed by me walking back to the office under the umbrella, and running back to the car in the rain.
The second time, the nice hygienist had left the practice and Mike did not get along well with the new one. In the mean time, the dentist decided, based on x-rays taken, that several teeth had to be pulled. Several! He referred us to a dental surgeon. Weeks went by to get an appointment for a conference with the surgeon, then a date was set for the first two extractions – a third one waiting for another time. We had a Zoom conference with the dentist and our daughter in California and this was agreed upon.
We received a bill with the approximate cost of pulling the first two: #13 and #15 . Alarm bells in my head: NO!, those were the wrong teeth, healthy teeth! Calls and emails to the dental office. Oh yes, they made a mistake. The first two should be #5 and #12. Sorry!
The surgeon’s office agreed not to extract any teeth until after the panoramic X-rays had been taken in his office, on the due date.
In the mean time, I prepared for two days of liquid food and then soft foods for a while: puddings, yogurt, blended meals. A pureed vegetable soup seemed appropriate for the first night. I took my iPad and looked up recipes for vegetable soup. I found one that sounded good. When I clicked on it, several screens popped up with loud noises and flashing lights telling me that my computer had been hacked and shut down. “Click here to save your computer!” in a green square among the reds. It was sudden and scary. I did not click, but closed my iPad. when I opened it again after a few minutes, the threat was still there. Closed it again. And then, not knowing how else to get a recipe for vegetable soup, I emailed a friend in Arizona from the desktop Mac. That must have been the strangest request she ever got, but she gave mew the basics. And today, my caregiver prepared a pan full of soup, and it was delicious and filling.
This morning, we prepared for surgery: Nothing to eat or drink except for blood pressure medication; getting dressed in comfortable clothing and shoes. Our son came to pick us up.
The rain pelted down, the driveway was flooded. We made it out and to the surgeon’s office. We parked close to the door and our son went in to register Mike so he did not have to sit down in the waiting room but could go right in. We waited in the car, while the rain did not let up. I will make an already long story short. Our son came with a paper to sign and to pay for…a wrong tooth extraction, #30. I showed him the date on the sheet was wrong, there was an update. Ah, yes, the update showed #13 and #15. But I said I did not want to pay until the surgeon had taken/seen a panoramic x-ray. We waited longer in the car: they had an emergency, which took a good 45 minutes. Our son took Mike in for the panoramic and came out after ten minutes: it was impossible to take such an X-ray with a stationary machine. So Mike and I drove home again, very relieved, but extremely stressed, and our son had a discussion with the surgeon.
He called us later: the surgeon, based on the teeth he had seen in the (bad) x-rays of the dentist were not bad at all. No need to extract any! If one of the teeth would break, they would take care of it, and if there would be an infection, they would too.
The end of the story: we will have vegetable soup again tomorrow, and many nights of puddings for dessert, and soft foods like pancakes and scrambled eggs and the like: a new varied menu! There is always a silver line around every dark cloud, as my mamma would say. She would also say (during her days in a WWII concentration camp on Java): “De mens lijdt vaak het meest door het lijden dat hij vreest maar dat nooit op komt dagen: dus krijgt hij meer te dragen dan God te dragen geeft.”
I thought about that a lot in the last few days. It is so true.
And that’s a tired wrap!
Until next time,
Ronny
Oh my gosh, Ronny!!! No extractions after all. Yay!! So happy for you both to not have to go through all the recouping that would be needed. Yay again!!