Well, I’ve just gotten back from having my little enamel sandinista liberated from its gum gulag and I don’t know (yet) what all the fuss is about. I’m sure I’ll figure it out when the novocaine wears off. The procedure itself was surprisingly fast. The doctor (who Barb and I agree was quite a tool) numbed me up and said something about breaking the tooth which, badass or not, can really freak you the hell out. He tugged around on it for a bit and said “okay” and stopped. I figured he had broken it or whatever and was going to get ready for the rough stuff. Instead, the nurse says that she’ll go out and get Barb so we can talk about post-op care. Aside form the paperwork filling out and the numbing, the whole thing took about two minutes.
The doc (tool) said he was just going to leave the spot open, because apparently there’s less chance of infection that way. He told me that I should wait a minimum of one week before getting the next round of chemo, preferably two. I’ll be seeing him again next Wednesday for a followup. He also said that if I’m still having pain after this heals, I can NOT have my chemo. Apparently when your immune system and/or your blood is all screwed up from chemo or other things, there’s a possibility of infection attacking your teeth from the other direction – root up instead of crown down like a cavity.
Heh heh – crown down.
He said it’s kind of hard to see that sort of thing going on unless you’re specifically looking for it and if I still have pain, they’ll specifically look for it. He brought all of this up just because of the chemo and the fact that my pain wasn’t always directed at the one wisdom tooth. This past week it has, though (he never quite gave me enough time to explain that fact. Tool.) so I’ll probably be fine once I’m healed.
So, it looks like I’m going to be chemo free for the next couple of weeks. I guess I should go run a marathon or something, just so I don’t get used to not being tired. At least this gives us a little more time to overprepare for the hospital, right?