Well, It Looks Like The Dragon Spit The Sun Back Out, At Least.

So, how was the eclipse? I, uh... I slept through the entire thing, by virtue of getting off work at 8 AM and collapsing from exhaustion for five hours and change. Well, it was nowhere near totality here, and I have seen a partial eclipse before. Still. This probably comes under the heading of "you know you're getting old when..."

And Now, For Something That Has Nothing To Do With Teeth (Aside From A Reference To The Fourth Doctor's Teeth And Curls)

I am going to see this tonight! Should be awesome. And excellent for taking my mind off the state of my mouth and/or the world at large.

One Week Later. (Well, Eight Days, Because I Had To Work Yesterday.)

Had my follow-up appointment on my tooth today. The doctor and I did not sit down and have a long talk about best practices in dental medicine. But he did assure me that the tooth socket is healing up well, the gum tissue looks healthy, and the bone graft looks good. So that's reassuring, at least. I think it would have been just my luck at this point to have things go horribly wrong with the healing process.

I've still got to be careful with it for another ten days or so, though, until the wound is completely closed up and there's no chance of the artificial bone stuff inside washing out and making a bid for freedom.

Sigh. I miss being able to do things like chew and brush my teeth without having to think about them. That was nice. I did not properly appreciate those days when they where here. Isn't it always the way?

Anyway. After this, it's going to be another three months before they can start the process of giving me a fake tooth, thus taking me the first step of the way on my journey towards becoming a cyborg. (Hey, I have to look on the bright side and make this sound cool somehow, right?)

August Currentlies

This is definitely later than I usually do it, but what can I say? Things have been a little weird lately.

Current clothes: I'm still in my pajamas: blue plaid lounge pants, a nightshirt that says "So Many Books, So Little Time," bear claw slippers. I'm trying to take it very slow and easy today. My brain and body both probably need it.

Current mood: I don't know. Mostly OK, I guess. I'm feeling less tired and out of it than I did for the first day or two after the tooth thing. And I'm mostly doing well at staying kind of zen about the whole debacle, but I am experiencing intermittent flare-ups of stress, which are no fun. And not being able to eat properly is really, really annoying me.

Current music: Most recently, Leonard Cohen's Old Ideas.

Current annoyance: Yeah, see above. I'm not supposed to eat anything hard or crunchy or hot, and I really don't want to eat anything I have to chew too much. (It doesn't hurt, but it feels a little weird, and I'm super-paranoid about food banging into the wound and maybe disrupting the clot.) This is getting very old very fast. I am starting to crave steak.

Current thing: Between the tooth and being given the wrong glasses prescription, I seem to be suffering a personal vendetta by Murphy's Law against my ability to carry out normal bodily functions like seeing and eating.

Current desktop picture: Still the Twelfth Doctor.

Current book: At Winter's End by Robert Silverberg. Which is OK, but far from his best.

Current song in head: "Melanie" by Weird Al Yankovic. Which is a slightly creepy song to have stuck in your head.

Current refreshment: Room-temperature coffee. Yum.

Current DVD in player: Nothing at the moment. I have season 4 of Sons of Anarchy; I just keep not getting around to it yet.

Current happy thing: Um... Give me a minute, I'm sure I'll think of something.

Current thought: I miss my tooth. It was a terrible tooth, but it was mine. And it was the first body part I have lost that I actually wanted to keep. (The wisdom teeth and the uterus were just pointless annoyances, but I was using that tooth, dammit!)

So. That Happened.

I went for my dental procedure today, and... it did not go as anticipated. Mainly because the endodontist apparently, like, 99% of the time ends up pulling teeth with these kinds of infections, so when he came into the room to do the operation that might save my tooth, he forgot that's what he was supposed to be doing and fucking pulled it instead.

Yeah. I kid you not. And, man... It seemed to me what he was doing was weird and not what I was expecting him to do, but I figured he knew what he was doing and there was a reason for it... and the next thing I know, there are pieces of my tooth all over my mouth and I'm trying to process what the hell just happened.

Needless to say, it was pretty freaking upsetting. I mean, there was a really good chance it was going to end up getting pulled anyway, but I was not prepared for it to happen today. I think I started to freak out a little, but then I sort of had to calm down, because I realized the dentist was trying not to freak out, too, and I found myself thinking, "Oh, man, I need to be calm so he can be calm, because he still needs to finish this up." Which was actually pretty useful, because I had to drive for an hour and twenty minutes to get home after that, and I needed to be functional.

Anyway, I guess the bad news is that I now have fewer teeth than I had this morning, which is NOT WHAT I WANTED OR AGREED TO.

The good news is, I saved the $130 he refunded me for the procedure, and I get a free dental implant if I want one. Because he was all, "It's OK! I will fix this! I will give you a new tooth! It will be better than your old one! I WILL MAKE IT RIGHT! Please don't sue me." Well, he didn't say that last part, but I think it was pretty much implied.

And, hey, I guess it could have been worse. At least he pulled the right tooth.

Still. This was not exactly the best day of my life. Send ice cream. Since I think that's one of the things I'm actually able to eat right now.