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The State of the Nea
Mar. 29th, 2012 08:02 pmSo. Life's been... busy. And a bit stressful.
I cracked (somewhat literally) at the beginning of March and saw a dentist for the first time in 15+ years. Said dentist then promptly did her best to railroad me into letting her replace every single filling in my mouth, and did go completely batshit with the drill. I asked her to deal with the sensitive tooth and the one right in front of it. She actually SAID, afterwards, that since I was already numb, and had insurance, and all the metal fillings "had" to go, she was doing me a favor by putting new fillings on all the teeth in that quadrant. This would be drilling two teeth without permission folks. And when I walked out, shaking, her receptionist handed me a rate sheet for *all* of the other ones and tried to pressure me to make the appointment for the next round.
Thing is... I had a filling on the other side that was crumbling, literally leaving a sharp edge in my mouth. So I had to do *something* about it. But the closer the appointment came, the more I realized that knowing I would survive having all the fillings done in that area... and that she was guaranteed to do all the fillings in that area no matter what I said... was a piss-poor reason to put myself through all that trauma. (And pay for the privilege; insurance doesn't cover everything.)
Yesterday was the drilling day. And I must say, the BRAND NEW dentist I went to see in a completely different practice, was fabulous. She cracked jokes. She set the chair to "massage." (Seriously!) She did ONLY the one tooth and she talked me all the way through every single step. MAF Dental in Laurel; two slightly quivering thumbs up.
Dr. Feebus even wrote me a prescription for valium, which I kind of wish I'd had the chance to take. But right before the drilling, I had an interview for a new contract. And it wouldn't go too well if I went stoned, alas! (I'm a contract worker, which is a bit like a glorified temp worker - other companies hire my company, which sends me out anywhere that needs a technical writer.)
I've been off contract for 3 months, which is bad in this economy. To be useful to my company, I've been working in the proposal department, which is bad for me, TBH. I don't like high-pressure work and we're in the home stretch, which revs the pressure up to 11.
BUT! Drilling without valium was ultimately worth it; I start my new contract on the 16th! And then life will hopefully settle back down to abnormal.
I cracked (somewhat literally) at the beginning of March and saw a dentist for the first time in 15+ years. Said dentist then promptly did her best to railroad me into letting her replace every single filling in my mouth, and did go completely batshit with the drill. I asked her to deal with the sensitive tooth and the one right in front of it. She actually SAID, afterwards, that since I was already numb, and had insurance, and all the metal fillings "had" to go, she was doing me a favor by putting new fillings on all the teeth in that quadrant. This would be drilling two teeth without permission folks. And when I walked out, shaking, her receptionist handed me a rate sheet for *all* of the other ones and tried to pressure me to make the appointment for the next round.
Thing is... I had a filling on the other side that was crumbling, literally leaving a sharp edge in my mouth. So I had to do *something* about it. But the closer the appointment came, the more I realized that knowing I would survive having all the fillings done in that area... and that she was guaranteed to do all the fillings in that area no matter what I said... was a piss-poor reason to put myself through all that trauma. (And pay for the privilege; insurance doesn't cover everything.)
Yesterday was the drilling day. And I must say, the BRAND NEW dentist I went to see in a completely different practice, was fabulous. She cracked jokes. She set the chair to "massage." (Seriously!) She did ONLY the one tooth and she talked me all the way through every single step. MAF Dental in Laurel; two slightly quivering thumbs up.
Dr. Feebus even wrote me a prescription for valium, which I kind of wish I'd had the chance to take. But right before the drilling, I had an interview for a new contract. And it wouldn't go too well if I went stoned, alas! (I'm a contract worker, which is a bit like a glorified temp worker - other companies hire my company, which sends me out anywhere that needs a technical writer.)
I've been off contract for 3 months, which is bad in this economy. To be useful to my company, I've been working in the proposal department, which is bad for me, TBH. I don't like high-pressure work and we're in the home stretch, which revs the pressure up to 11.
BUT! Drilling without valium was ultimately worth it; I start my new contract on the 16th! And then life will hopefully settle back down to abnormal.
