All Is Swell

I did the thing yesterday, the last serious attack of dentistry on the road to a new molar — between the numbing shots (3)  the nitrous oxide, and the heat, yesterday was pretty much lost in the ozone again.

This is the next to last stage of the saga of the new molar to replace the one that was extracted last year.  The dentist put in the peg/socket and packed it with more bone graft.  So now I get to wait more months for this new bone graft to take.  Then we will come to the last step, where I will get the tooth and have it put onto the peg/socket, which is the easiest, least painful part of this whole rigamarole.  That will happen October-ish.

Yesterday went well up until the part where I had to wait for over an hour for Wal-Mart to fill the prescription for the antibiotic I have to take for a week.  It was not a total loss, though,  because while I was waiting I was able to sweet-talk one of the Wal-Mart vision clinic techs into adjusting the frames of my glasses so they will stay on my head — my glasses frames had gotten so loose that they would slide nearly off my nose every time I looked down, which was driving me crazy.  I got the glasses through the VA and I would have had to drive 120 miles up to Amarillo (and back) in order to get the VA to adjust them, which obviously isn’t happening.  But the Wal-mart techs were just sitting there with no customers, and the one guy was all too happy to have something to do.  He was masked and wearing disposable gloves, I was masked and wearing disposable gloves, and he wiped the glasses down with alcohol before he gave them back to me because COVID.

So I got a few groceries, and after all that, my Rx still wasn’t ready.  I stood around another 20 minutes and by then my ice cream was melting (and the anesthetic was wearing off) so I checked out and took the groceries home, put the meltables in the freezer and put a couple of ice cubes in a plastic sandwich baggie, popped a couple Tylenol and went back to Wal-mart and stood in line with a mask on and a baggie full of ice cubes pressed against my face for another 10 minutes.  Hiking around in the parking lot in 90+F/32+C heat didn’t help the situation.  By the time I got home, I was feeling like I’d been hit in the face with a shovel.

I already had a Rx for antibiotic with Wal-mart because I have to pop four of them before I get my teeth cleaned because coronary stents.  Evidently, the dentist’s office just renewed that Rx because when I got home and read  the bottle, it said to take four before I go to the dental appointment.  I had to call the dentist’s office to find out I’m supposed to take one every 4 hours.  Between Tylenol every 6 hours and antibiotics every 4 hours all dang night long, I woke up with a bad case of roll-over-and-go-back-to-sleep this morning when my alarm went off and I had to get up, get ready, and drive over halfway across town to spend 10 minutes in the chair, then drive all the way back.  However, I’m having minimal pain and swelling, and the sutures look fine.  It’s coming on for time for me to pop another antibiotic capsule and then I’m sacking out.

It’s July in the Texas flatlands, y’all.  Last night’s low was 73F/27.7C.  By 9 a.m. this morning, it was 80F/26.6C and heading to a high of 102F/38.8C.  At 11% humidity.  Raisin weather.  Step outside and go from grape to raisin in about 50 seconds.    I plan to stay in out of it.  The forecast is high 90’sF/35+C  for the next two weeks.  My July electric bill is going to be higher than giraffe’s ears.

Here’s a little goodie from Jonna Jinson to help beat the heat.  Lovely photography on this one.