Monday, January 31, 2011

Medical issues

Last week, I'd been having some tooth pain on my left side.  It was never severe pain, but it did wake me up a few times.  I talked to the staff nurse and she suggested I go see a dentist in Belize City.  Given Belize's medical standards, I was a bit skeptical about going to a dentist here.  But I was pleasantly surprised with both the facilities and the doctor.  The doctor was educated at Marquette.  He took a couple x-rays and determined that I needed 2 (TWO!) root canals.
I can't say that I was surprised by the diagnosis.  I have horrible teeth.  In my adult life, I have spent probably around $10,000 in premiums and co-pays.  I've had 3 crowns and way too many cavities - some pretty severe.  My last dentist kept telling me I'd probably need a root canal, but since the point of a root canal is to get rid of pain (and I never really had pain), I had never had one done.  So, when my Belizean dentist told me I needed one on Thursday, I wasn't exactly surprised.  He offered to do it then, but I had a lunch date that afternoon and plans for the weekend, so I put it off until today.

The root canal was no problem.  But when I was driving in to Belize City, I noticed my wrist starting to swell from a bug bite I had gotten the day before.  The swelling kept up most of the morning, so I went to see the nurse.  Turns out I am allergic to some bug (which is strange since I have no other allergies) and my wrist as ballooned up something fierce.  The nurse has put me on benadryl and other antibiotics.  I can't work or drive for at least the next two days due to the meds.   Who would have thought that the root canal would be the least of medical issues today?

2 comments:

  1. Never trust a Marquette grad.

    Especially when it comes to basketball...

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  2. Yuck...root canals.. Please tell me they had happy gas. That is the only way I can do it...if not knocked out completely.

    ReplyDelete