(un)determined

Actually had something interesting to blog about in the last few days. Two things of note happened yesterday.

1. I got my wisdom teeth plus one pulled. 2. I got a new kitty.

I went to the dentist Thursday as scheduled and they did all those x-rays and crap to me, told me what I already knew about my teeth and one problem area that I didn’t. Then he was like “well first I want to get those teeth out so we can start working on making your gums better.” Apparently the degrading teeth were irritating my gumline and making bad things happen. He said we could slow or possibly stop the bleeding that I have had for years when I floss. He did say that a small percentage of people will bleed regardless. I pointed out that people have been bitching at me in the dentist office for years thinking I don’t floss when I do, just because of the bleeding they think I don’t.

Anyway so I go up front to make the appointment and it turns out they can do it the very next day, which is apparently unheard of. I have to go to an oral surgeon for this. Problem is, I wasn’t scheduled off for Friday. They said next available would be November. Um okay…so I guess I’m either going to get tomorrow off regardless or be fired just to get my teeth pulled. Oh, and with insurance it’s gonna cost $493 up front.

WHAT????

That’s what I have insurance for! I’m on a freaking tight budget. That’s crap. Anyway, mom said she’d help and we’d work something out later. So I call work and my supervisor is like oh it’s okay it happens. Apparently she’s had four teeth pulled and it’s not fun.

For the next 12 hours I get to listen to everyone I tell about this tell me how horrible it is. Gee thanks guys. So I go in there, and I’ve had surgery before so I know kinda what to expect. It was pretty much what I thought, except they made me watch a video. When she turned it on she was like most of this won’t apply to you. (Then why do I have to watch this crap?) So the dentist comes in who is going to be doing the stuff, tells me what’s up with my teeth (and why the video didn’t apply to me). Apparently the involved teeth are nowhere near nerve lines or sinus cavities. It should be no problem to get them removed, etc.

So they put me out, and get it done, and when I wake up I’ve got cotton in my mouth, can’t feel the entire bottom half of my face, and taste blood. I was out of it (not much more than usual ) but not in a lot of pain. The only tooth I could still feel was the extra one cos it was on top and away from the others. It did hurt a bit, but I didn’t care (woot pain meds).

They told me to have something to eat right away, soft stuff of course. So we go nearby and I get a shake. With or without the gauze in my mouth it’s impossible to eat the shake, but it was good, so I took it home. It took several hours for the bleeding to slow enough for me to take the gauze out of my mouth but I was sure glad when I could do that. My bottom lip felt about 10 times bigger than it really was, and naturally that was the last bit to stop being numb so I couldn’t really eat anything without spilling it until I could feel it again.

Even once I stopped being numb there wasn’t much pain involved. There still isn’t really. The extra tooth hurts but they stitched that one and they didn’t stitch the others. Can’t open my jaw too wide cos it hurts when I do, probably because they had it pried open really far to work. One of my bottom teeth hurt a little but then the pain meds got rid of it all. The pain was aggravating my allergies but when I took the pain meds it mostly went away. I actually feel pretty good today. It’s going to take me some time to get used to the missing teeth, and I’m talking like Famke Janssen.

As far as the second thing goes (you remember that right? the kitten?), the neighbor came up with a little black kitten and said she just found it. She was going to keep it, but never gave it a name. Naturally it spent most of it’s time over here cos it gets fed. Well when it spent a straight week over here sleeping in one of the lawn chairs we have out on the back porch, and it started to get cold, mom thought sooner or later if they don’t come looking for it she’s gonna have to let it inside. She was gonna go talk to the neighbor see if she even wanted the kitten first cos she didn’t want to step on any toes.

Well yesterday, before my appointment, we got the opportunity to go over. I told mom I’d take it cos she’s got more than enough cats to deal with (try 7 or 8, I lost count). The neighbor said she wasn’t concerned if we wanted it that was fine, at least it’d have a good home. So mom brought it in and my cat of course hates it, but he hates everybody. It seemed afraid to explore so I said I’d keep it in my room overnight to start the process and keep it away from the other cats just in case while we’re asleep.

That cat…it is more of an attention hog than my daughter. ALL night it was up, ALL night it wanted petted. If I fell asleep, it’d nose me to keep going. I didn’t of course. Finally I found the little toy mouse I’d brought up for it to play with and got it distracted enough to let me sleep.

We’re not sure if it’s a girl or boy as black male cats drop late. So I’m hesitant to say it’s a boy or a girl or give it a name. Gonna wait till we get it to a vet that can tell us for sure.