MY DENTIST HAD ME IN STITCHES

((((the black lines there are stitches that go right through to the other side of my gums. this picture does the carnage no justice))))


i've been having a tooth saga. it goes way back. i'm going to go way back for you.

dental plans. stacey got one while at rogers. it took me a while, but i went to the dentist for the first time in 5 years. The last time i had gone it was because my mom's coverage was about to expire on me when i turned 25.

i had sent out a mass email to my toronto people asking them for dentist recommendations. seems that not a lot of them go to the dentist, as there was only one referral (louis - shout out!) that i didn't follow up on. jesse had suggested "that place in kensington market", but he'd never been. i called and booked and went and took xrays and was told that if i didn't get to work on one of the teeth it would turn into a root canal.

HAH! i thought as i left. root canal? my teeth are in great shape. he's looking for money. i put it off. and off

and off

and developed the need for a root canal. not painful at all, just expensive to cap the tooth. insurance covered thousands and thousands of dollars for all the work i had done. thank you ted rogers.

since then, i have had every cavity save 2 redone to replace the mercury fillings with the white stuff. LEGENDARY. very happy.

let me also say that i love my dentist. he's very cool about pain: "if it hurts, tell me, and i'll be happy to freeze you. it costs me next to nothing, and makes you happy, that makes me happy". and yes, that makes me happy. i get 4 needles every time i go. shit, i walk past the place on my way to buy fruit in the market and i stop just to numb my face. that's how much i love this guy.

so i've been there A LOT. we're like friends. the dentist has a basketball court out back, and one time we went and played for a while before he removed we got down to work on the teeth. i did a great left handed spin/fake move on him and ever since he thinks i'm an amazing baller. he keeps inviting me to play on saturdays with him and his "he played for team canada" friends. my dentist is a basketball loving black man.

i want to play but am nervous i wont' live up to the hype, because he keeps calling me a 'gym rat' and a 'gamer' and stuff, and saying "i was just like you man, when i was your age". then again, i've been a bit of a legend lately at the gym, so i'm thinking of going to settle the matter.


back to the tissue. i was having a lot of problems with this one tooth, and he did a test and determined that it may have been cracked. he opened the tooth and saw an exposed nerve, so he did a root canal. that didn't fix it either, because he thought it was still cracked and a cracked tooth needs to be removed.

so i didn't go back for 6 months.

not because i was a coward, but because stacey didn't have a health plan, and my actra fraternal plan has already been maxed out.

so stacey now has a plan from house and home, and i'm back in the dentist chair. i go in on thursday, and we talk, and he tries to save the tooth again (instead of extracting it and putting in either a bridge at $2200, or a drilled in implant at $2800). he drills to the tips of every root of the tooth, then fills it, then takes an x-ray - looks like a crack. i make an appt for the next day to extract it. so -

on friday he slices open my gums, does a bunch of stuff, and determines that it's not a crack, but a perforation at one of the 4 points of the root - that's why it was looking like a crack. so he says he's going to save it. he also did some work beneath the root of the tooth beside it.

so with the gums opened, he realized that all he HAD TO DO WAS GRIND ONE OF THE FOUR PILLARS DOWN. understand that this is above the gumline.

so that was done, my tooth refilled, and i was on my way. oh, yeah. we've got to close up that lush bleeding pile of wounded flesh.

to close up the gums, he had to go THROUGH the gums to the other side. i have 3 sets of stitches that go THROUGH MY GUMS!!! take a look at the picture again, and consider how hard it was to push the string through.

EXCUSE ME WHILE I VOMIT ON MYSELF.

my face has now swollen up immensely. i have to take tylenol 3, antibiotics, and a mouthwash, and i bleed constantly, especially when i laugh. fortunately, stacey's not that funny :)

unfortunately, that's not true, and i have to hold my face, literally, when i laugh. but pain doesn't feel like pain when you're laughing. maybe the USA should tickle people while they electrocute them. just a thought.

but the tooth is saved. hopefully. i wouldn't go through this again.

yesterday i had to be in stratford at 8 in the morning, which meant i was up at 6. problem was, i went to bed at 1:30, stacey woke me up when she got in at 2 to have a recap of her night, and then i was worried about the alarm, so i kept waking up every 45 mins to check the time, eventually just getting up at 5:30 and starting the day. I WAS EXHAUSTED. the drive, the drugs, the teeth, the sleep.

on the highway i was having hallucinations. was strange. could have been the pizza. but the effect was as though the entire world i was looking at was in two dimensions. it would all go flat. sometimes it would blend together a little bit, like the clouds would blend into a car, or a car would blend into a transport truck.


when i got home i popped half a tab of T3 and half a glass of wine and fell asleep - and missed hinto's play. i woke up at 9:30. the play started at 8. my sincerest regrets my dear friend. i was a disaster yesterday. i know you would do come to my performance/award ceremony/funeral and not miss it for anything. you're a wonderfully supportive friend. i'm thinking of something to make it up to you.


on friday when i went to the dentist, i bought him a bottle of my new favorite wine and thanked him for trying to save my tooth. he was so appreciative. which is nice, because he spent 2 hours on me the day before and didn't charge me anything. and then after yesterday, he's not going to charge me anything that i can't get covered for, and then, he's not going to charge me until they pay me. he's nice like that. we'll see if he's nice like that after saturday when i kick his ass.

bought a new tie and shirt today for me new job. handsome devil, me!

rented madagascar, the 'kids' movie. i love 'kids' movies more than 'normal' ones.

my pvr is still king - BUT I FORGOT TO RECORD THE FIRST RAPTORS WIN OF THE YEAR TODAY!

long post. i'm going to get rid of the google ads. i thought there'd be a chance, naively, of generating even 5 bucks a month, but that's not going to happen. i'm sure most people don't even see the ads, and i don't want to run a big ad down the side of the blog.

2 more weeks of freedom.