What a crappy couple of weeks I have had!
It all started two Sunday's ago when a filling came out of one of my teeth. Monday I went into the dentist and they told me I was going to need a root canal, post and crown. The office person told me it was going to cost me in the range of $700 to get this done after my insurance paid their portion. So we scheduled the appointment for the root canal for Thursday (last week). I arranged for my mother in law to come down and take care of Orion for me, which required her to reschedule meetings and such. So Thursday I go in for the root canal and sure enough first thing they are telling me that I actually need something called a crown lengthening and that it's going to cost me another $600! They even tried to convince me that my dental insurance company was going to pay a total amount that was twice what my benefit is. I ended up walking out with a copy of my x-rays and a really bad mood.
I called the insurance company when I got home and they laughed at the concept that they would make special accommodations and pay double my benefit so I would have been stuck with that extra amount as well. I called a different dentist who was also covered under my insurance and asked to come in for a second opinion, they could get me in the very next day. Friday morning I have Orion pack up some video games and head on into the dentist thinking they are just going to look at this tooth and give me their opinion. They look at it and agree that indeed I do need a root canal, post and crown on the tooth but the crown lengthening was not needed. Then they ask if I want to go ahead and get that done with right then and there. I was scheduled for a full visit so why not take advantage of the time and get it over with. They pulled in an extra chair for Orion to sit in while they worked and he got to watch me get a root canal done. Then they ask if I want to go ahead and put the post in since there is no sign of infection in the tooth. What the heck, why not right? So he puts in the post and does a temporary filling over it. I now have a tooth again. The dentist recommended that I just wait until January to do the crown since the vast majority of my insurance benefits will have been used up on the root canal and post just so I can save myself a little money. Orion was well behaved through the entire thing and I was very pleased, he truly made me one proud mama!
A couple days later, on Sunday, hurricane Irene came through and knocked out our power. We waited and waited for it to come on, nothing all day. Then my husband went to work on Monday and hear rumors that it might take 5 days to get our power back because there were so many lines down everywhere. I had to throw out all the food in my refridgerator except for a couple things that we managed to get into coolers and on ice, things like some chicken, milk and butter. Most of the fridge stuff was lost and all the frozens as well. On the up side of things...my fridge is so clean now it looks like it just came home from the store. Yesterday morning the power came back on, I was thrilled! I went out food shopping so I could restock my house.......only to come home to no power! I had to run out very quickly and get some ice at the store down the road so that I could pack another cooler with it and ice all the food I had just bought. I was afraid I was going to lose all that food as well and I was not pleased. The power didn't come back until early evening. This morning I woke up half expecting to see no power, but it is still on so I am hoping it's all over with for us and that we will not lose it again.
On the down side, I could not work the entire time the power was out so I lost out on a fair amount of money. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who makes a lot more than me so that we can still pay the bills and survive!
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Of course these events have taken me back to my youth and I have to share with you...because that's what I do on Thursday :)
The tooth thing took me back to when I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. I don't really remember how old I was, but I do remember the event and I can actually still see bits and pieces of it perfectly. It was the day my egg donor became a toothless old fool. I can perfectly picture her coming home from the dentists office, her mouth full of bloody cotton balls, looking like someone had beaten her to a pulp. She looked utterly miserable.....maybe that's why I can picture it so well, because it was a moment that I saw her feeling the way she always made me feel. She had gone to the dentist and had every single tooth in her mouth pulled out. I don't remember the why, I just remember that part of it. She never got dentures because she couldn't afford them, so from that moment on she was a toothless old fool......literally!
When my tooth broke last year I got a crown on it, this year I lost a filling and needed my first root canal. But I will make sure that no matter what, I will never become her! If I didn't have my husband and his help, I would be. I would have needed to have that tooth pulled out and never replaced. I would have left last years tooth until it rotted away and had to be pulled too. I am so very thankful that I will never be like her, I will find a way to make sure that even if I do end up needing to have my teeth pulled, I will find a way to afford dentures because I will never, I simply refuse to become a toothless old fool.
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The power outage also took me back. I can recall so many times when we would come home to find no heat, no electricity, and no running water. Generally that would be the middle of winter and the pipes would be frozen because the oil had run out and the electricity was off because she hadn't paid her bill. I remember how horrible I felt in those times, having to go find some wood to burn in the pot belly stove and then melt snow on top of it so that we could take a bath or make something resembling food or even flush the toilet. I remember having to leave the toilet unflushed because the snow hadn't melted yet or worse, having to go in a pot and then carry it outside to dump in the swamp. It was always so humiliating having to carry the pot of smelly mess out to the swampy area behind the house to dump. If you slipped and spilled it you not only got to smell like that for the rest of the week but you got a beating for it too. I often tried very hard to hold it until I got to school just so I could use a real bathroom. At those times, when it was cold and we had no heat, we would melt the snow on the stove and then put it into jars and curl up with them in bed to stay warm through the night. Sometimes we would fight over the jars because the bigger the jar the longer your heat lasted. I often ended up with the smallest jar because I was the youngest and smallest. Occasionally Sissy would crawl into bed with me and share her jar and warmth with me, but most of the time she would sleep with Big Sis #2. It was during these times of no power where I learned to survive on very little, very little food, very little warmth, and very little love.
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One final note...because of the power issues the schools will not open for an extra week so my son is enjoying his last week of summer once again....lucky kid! Of course this just means they will go longer into the summer but hey, it's nice to find out on the last day of summer vacation that you get an extension.
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