Getting to the root of things

There's one thing that can get in the way of a budget, a student loan payment plan, and a blog all in one fell swoop. And that, my friends, is a dental emergency.

Ugh.

The pain started about a week ago. My self-diagnosis was that my incessant nighttime teeth grinding had finally gone too far and it was time for a night guard. I was being lazy about calling the dentist.

I am dumb.

On Thursday, between my bouts of ibuprofen for pain that was by then encompassing the entire right side of my jaw, I left a message for my dentist, hoping they could fit me in sometime on Friday.

Very little sleep on Thursday night.

I finally got a hold of my dentist and booked an appointment for Tuesday afternoon. It seemed a little far off, considering that my temple felt like a steel rod was being shoved through it, but I still (foolishly) believe I only needed a night guard, so a couple of days was no big deal.

Friday night I could barely function. The pain was constant and debilitating. No sleep was had.

Saturday morning I called the dentist again and pleaded. Today, I said. You must see me today. They fit me in at 11:20am.

Side note* When I used the bathroom in the dentist's office, I noticed that the single rose wasn't alone in the vase in the airbrushed picture on the wall. There were dental instruments surrounding the rose, in the vase. Very, very strange. Like, they couldn't just have art. The art had to mean something. It had to remind people where they were.

I explain my night guard theory to the dentist. He takes one look at my teeth and agrees that I need one, but says my symptoms are from something else. I blame the back molar on my top right hand side. He explains that our bodies are not good at localizing pain and that he is going to figure out which tooth is the problem by touching each tooth with a mini ice stick. I am to raise my left hand when I feel pain.

When he touches the second from the back molar on my bottom right hand side, my entire body reacts to the pain. (In fact, it continues to reverberate for about three hours after he touches it.)

Yep. You need a root canal, he says.

(Sigh. Not the first time, either. But last time I had one I was uninsured. It took me almost two years of monthly payments to pay for it.)

When the scheduling person tells me that they can fit me in NEXT SATURDAY, I fight to hold back the tears, clutching a prescription for Tylenol 3 that I believe will help me through the worst of it.

Fast forward to 7pm. I have taken two Tylenol 3s and the pain is blinding. So I call the emergency dental clinic to find out how they work and where they are located. Turns out, they are about 200 yards from my front door. No joke.

Why put off until NEXT SATURDAY what you can do today?

So the boyfriend and I eat dinner, because I imagine I'm not going to want to eat afterwards, and I head over to the clinic.

It takes roughly 20 minutes once I'm frozen. I don't feel a single thing AND I'm super calm thanks to the On-the-go play list I made on my iPod to get me through. And I come out the other end feeling like a brand new woman, wondering why I didn't just go there in the first place.

Now, they've only done the first half of the root canal, meaning the took out the evil nerve that was causing all the pain. I still have to go to see my other dentist to get it filled and get a crown or a filling. (Any thoughts on this? A crown is going to cost me $500-$600 out of my own pocket. Is it really worth it?)

The painful part, even with insurance, is the money. Here's a little rundown:
Original exam plus x rays: $60 and a bit (Charged to credit, although I'll get just under $50 of that back.)
Prescription #1: $9.99** (I used my weekly budget money for this.)
Second exam plus x rays plus half root canal: $235 (Charged to credit, but I should get a big chunk of that back.)
Prescription #2: Just under $14, but that was the prescription plus a "I just had half a root canal" treat. (I used my weekly budget money for this.)

Until I have the other half of the work done AND decide on a filling or a crown, I won't know the grand total. But I can already tell you that my next loan payment will be a bit compromised, since getting rid of the credit card debt is my first priority. (Generally I don't carry any balance on my credit card anymore. It's just not worth it!)

I'm going to have to have a bit of a "spend nothing" sort of week to make it through, but at least I am typing this without pain. Life is so annoying unpredictable for a Virgo like me!

** Even though it will save you $2 on the dispensing fee, DON'T EVER get a prescription filled at the Zellers at Lawrence Square Mall. The pharmacist will act so unsure of himself and move so slowly that it will take all of your willpower not to hop over the little gate that separates him from you and beat him senseless.

Total debt: $9850 and a bit
Spent yesterday: $14.18 (Plus I charged just under $300)
Spent today: $21.05