Teeth

I had a great experience today. I got a root canal extracted! Hurray!

I got this gem when I was seventeen. I had an infection in a tooth and my dentist said to me, "we've got to clean this out." Twenty minutes later he is telling me about my root canal. I am thinking, "What?! I had a root canal done?! That would have been nice to know before the fact."

I recently learned that root canals regularly turn toxic, harbor bacteria, and can even be linked to cancer. Crazy right?!

So after a cool scan that showed dead bone around my root canal tooth, where my body was trying to get rid of the dead tooth, I opted to have it taken out.

I now have a cool hole in my mouth. That doesn't happen every day!

Other interesting info: the roots of my root canal tooth were black. I wasn't too surprised since I could see black under the crown- and had for years. The dentist even took a picture. He said, "I can write and write about this stuff, but nothing explains it like a picture." So maybe I'll have a famous tooth showing black roots that can happen in a root canal. Yep, I'm gonna be famous!

After I got home the only way to describe how I felt was relieved. I felt like my body just breathed a sigh of relief to have that toxic tooth out of my body. I feel better now, sour mouth and all, than I have felt in a long time.

I get to drink smoothies without a straw for a few days. Handy that I already have great recipes for smoothies. I also get to rinse with salt water and put drops on the extraction site.

Ready for the best part? I get a cool "denture tooth" called a "spider partial denture." It's a fake tooth that clips onto the two teeth on either side of the hole. Removable and all. I have arrived at the definition of cool!

Thank you for sharing my joy at having this tooth gone. It's a pretty awesome day!

Grateful

I had a scan several weeks ago. It indicated that several little tumors came back. At first I felt scared, then I decided that was silly, because that wasn't going to help me get better, so I changed how I felt.

I now feel grateful.

Grateful that the little guys came back, because obviously there is more work I need to do.
Grateful that my body is telling me where the work needs to be done.
Grateful for a blessing that gave me more direction.
Grateful for numerous resources available to me in this journey.
Grateful for receptor blocker drugs that I get to take now.
Grateful for others who have done challenging things and showed me an example of courage.

I am also grateful because it gave me an opportunity to stand up for myself to my doctor. He is a great guy, but he tried to tell me that he was responsible for my health care. I corrected him and told him that, "no, it is my body, my health, and I am responsible. I make the decisions, not him." I don't think he had ever had a patient tell him that before. It was good for our relationship, because now I feel a partnership with him. Before it seemed he was used to people asking questions, then doing whatever he said. Perhaps even giving their power over to him and making him responsible.

I cannot do that.

I will not allow another person to have my power. I am responsible for my health, my body, and my decisions. It may seem trite when written, but it was a huge shift inside me to be able to claim this for myself and then be able to stand behind it.