YOUR VERY WORST FEAR!

My daughter always adds kid's candy to some of my gifts.  This year one of the candies was burnt peanuts, you know, those peanuts with a hard red candy shell around them.  So last Wednesday I was foolishly eating some.   Then it happened.  Something in my mouth was not a peanut.  I retrieved the foreign object.  OMG.  A tooth!  

 But where is it from?  My tongue crept slowly around my mouth looking for an empty space.  OMG again!   There is a space in the front.  I tapped my partner and when he turned to look at me, I smiled.  Shock!  Luckily for me he did not run from me in horror but was sufficiently sympathetic.

I suddenly knew that my life was now ended.  How long does it take to repair this?  What if I was a famous movie star or the President of the United States? Wasn't there a way to fix a tooth  so they could continue participating in whatever magnificent projects they were involved in?  I could ransom one of my grandsons to afford whatever solution  I could find,   (Since all of grandsons are in their thirties I do not know how cooperative they might be with this)

We hustled back to the apartment where I put in a rush call to my dentist. He was the only one who could save me.  It was after five so my call got forwarded to several answering services until I am sure it was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.  I sat and comtemplated my fate.  No more social life.  I would have to stay in my apartment for the rest of my life or at least a few weeks, The was no way I could train myself to smile with my mouth closed.  

Maybe by Halloween I could make an appearance because I did resemble a carved pumpkin with the missing tooth.  What a clever costume!  But Halloween is three months away.  "Boogers!"  

And then I received a text message: "Hi Barbara, this is Dr. Xu.  I can see you tomorrow 10 am as soon as we open.  Don't worry. I'll take care of you."  Blessed relief!  I would sleep peacefully because help was at hand.  But how long would it all take?  Dr. Xu (pronounced shoe) was my dentist in Bolingbrook and had recently opened a brand new  office in Naperville.

The next morning I was at the dental office at 9:45.  Dr. Xu  greeted me with concern.   He checked my teeth and he told me I lost a crown.  That was a relief.  I was afraid my teeth had just decided to start falling out for the fun of it.   X-rays were taken and he told me there were two remedies possible and I could choose.  I told him to choose.  It was decided I needed a root canal and a temporary crown and a post or something. I agreed to come back at 4 pm.  

We went back home and my partner said it was okay for me to just be normal.  He was definitely not repelled by my new Halloween look.  I really wanted to just sit in the closet and sob but I managed to control myself until 3:30  when we drove over to Tower  Crossing shopping center.

I was seated in the chair from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.  I could look out on the little drive and watch cars go in and out past the antique store.   I could also watch a large TV screen which first showed lots of street scenes in Italian towns and then  inexplicably started featuring lots of birds.   Sometimes I closed my eyes.  Sometimes they took more X-rays.  I daydreamed of having my mouth all back to myself.  I also looked forward to using the most beautiful bathroom I have ever seen in a dentist's office.  

Suddenly, it was all over.  I looked in the hand mirror and I was no longer a sight for Halloween.  Yay!  My social life is not over.  I will live to hang out with folks for another day.

In the meantime, my great partner had purchased cookies from Crumbl Cookies next door for the whole dental staff and me.  He had gone up and down and in and out of all the stores in the shopping center passing out the dentist's card because he was so happy that I no longer looked like a Jack-O-Lantern.  He also likes to make  friends with everyone.  He is now best friends with the Honey Baked Ham people and also the folks in Tous les Jours where they have splendid baked goods.  

We both went home happy.  And I got to go to breakfast the next morning and I could smile at whoever I wanted to smile at which was everyone!

That night I got another text from Dr. Xu. He wanted to make sure that I was not having any discomfort from the root canal. He told me what I could take and even offered to provide a prescription if there was a lot of pain. Happily I was feeling great.  My only problem was that my facial muscles were a little weary because I spent a lot of time looking in the mirror and smiling at myself. 

Never give up hope!!!!