Treats and Toofs

We usually go out to eat after Infusion.  We’ll go to the diner and (if it’s a good day) I’ll try some chicken noodle soup, and if it’s a typical day, I’ll get dry toast and an over easy egg.  Feeling adventurous, I got the chicken noodle soup last Saturday.  Soup itself is squishy and all that, but I gotta make sure the tum is up for handling the crazy bits like the tiny flecks of carrot.

I’m eating my soup and everything is going fine.  Suddenly, I crunched down on something that was very hard.  Knowing full well that if a non-squishy spice got in there, I shouldn’t be swallowing it (what with Gob and all) I fished whatever it was right out of my mouth.

“Are you OKAY Kitty?” Master Pravus asked me.

“I think so.  I’m just trying to figure out if I crunched down on a spice or a..  Fuck.  It’s a piece of tooth.  I broke my tooth.”

“I don’t think you broke it, you’d be screaming in pain.”

“I can feel a giant hole behind my tooth!”

“I think your filling fell out.”

“Well.  Fuck.”

The pieces of tooth that I had in my hand (because yes, I had bitten down on it) were small looking, but there were three of them.  On a tiny tooth that’s a lot of stuff.  I was not a happy camper.  I just kept saying “fuck” over and over until I braved up and finished (carefully avoiding that tooth) eating my soup.  The only really good thing about the fact that I lost a filling is that the tooth was a front one, which is a bit easier to avoid when you’re eating things, especially liquid foods.

Master Pravus started calling around to find emergency dentists.  Of course, the few who were open either didn’t take any insurance (we do have dental insurance) or they were booked for that day.  It was a Saturday, after all.  I was very unhappy about the thought of going the whole weekend with a “broke toof.”

We left the diner in a rush and ran to the nearest drug store to buy a cement patch kit to try to fill in the hole in my tooth just until we could get in to see the dentist on Monday.

If you’ve been reading here for any length of time, you know that I have had so many bad dentist experiences in my past, and I only have a couple of times that going to the dentist was not absolutely terrible.  This past January, I had the worst and most traumatic dental experience ever, and it made me so scared to see any other dentist that I had already decided that I would only go to the dentist for cleanings and then never have any work done again that was not emergency work. I just couldn’t bear the thought of having to go through anything like that again, and even though it seemed impossible to have an experience that bad again..  I was just not up for it.

Of course, less than four months after having this tooth filled, the filling fell out.  The worst part now about having gone through that awful experience in January was that I now needed more drilling on that same tooth.  If the filling had stayed in, at least you could say “well, that sucked, but my teeth are okay.”  Nope.  That sucked and the workmanship was so shoddy that my filling fell out in four fucking months.  I was completely ripshit. 

I’ve only ever had one other tooth filling come out on me, and that was after ten years.  Fillings do not last forever, I know that.  I wasn’t mad when it happened after ten years.  Apprehensive because I hate the dental drill, yes..  But mad?  No.  Ten years is reasonable.

After patching the hole in my tooth as best we could, Master Pravus told me he was going to take me for a treat to cheer me up.  I got in the car and I sat very silently.

“You know how I can tell you’re upset?” he asked me.

“How?” I asked him.

“You’re so upset you’re not even talking.  You’re always talking.”

It’s true, okay.  I’ve always been a chatterbox.  If I’m not talking, it means I have absolutely nothing nice to say and I don’t want to be a massive drain.  It kind of made me smile though, and I tried to cheer up.

We got to the store, and he let me choose any tea I wanted (we went to a specialty store that has all kinds of tea in it.  I had trouble deciding between two of them, but I settled on Caramel Chai.  As a side note, it’s a very mellow tea and I loves it!  One can never have enough tea, so tea is almost always a good treat for me.  Plus, it rarely bothers my tummy.

On the way out of the store, we saw them.  The Sea Monkies.  We hadn’t expected to see Sea Monkies and I got really excited.  I asked Master if I could get Sea Monkies for my treat instead of the tea.  We had Sea Monkies before, and I loved them.  I had so much fun aerating their little tank each day and watching them grow, and I thought it would last a lot longer than the tea.  Master Pravus’ eyes lit up when he saw the Sea Monkies too, and he said that having a filling fall out was worth Sea Monkies and tea.  He kind of has a tendency to spoil me a bit.  Heh.

We got home and I had to set the tank up right away.  They only had a mini kit with the standard stuff in it.  Nothing as elaborate as we had before.  I read the directions as a reminder.  I knew you had to fill to the fill line with tap water, and then add the water purifier and wait twenty four hours.  You’re supposed to stir until the water purifier looks completely dissolved.  I did so.  Afterwards, I kind of just stood there staring at the tank.

“I think I see Sea Monkies!”

“No, Kitty.  You don’t.  That’s just random water purifier bits.”

“…But!  Look!”

“Let me see…”

After a good long minute, Master Pravus assured me that I was delusional and perhaps just a bit too excited for the Sea Monkies.  Point taken.  I am a bit overly eager about most things, but I stared excitedly at the tank for a couple more minutes anyway, just because whatever was floating in the tank was kind of nifty.

So I sat my ass down because we were going to dig into that Mass Effect Monopoly and I put the Sea Monkies out of my mind.  Nothing to see or think about for twenty four hours.  Fine.

The next morning there were SEA MONKIES IN THE TANK!  Even Master Pravus could not deny it!  SEA MONKIES!  I know for a fact that I did not add the eggs to the tank.  I only added the water purifier.  I triple checked.  I even got photographic proof that the egg sachet is still unopened.

A motherfucking Festivus miracle, bitches!  Plus, now I have a spare egg sachet because these things will eventually die, even with good care, and then I have a backup plan.  Swanktastic.

A bit smug, I ran into the kitchen to tell Master Pravus.

“There are SEA MONKIES!”

“What?!  Lemme see!”  He ran in.

“Well, shit!  There ARE sea monkies!  Fucking cool!”

I admitted I felt a tiny bit cheated because I would have been staring at the tank all day watching for them instead of ignoring them, but it was still cool to see my new pets were happy in their little home.

It’s hard to see, but if you look really close at the magnifier in this section below, there is ONE visible sea monkey in the top right quadrant!

We can’t leave them in the window because the cats will knock them over, but I have a special light that mimics the sun on them and I turn it on when I get up and off when I go to bed.  They are already getting big enough to see easily without the magnifier!  I love them!

In some even more good news, the new dentist is an absolute gem!  He squeezed me in on Monday (which had me terrified all day: shaking, palpitations, the worst) but he was just the calmest, kindest man ever, and he didn’t do anything without getting permission.  He made dead sure I was numb (very carefully checking each time) and he was just meticulous in his work.  The repair was over before I knew it, and I am honestly not scared to have more work done…  So long as he is the one doing it!  We shall see. 

I was terrified all weekend due to the bad experiences I’ve had but this particular dentist specializes in working with people who have had bad dental experiences and he really took his time and saw that I was properly taken care of (not pushing epinephrine or anything else I can’t have on me either).  I actually left the dentist in a better mood than when I went in!  That’s never happened to me before.  I still don’t want any more dental work, but at least I’m not scared now.  He he.  A good ending to a bad weekend.