Hey, are we the only ones having a hard time using the Dis? Lately I"m lucky if I can even get ON it at all, and I cringe when I have to change pages. But every thing else seems to work just fine,,, from all the other Disney sites to expedia to whatever I think of,,, but my little wheel spins forever usually trying to move or post on the Dis,, only to end up with "This Page cannot be displayed",,,I'm wondering if it would help to go into internet settings and clear history and cookies,,,,, I just hate doing that, I usually come across a password or two then that I can't remember..
Any thoughts? Or is it happening to everybody?
Anyway, while it appears to be working right now, let's visit our medical profession once more, just don't expect a lot of laughs, I left them in the car.
I'll be totally honest with you, I don't know if this is worth telling or not, I can picture myself writing this little chapter about my life and an hour and half from now, deleting it, I guess we'll see.
Diane and I have had a hard time makin dentists like us in the past, the past being all our lives,,, mainly because we have almost never had a heatlth plan that covered dental, too, dentists don't like people that don't have insurance, we aren't near as much fun.
And people without Dental Insurance don't like Dentists who keep reminding them that they need to take care of their teeth better, yes, we know that.
But the nicest straightest whitest strongest teeth you can possibly have aren't a top priority when they are being used to open 9 Lives Seafood Platter wet food cans for our dinner when we are living in a cardboard box under the Fox River bridge.
I/we, were seeing a guy I liked a lot, whom I met doing karaoke about 14 years ago,,, but lately it seemed like things changed,,,, he went through a nasty divorce,,,,and it seemed to affect his billing policies a tad.
Sometimes you may think that your buddy is going to give you a good deal,,,,( he knows we don't have insurance, so he'll charge us less than Delta Dental,, or whatever plans there are), but after my last visit to him,, I
realized that he was thinking the exact,,,,, same,,,, thing!
"Hey, it's Nebo,,, my pal,,,,, he won't mind paying me more than I could charge a stranger,,,,,so what if he doesn't have insurance and may lose the house,,this is what friends are for, to take care of each other, besides, now my ex is going to want half of all that I have!
Which is plenty.
I actually knew a few people from the Saturday Night karaoke group who also went to him, and almost all of them say,,,, Yeah, I like Dr. Bruce,,,he's good, but he's not cheap. Well I got to thinking that maybe it's possible to have somebody for a dentist who can be Good, and Cheap.
Last March, right after we both quit smoking,,, my crown that sits smack dab right in the front of my mouth, upper, fell out again, so i went back to him to glue it back in, he was the very best at being able to find a glue that would keep it in for at least a couple of years. Most of the post is gone, not much left to really glue the dang thing TO but he's always been really good at it,,, the last glued job held for almost 5 years.
He could not understand though why it didn't really seem to fit there anymore,,, and I suggested that maybe from the quitting smoking my gums were growing back out again a bit, maybe even crowded and pushed the crown right off.
As a matter of fact,,,, I woke up with this thing floating around in my mouth, it came free in my sleep and I can't believe I didn't make it end up where son Jeremy once made Diane's Buffalo Head Nicked end up,,,,,,,you could not even read the date on it anymore,,,,, and the buffalo looked more like a guinea pig when Jeremy was done with it, but I digest:
He gave me a bit of novacaine and trimmed the gum a bit and re-glued it back in and sent me on my merry way...
but not until I handed over a check for 254 dollars at the front desk. Epson Printer's Ink doesn't cost as much as this glue does, I guess.
Sorry, I thought that was ridiculous to just glue a tooth back in, and we went and found a Dental Plan and a new Dentist.
Ok, right before the last trip,, I lost a filling in a tooth but I didn't realize it at first, until the tooth started to break and chip away, this tooth was way, way, in the back,,, I thought it might be a wisdom tooth,,, but even though it was the last tooth,,, it wasn't a wisdom because that was still underneath, hibernating in my gums.
I know, I know, how could I be so stupid when it comes to wisdom? I know, I know, my tongue was blocking my Eye teeth and I couldn't see. My bicuspids went 100% gay. I'm leaving my pointy, "Dracualy Fangs" teeth to both ballplayers, Al Kanine and Jeff Canine,,,,and one last blurt,,
I once was on a bowling league and a team was sposored by a larged dentristry,,,, Yes,,, The Holy Molars were hard to beat.
I made an appointment on a friday to go see the new guy to have that damn thing pulled, we were leaving for Disney a week from Sunday, so If I'm going to do this, it better be soon.
And i couldn't.
New Dentist said this needs to be pulled by an oral surgeon, it's not going to come out easily and they are better equipped with causing a plentifull plethora of pain than he is.
It's nice they think of each other.
He referred me to another new guy, wrote me out a 12 pill prescription for Tylenol 3 and a script for Penny Cyllen.
Yes, to me the Tylenol 3 are like giving Sonny Corleone a band aid and a "kiss kiss make it all better," at the toll booth.
I have seen an oral surgeon once before inmy lifetime, and not way I am going to do this right before a trip, so I hoped it would settle down and my regular vikes would keep it at least in line.
The other time I saw an OS, he put me to sleep,, and I just hated it. First off, I woke up with them all laughing at me,,,,I remember the nurse asking me how long I lived in Algonquin as they were administering the sodium petathol,,,and I got confused for a moment,,, then I said,, oh, sorry,,, 4 and a half years now,, that's what cracked the doctor and two assistants up. ?
Turns out they asked me the question BEFORE I went under,,, they then pulled the tooth and did what they had to do and brought me back out of it,,,,,,but my stupid braind felt the need to still answer the question,,, not knowing it's almost 20 minutes later now.
Then in recovery room, I just hated everything just then,, it was all bothering me, expecially this huge piece of cotten in my mouth, and I tried to pull it out, when Smidgy started yelling,,,, "Steve, Steve, leave your tongue alone! Let go of it."
Anyway, I'm not going to have this done right before a trip,,,hopefully it will settle down,,, the anti biotics should help,,, and I never did call the Oral Surgeon,,,, I'll do it when we get back.
Well,,, that was the one good thing that DID happen on that trip,, I can just imagine what might have happened if I had a bad toothache while we tried to get to Florida with the car falling apart on us in the tropical storm,,,, oy vey
Since then it hasn't really bugged me much,,, until a few weeks ago when my tongue told me I'm missing more of it.
That did it all right,,next morning, boy did it start hurting,( I wish my tongue would keep it's big mouth shut!) once my tongue felt the hole in my mouth getting bigger, then it had to play with another little piece that was sticking up,,,, until it broke that off as well.
I even tried to show it to Smidgy,,, but she had no interest in even looking at it,, she was more interested in saying,,," I told you these things don't go away, they only get worse,,,"
But now I don't want to have it pulled with her cataract surgery around the corner,,, and if they have ot put me under to pull it like my other experience with the oral surgeon,,, then she will have to drive me,, I can't go and do it on my own,,, so I put it off a little longer because she has re-arranged everything to accomodate the surgery,, and subsequent follow up visits.
Finally, I called and made an appointment, but this guy wants me to bring with some x-rays,,, and "why don't you just drive over there and pick them up?"
Ok, ok, fine, and that's exactly what I did.
Next thing I know I'm sitting in a chair as they are sticking big bulky things in my mouth trying to make me throw up,,, taking pictures, the original dentist thought with further breakage, more recent photos would be better.
Then I had to go and stand in this really strange machine that circled around my head and i guess took even more pitures..
I was told to go and sit in the chair again,,,and Dentist number one came back in and now gave me a shot in the jaw for the pain,,,, I couldn't believe this,,,, I just stopped in to pick up the old ex rays they took back in August,,, and now my mouth and lips are numb and I'm practicing my drooling down my chin act, which is always very becoming.
I even told him that this is the " Last time I stop in and say hi", which got a laugh from him and his assistant, then I was finally sent on my way with new tooth pictures and more Penny Cillen and fake painkillers scripts. Yes, he said it was really abcessed, infected, and he's surprised I'm not screaming more than I was about the pain.
But he wouldn't let me go with out saying something I swear I have heard before,,,"I told you these things don't go away on their own, they only get worse."
When I had made the appointment with the oral surgeon,,
of course the only opening was for the next tuesday,,, the day I go for my retinal exam,,, so I had to put that off till thursday,,, 2 pm. They said if they think they can do it under local,, they will pull it then, if not then I'll have to set it up for a time when I have a ride.
Now,,, it's time to get to the problem,, real,, or imagined,,, irrelevant, it was still a problem.
When Doc 1 gave me the shot the other day,,, I noticed on the way home that breathing seemed strange to me,,,in
the sense that breathing was all I could think about,,,
and then I remembered:
I had that tooth filled about 5 or 6 years ago by the other dentist that I stopped seeing recently,,,, and it is the last tooth on the bottom right.
When I was driving home that day after he drilled, cleaned and filled it with plenty of shots of novacaine,,that was when I discovered that mortality can be right around the corner.
I couldNOT breathe.
I had to pull the car over,,, it seemed like my whole throat was closing up and the novacaine hadnot only frozen my gums, lips and tongue, but also parylized my muscles controlling breathing in my throat..
It scared the hell out of me.
I remember even opening the car door, If I need to I may have to just fall out the door and lay on the ground to get some help,,,,I had no idea what else to do and I just sat there on the side of the road,,, in-hal-ing,,,,,, ex-hal-ing,,,still in the driver's seat, but turned sideways with both feet out the door ready to drop,,,,I could then see nothing,,, the whole world went "white" on me,,, I could't see ten feet in front of me.
And that's how I sat for the next 20 minutes,,, nobody pulled over to ask what's up,,,, slowly my vision returned and breathing became an unconscious event again, rather than drawn up as critical plays on a chalkboard and "Ok, we all need to
be on the same page for this to work!"
I had not thought of this since it happened in about 2005 or so. I meant to ask Dr. Bruce about it, but I didn't see hm for another 3 years or so, and forgot all about it.
Ok, flash back now to '94,,We'll end up back with the Troglodytes yet,,even though it's not common for guys,,,, I suffered from MAJOR panic attacks,,, to the point that I was even made to undergo an Angiogram,,, the camera up the groin's artery into the heart for a home video of the four quadrants of the heart. Turned out my heart was ok,,, my brain, wasn't.
My collection of stress was exceeding the room I had to store it, no more room even in the attic so once in a while, some would fall out or show up in a box when I didn't expect it.
Anxiety attacks are bad,,,, but they are nothing,, I repeat, nothing compared to a full blown panic attack.
I don't know if I had a panic attack or not that day I had the tooth filled,, for some reason I never thought of it,,,but I do know I had the worst, absolutely the worst, Panic Attack I EVER had, about a month ago,,, that lasted over 2 hours. In the past,,, in the nineties, they might last as long as ten minutes,,,,, this one was for over 2 hours,,,,, and I had nothing I could take for it,,,,and the Painkillers absolutely made it worse. So here I am, back in the present.
So, was it my mind messing with me back when this tooth was filled 6 years ago? Or was I really suffering from a type of reaction causing anaphylactic shock? Which is your throat swelling and closing up resulting in death by suffocation?
I don't understand how you cannot control these types of thought,,, but uh uh,,,, you know you are going to die,,, and that's it,, nothing at all you can do about it.
I walked into the OS office that was completely empty except for a girl behind a window, who handed me the New York City Yellow Pages to fill out, the book she gave me was blank. Then another woman with a mask on came and put me in a regular type dental room.
After taking my blood pressure, she left and I think she mumbled someting like, "Have a good life."
Although this room is very bright like most dental offices are, and it's got all the trays, spittoons and swing arms it also seems like it's an afterthought room, not the main room, kinda like you were going to be playing "Off Broadway"
I mean there's a small monitor on a cart,,, but it's plugged in, the screen has clouds on it,, but no keyboard in sight, or puter for that matter.
Then there is a Rollaway Craftsman tool chest,,, the five drawer typed that I have seen often n my 35 years as a machinist,,,,, but you know what? I don't think I've ever seen one in a Dental Office before.
McHenry County Oral Surgeons, Dentists and Mufflers and Brakes! All work guaranteed for 90 days or thirty thousand chews.
Thankfully, I brought with, a newspaper, to read.
Uh oh, I'm doing that dangerous talking backward almost that results in dangling participles, you know,,, the " Throw
Momma from the train, a kiss."
But I mostly just sat there and stared, I could not concentrate on the paper, even the orange juice adds.
(Sometimes you can see it coming and you have to head Ponzi off at the pass)
20 minutes later the door burst open and it was the assistant again,,, I jumped and she saw I jumped since there was no way it wouldn't scare the crap out of you the way she did it,,,,and I guess that was her whole mission right then,,, to scare the crap out of me cuz she patted me n the shoulder, said, "We didn't forget about you Steve," and left again.
By now I dont feel like going back to the paper, so I pulled back the paper towels covering up the tray on the 'swing-arm' that is holding all his instruments of pain and torture, and, of course, as I was looking at all these shiny stainless steel hooks, blades, mirrors, scribers, scalpels and Ginseng knives,,,, the door quietly opened up and I could feel him standing over me;
"Hello, what are you doing?"
Leaning over this tray, caught dead to rights I even have my glasses off so I can see these disciples of death better, I just looked up over my shoulder at him without jumping back:
"Oh, hi, I'm just removing the ones I don't like."
He looked at me for a second before he realized I was joking, and it was then that Nebo the Paranoid got to meet
Dentist the Menace. Yeah, right now is the first time I have even seen him at all.
He started going over some of the paperwork I filled out,,,and I really felt I needed to bring up the throat closing thing to him.
This really got his attention,, which I didn't want to see happen.
I just wanted hm to poo poo it,, say there's nothing to worry about and shall we resume?
He did say that if I was allergic to this medicine,, and it was anaphylactic shock then he doubts I would be sitting there right now waiting to have this tooth pulled,,,,,,
if you get my drift.
I tolk him, ok,,,let's say it is just in my mind,,,do you have
anything you can give me,,, like a valium,,, ativan,, xanax,
something that will get rid of the anxiety and take that equation out of this little scenario?
He laughed like it was the dumbest thing he had ever heard.
"No,,I either work with you awake under local,, or asleep,,
one or the other."
Right, fine. He deals with drugs that will knock you out,,
but something that will make you less nervous before he cuts into you? Oh my God no!
Right, fine,,,,my heart was already pounding,, and I felt another panic attack was right around the corner,,, but I was here,,, and I just had to go through with it.
For the record on a side note,,,,, I had not had anxiety problems for over ten years,,,, and it was such a relief to get off that medication,,,,, especially the anti depressants that I never wanted to take,,,, but I had to if i wanted the pills that would keep the panic attacks from coming.
So,,, what do I think has brought them back?
I've got a good idea.
You don't take away something a person has done 50 times a day ever since they were 15 without there being some rebellion from the brain, and it's not just the nicotine, it's the whole mind set.
So he shot me a few times,, then left, saying it will take ten to fifteen minutes for the medicine to numb my jaw,,, or kill me, whichever came first.
I'm sorry,,, I know it may sound that way, but I am not,,not in the slightest, a hypochondriac. Yes,, I joke alot about injuries and stuff for the reports, but that's all just for snorts and giggles.
Sitting there by myself though, I felt like I was waiting to die. Go ahead, try not to think about breathing in a situation like this.
But there was one reason I gave him the green light to go ahead;
I had anticipated his response before I left home, and I stil had 4 Ativans left from an old prescription,,,, I had brought one of them with me,,,, the trick was finding this thing in my pocket,,,,you wouldn't believe how teeny tiny these pills are.
When the door closed, I leapt up and started fishing for the pill,,,got a hold of it and swallowed it and thought, "Ok,
I may still die but at least I hope I won't be as nervous about doing it now.
No, I didn't want him knowing I took it,,, not sure why but you just never know if that might offend him or not.
When he came back in with his delightfull assistant who would have been right at home playing Jason in a Friday the 13th movie, they were both wearing masks, but she didn't have the hockey mask on.
He did.
Ok, I'm kidding, after a few tentative pushes and pulls,, he really went at it.
They pried my left side of my mouth open with a bumper jack, then he told me to raise my left hand if I feel any discomfort.
I raised my left hand.
They both laughed,,, and went back to work while I thought "yeah, right, this'l work."
Alright, let me put this simply,,,
this tooth had no intention of moving out.
He told me in the beginning that he agreed with the regular dentist, it needed tp be pulled and about a quarter of it was already gone, including that filling from 6 years or so ago.
I thought he was pushing with all his might to break it up,,
but later on he told me that what he was actually doing was trying to "pry" it up,,,which meant he had to push down on the sides tp pry up the tooth in the center.
But it kept breaking up.
He would then have to use the grinder and grind in a couple of new "notches" that he could then use the tools I was going to remove from the tray to try and pry up the tooth again.
But the sound effects of the breaking and crunching and all the pressure he was exerting was extremely disconcerting to me,,,,, and it hurt like hell,,,,, but I didn't want to tell him that in case he would then administer the fatal novacaine dose that would lock up my throat for good.
So I sat there while he beat me up.
He did say again to let US know if you need us to stop,,,,by raising , and I chimed right in with him,,,"BLY REVT HAM!"
Apparently I speak good Instruments of Death, because he told me very good, and went back to work.
I keep wondering who he refers to when he keeps saying Us,,,,he's the only one doing anything,,, Baby Jane appears to only be there to suck spit.
This tooth did not want to come out.
He swung me from side to side in the chair, everyonce in a while he would pause just long enought to turn the screw on the vice grips a little more,,, and then he would be pounding me up and down in the chair again.
One time he had me totally suspended about 6 inches in the air abouve the seat before he threw me back down, then it was yank back to him, shove forward, yank back to him, shove forward,,,, I didn't think I could take it anymore, and instead of the Universal sign of distress by holding my left hand up,,, I gave the other Universal sign of distress by screaming in his ear, and he paused and told spit sucker to hang on a moment.
Oh yeah,, now that was important,,, hate to have her waste her valualbe training and resources and try to suck spit for no reason right now,,,, then he yanked out the bumper jack from the left side of my mouth that keeps the whole mouth open,,,, and he's not thinking,,,, he just yanked it out but on this side there was no Novacaine given on this side,,,,,, and wanna take it easy?
Then he asked me what the problem was,,,,
I knew right then I had to finish this today,,, I really was considering stopping this and coming back,,,, but uh uh, it's now or never.
I told him I thought I was going to sneeze,,, nope, not giving him the pleasure and even said to spit sucker, "Resume"
Two minutes later he got the damn thing, quick stitches and gauzing up and I was out the door.
Cost?
278 total,, I guess that's not bad since he's not just a dentist but a step us.
I was shaking like crazy when I filled out the check,, but all the time behind me is now a jam packed waiting room,, and since I don't plan on ever going here again,,,, I had to play it up a bit.
What was cool was I said something that cracked the dentist up before we left the room, just when a girl at the counter came in with all the paperwork, but she was wondering what it was that made him laugh like that.
Unfortunaely for the people in the waiting room,,, they didn't hear that part about laughing,,, all they heard was what was said to me through the little open window again before i settled my bill.
"Wow, I"ve never seen him like that, what did you say to set him off that way?"
I looked around the room that is now giving me its' rapt attention,,,,"Nothing, honest, it's just a mood he's in today, i guess, sorry about that, BOY, Hate TO BE HIS NEXT PATIENT!" And she chuckled a bit,,,,but there was no chuckling in the waiting room.
So, there you have it,,, and at the tme of this writing,,, which is 8 monday night,,,, dang,,,, this thing still hurts!
Who in their right mind needs to go on TSM so badly that they'll wait 2 Hours +?????? I'd hesitate if the line was more than half an hour, let alone two! 
Generally speaking, isn't Randy also a confederate of his?
I could not for the life of me figure it out. At first I thought, "Well, he knows where the camera is and is mugging for it." But I defy anyone to be able to do that on that ride.
eeewwwwwwweeeee! 
Now that's good!
What? I smell ararat.
And I'm from NE Ohio, I talk the same as you! 
