January 8 – “Off to see the wizard … ess?”

Ah … Garbage Day was yesterday.  Both cans were filled to the brim with Christmas wrapping paper and assorted gift packaging.  We even had four or five bags of those leaves resting comfortably to their side.  And now it’s all gone.  Time to fill ‘em up again.  WooHoo.

The big story for me yesterday was my trip to the dentist.  Remember that surgery to remove two teeth back in July just before our cruise to Alaska?  Well, somebody let slip to my mouth that we are going on another cruise.  I have been aching at the surgery site for the last few weeks.  Not like a toothache kind of ache, though.  Not sensitive to hot and cold or anything like that.  It just randomly aches.  So off to see the wizard … Well, actually my dentist is a girl, so she wouldn’t be a wizard, would she?  Maybe a wizard-ess?  She is good though. 

The worst part of the whole ordeal this time didn’t even involve my teeth.  I have another disk issue in my neck.  Recognize those well after four surgeries.  When they laid the chair back that disk flared up and went to work, pinching on the nearby nerve that sends tingling down my arm and into my fingers.  Fortunately she was stationed on my right side, so I could position my head with enough angle to get the pressure relieved.  Whew. 

But as for the ache.  Well, in a nutshell, it is not a tooth issue at all.  The jawbone area where the teeth were extracted simply hasn’t completely healed yet.  Many possible reasons that six months hasn’t been long enough.  Among them medications for other things and the possibility that the surgeon may have taken out more than he really needed to.  Oh, and of course there was that hint of the issue that she struggled terribly hard not to say out loud … “at a certain age …” 

So, what to do?  Chew food with sharp edges (like chips, not razor blades) on the other side.  Keep the area clean.  She also gave me a special mouth rinse and some antibiotics.  Oh, and of course the usual. “Come back and see me in a month.”  Here we go …

Romans 8:18 says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Father, thank you for my dentist.  It’s good to have someone you trust when every time you see them they are digging around inside your mouth.  Amen.