The Saga of the Teeth

(Excerpt from a letter to the girls)

Apologies to everyone if I'm slacking in responses and also Christmas-y type stuff in general. This end of work wrap-up is taking so much out of me! Just yesterday I was on the phone crying to my mom because usually Christmas is one of my favorite times of year and this year I just don't have the energy to do everything I usually love to do. She encouraged me to look at the stuff I usually do and see if I can do a less intensive version of them or something. G said today we'd work on finally unpacking from our Thanksgiving trip so we can get a tree, I think that will help a lot.

Our last day at the office is the 21st, and I'm taking the week of Christmas off, so maybe then I'll have some time to do more, even if it's after Christmas, although I may spend a lot of time sleeping, which is what has been happening on my weekends!

I just got NINE cavities filled in 2 days!!! My friend at work encouraged me to use my dental insurance before it ran out on Dec 31st. The closest dentist to take our insurance plan is in Ottumwa. So I went in for a cleaning and found out I needed a lot of fillings. Unfortunately, they did not have any openings until January, so I asked them to put me on the list to call if there were any cancellations. Then we had an ice storm and lots of people were canceling! The big roads to get to Ottumwa were pretty clear, but people were iced into their driveways and such. So I got 3 done one day, and the the next day I went back for 3 more. They said they'd been having a lot of no-shows, so they could probably just keep going and finish up the rest if I wanted. So I spent from about 2:30 - 4:45 in the dentist chair, and had 3 sides of my mouth numbed and 6 cavities filled. argh. But at least it's done. Except I'm a little worried about my bite, when I first got home the left side was hitting before the right side. A couple days later it seems to be settling, so maybe my jaw just had to get back to normal after being cranked open for so long... If anyone has any tips for recovering from the stress of dental work, I'm all ears!