Dentist, Tears & Unanswered Questions

Tuesday was quite an emotional day for me. My tooth had been bothering me for a couple days; originally, I thought that I just had something stuck in my gums so I tried flossing and brushing but nothing really helped. By Monday after lunch, it had gotten worse. By the time I got home for the evening, it was almost unbearable. I took Tylenol (being pregnant and without much options) but it was not doing anything. Monday night was one of my worst nights for sleep, I woke up almost every hour because of the pain, and it was a constant throbbing pain on my lower right side of my mouth.

Tuesday morning I tried calling the dentist for an appointment. My biggest fear was being 7 months pregnant, I had heard that they do not like to do dental work on pregnant women. I was able to get a dentist appointment at 3:00 in the afternoon. Since I am still without a car, I had to schedule it at a time that I could borrow my sister’s car. By the time I left work for my appointment, the entire right side of my face was in severe pain. It had spread to my jawbone, cheek, top molars, even under my eye and starting to cause a headache. This pain was so bad, I was not sure if I would be able to tolerate it much longer.

At my appointment, they did not want to do an x-ray due to the pregnancy, but the dentist came in to do a visual exam of my mouth, looking at my charts, she reminded me of my last appointment. Back in May, I had a filling completed; during the procedure, she told me it would most likely have to be a root canal at some point. That was exactly what I thought it was going to be. They did not bother with the x-ray but began the referral to a specialist to have an emergency root canal scheduled since I was in so much pain. Only one problem…I am seven months pregnant. I was told they usually prefer to do dental work during the 2nd trimester, and I was well into my 3rd.

My next step was to call my OB and request approval for a root canal to be sent to the specialist approving what medication could be used and everything else involved. The receptionist was for one, not very customer friendly, or supportive of my situation. She made it sound as though it was not likely to get approved since I am 7 months along. By the time I hung up with her, I was in tears. The pain was too much and now I did not even know if I would be able to get it fixed. For those of you that do not know me very well, I actually have a high tolerance for pain, but this pain was just too much for me, all I could do was cry. The dentist office went ahead and scheduled the Emergency Consultation with the specialist pending the approval from my OB for the work to be completed.

As I sat in the car outside the dentist office, tears streaming down my face, I am at a loss of what to do. I guess just go home and wait it out. Just then my best friend calls to ask if I want to go to the mall the evening. How did she know that I needed a distraction? She didn’t. She didn’t even know I was in pain, but God did, and knew that right then I needed a friend. She picked me up, we picked up Brendan from day care and we went to the mall. The distraction was perfect, I wasn’t thinking so much about my tooth, the pain, or the whole ordeal with not knowing if I would even have the procedure this week or not. We were just two girls (with two active toddlers) looking for a dress at the mall.

An hour after I originally spoke with the OB’s office, I still had not heard back. I tried calling again to find out the status. After waiting on hold for a good 5-10 minutes, the receptionist comes back and tells me the work is approved, but an approval letter will not be able to be issued until Thursday morning, and the office does not open until 9:00. She also agrees to call in a prescription for me to take for the pain. Finally, relief is in sight.

So here we are today. I took the day off from work to have the root canal done. My poor husband also has to take time off since I have to have someone drive me there and back. At this point, I don’t know if it will just be a consultation with an x-ray (if approved) or if they will actually do work on my mouth. At least we are headed in the right direction to getting it taken care of. My appointment is this morning, I'm not sure how long it should take, or how long it will take to where I feel back to normal, hopefully not too long! There are still many unknowns, I still haven't seen the approval from my OB, I am praying it come through in time.

It is times like these when I have to just trust that God will take care of us, it will all work out, and in the scheme of things, this will seem so minor compared to everything else in our lives.