No laughing matter

I survived.

I had my first root canal procedure this morning, and it wasn’t all that bad. I was reading over the forms that I had to complete over the weekend, and when I came to the entry that asked if I wanted, for $50, to have the laughing gas option, I paused. Might be fun, just for the heck of it, but ultimately I decided that I could get 50 margaritas during happy hour at the local Mexican restaurant for the same amount.

There was no pain, but it wasn’t the most comfortable 45 minutes I’ve ever spent, either. The endodentist put a rubber bite block between my right teeth to keep my jaw open (saves you from having to hold your mouth open) and then they put this big plastic sheet around the tooth of interest to keep my saliva from polluting the exposed insides of the roots. That was probably the most uncomfortable part of it—my jaw ached a little around the place where this shield was installed after a while. Plus the fact that it’s damned hard to swallow with your mouth propped open. Not impossible, but it takes an effort.

The actual “surgery” was fine. The local anaesthetic froze everything from my jaw up to the edge of my left eye, which felt a little odd. I barely felt those injections and nothing at all after that. I was surprised when he finished, temporary cap and all. I thought he was just getting started. I have to take an antibiotic for a week because there was some infection inside the tooth. Then a week after I’m done with that I go back to my regular dentist for the permanent crown to seal things up.

Part of me still says I should have gone for the laughing gas, though.

My agent tells me he hopes to finish his readthrough of Missing Persons while on the road this week. I didn’t do much writing this weekend, although this morning I did another 1800 words or so on the new novel in progress. We went to see a play Saturday night, Moliere’s The Miser by Theatre de la Jeune Lune from Minnesota. A fiendishly wicked play, funny as hell. The actors were sensational, especially Stephen Epp, who played Harpagon.

The woman who runs the Red Light District message board and her husband are featured in tonight’s episode of Wife Swap on ABC. Check it out!