Broken Tooth Boogie-Woogie

So, where were we? Ah, yes. I still have a toothache and a sinus infection.

I saw an endodontist on Tuesday morning. Looking through a special microscope, he observed a hairline fracture that splits my back molar in twain. The doctor argued a root canal and crown were not appropriate because the remainder of the tooth would still be cracked, providing continued ingress for bacteria, making repeated infections nearly guaranteed. He referred me back to my dentist, recommending the tooth be removed as soon as feasible. It's not an emergency (for the endodontist, anyway), but the sooner it is removed, the sooner I'll feel better, according to him.

The earliest appointment the dentist had available was Tuesday, the 16th. This travesty has been one ruined three-day weekend after another. An earlier appointment wouldn't have helped, though. My dentist upon reviewing the diagnosis and X-rays sent to him by the endodontist (and possibly after being informed of the identity of my new dental insurer), had the front office call to cancel the appointment in favor of a referral to an oral surgeon. The root of the broken tooth is tucked in close to an unexposed wisdom tooth that has been quietly minding its own business for 30 years or more. That's become some sort of problem. The dentist I'm seeing is a D.D.S., so I'll take him at his word.

The referred oral surgeon wasn't available for consultation until February 29th. That was a non-starter, so I arranged something with another in the same system who had an opening on the 2nd. Consider that this appointment is only to determine if surgery is needed. The actual extraction, being a non-emergency, would still need to be scheduled, pushing any resolution even further out. I'm on a waitlist to drop whatever I'm doing should an opportunity open up sooner than the 2nd. I typically have pretty good luck with waitlists.

And, of course, along with the tooth, I've had a sinus infection with a 99.2℉ running fever for a couple of weeks as well. You may be thinking that 99.2℉ isn't an actual fever, but trust me, it's fever enough for anybody by that third or fourth day of running hot. I've gone through six boxes of tissues so far. I think the infection peaked on Wednesday when my sinuses filled up with blood clots, followed up on Thursday by a day of olive-drab mucous the consistency of gummy bears and dry rubber cement. After that unpleasantry, I started getting better by the day. I'm about back to normal now. Maybe tomorrow.

Fortunately, my new job working for the Airplanes is remote, and nobody expects me to haul myself up to an office with a cracked (and likely rotting) tooth and its sinus infection companion. I worked from my bed all last week. Being sick, needing to schedule and go to doctors' appointments, and dealing with my insurance has been a slog, but worse yet, it's made learning my way around a new job more challenging than I'd like. I don't think I'm falling behind, but I didn't get a chance to make the knock-out first impression I would have preferred.

The new year is definitely off to a rough start, but even with a sinus infection and broken tooth, that I know I'm about to lose to painful surgery as soon as possible, I am still happier right now than were I working for the Internet on a good day.