Shoes and Other Falling Objects

Back in August, before everything else happened (though in looking for that link, it seems I failed to mention the whole "my sister has a bad cyst on her ovary that has to be removed surgically" issue in there. I think I must have just tweeted it), I went to the dentist. This, in and of itself, is not a big deal, I go twice a year whether I need to or not. But at this appointment the dentist says, "We saw something strange in your x-rays in January and you should go ahead and get it looked at and biopsied if necessary. Here's a referral." This was back before the work biopsy put the fear of God into my heart, honestly, because he was all "It's probably nothing but get it checked out before you come back in six months."

So, being the conscientious sort, I called the folks he referred me to and made an appointment, got the spiel about how it would be billed medical (not dental) and they don't participate in any plans but would help me file. So I called my PCP to see about a referral and they were happy to do it but my insurance company wouldn't let them make the referral because they're out of network so I called the dentist to ask if there was someone else he could recommend who maybe took my insurance or was in network and he said no, there was no one else he would recommend so I canceled the appointment making a note in my day timer to try and harass the dentist further and then everything happened with my mom and my sister and I kind of forgot about the whole thing in my jaw.

And then last week I bit an apple and my tooth hurt a little and when I put my tongue up along my gum to see what was going on there was this big lump in my gum and I had an "Oh yeah" moment that was confirmed after seeing online how dentists number teeth (because the referral has the tooth number on it) and it's the same place so...I made another appointment.

The dentist there (she's not a dentist, per se, she's some kind of oral surgeon but for my purposes, she's a dentist) looked at the x-rays I brought with me and took a panoramic x-ray and poked at my tooth and gum a little and said, "Yeah, we should biopsy that. And maybe if it's small we can just take it out while we're in there." She went on to give lots of gory details about what they'll do and how I could lose the tooth if it's big and they take it out or that I probably, at a minimum, will need a root canal afterward but it's still worth doing even though 99.9999999% of the time it's just a benign thing that happens so I shouldn't worry but let's go ahead and get it scheduled.

Now, having already done the insurance dance with this and found that I would have to pay the whole thing out of pocket (and it's only like $2K, but still, that's $2K and it's not like I have that rolling around in my dryer with the quarters and nickles Tim forgets to take out of his pockets but as medical procedures go, it's not hideous) I asked if, in her medical opinion, I could wait til January when our insurance changed and I wouldn't need to do the referral dance. She paused and considered a moment then said sure, as long as it was as early as possible in January.

So, January 11 it is. (That was their earliest appointment.)

But, lest you think all I got out of that was an anticlimactic future appointment and a promise that it's probably nothing, fear not! What really made the appointment completely worthwhile in my mind was the fact that I can now tell you to smile and leave you with this:


Cool...yes?