Tracy 0:00

I mean , I had everything .

Tracy 0:01

I had everything besides , you know , a comfort blanket or something . Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast . I'm your host , racy Wallace . Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life , that you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues ? So did I . You don't have to be an only child to feel this way . In my podcast , we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting , while doing so with humor and light . Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries podcast podcast .

Tracy 0:58

Today , I'm going to talk to you about dental work . Yes , again Now . One of my first episodes was about dental anxiety , which is something that I've struggled with for a long time , and recently one of my episodes I told you about my upcoming root canal . Well , this week I had that root canal and I want to share some more insights about that experience and about what I've learned from that experience . I went on this past Monday and I was as prepared as I could possibly be . The special dentist that was going to perform the root canal had excellent reviews . You couldn't find someone who had better reviews . You couldn't find someone who had better reviews . I read every review online that I could find about him . I found someone in my regular dentist's office who had visited with her sister and she also had glowing things to say about this guy and while , yes , I did have some really significant anxiety about the whole thing , I felt better knowing that at least he was one of the best right . Okay , he was one of the best right , okay .

Tracy 2:31

So I took my Xanax , which is something that I've never done before . I don't generally take anxiety medication . I did once before , a long time ago . I was going through , I guess , a stressful time and my doctor at that particular point in my life had prescribed Ativan and I don't remember much about it , but I do remember that it didn't really seem to help that much . It turned into a negative experience for me , so I stopped taking it . But I had never taken Xanax . I read about it online , being the overachiever that I am , and I knew that it would probably stay in my system for a while more than just four or five hours , maybe 12 to 24 . So I would feel sluggish , but it would help .

Tracy 3:28

I took a sort of a test run dose one night and I felt a little loopy and I felt sort of dulled , but I didn't feel weird or anything . So I felt like , okay , this will be all right . I got a friend to drive us . Bill doesn't drive a lot anymore , he didn't feel really confident driving . So one of my friends drove us to the office graciously and we went graciously and we went , and so my husband came in with me .

Tracy 4:11

I had my headphones so I could listen to music during the procedure , which is , you know , you could turn up the music so loud that you would go deaf and , let's face it , you can still hear the drilling . But it was something to focus on besides the classical music that was there . And I also brought one of my friends suggested bringing a plush , one of my plush Snoopy dolls , my plush , you know , peanut Snoopy . So I did that so I could just kind of hold on to him . I mean , so I did that so I could , I could just kind of hold onto him . I mean I had everything . I had everything besides , you know , a comfort blanket or something , and you know the actual procedure .

Tracy 4:58

I was there about an hour and a half . I was pretty stressed out . Half I was pretty stressed out . I took half of the Xanax before we left the house . I guess the adrenaline kicked in because I didn't really feel really that dulled anymore . So I took another half when we were there and I felt like I could have taken two more full tablets and it really wouldn't have helped . But anyway , I got through that .

Tracy 5:35

He started drilling . Actually , they explained the process to me . They had a whole binder . I don't know if this is a good thing or not , but they had a whole binder of illustrations on how they would do the procedure . I don't think that was a good idea because it just ended up stressing me out more to see and hear what they would actually do to my tooth .

Tracy 6:10

Anyway , um , if you've never had a root canal , I don't want to . I don't want to intimidate you , but uh it , there's nothing . There's nothing pleasant about it , except that it you know it doesn't last long . I mean he was quick , it didn't last you . It didn't last hours . I mean it was maybe I don't know 10 minutes , but it was pretty significant . I felt like I was a manhole cover and he was putting a jackhammer on me is what it felt like . I was numbed up , I had a lot of Novocaine and stuff , so I didn't feel anything . I was crying during the drilling part . Bill said well , I didn't hear it because there's too much noise in the room , but I mean , there weren't active tears falling down my face , but let's face it , I was crying .

Tracy 7:23

Anyway , when we left , the dentist said let me know if you have any pain or you have throbbing . And I thought , okay , well , sure , you know , no problem . The next day I felt a little tender . The Novocaine had obviously worn off and it felt a little bit more uncomfortable than I would have expected . But given how much they had done to my tooth , I expected that . But that night and the next morning I was in a significant amount of pain . So I called the doctor and he called me back and he said well , you're gonna need antibiotics . Great , that's great .

Tracy 8:13

So there was some question among the people that I know about why didn't he give you antibiotics when you left ? If you had infection in there anyway ? I don't know , but I am allergic to almost every antibiotic known to mankind . I don't know what his reasoning was . I'm not going to question it , because the antibiotic that he ended up prescribing for me is clindamycin , and I've had a lot of trouble with a lot of antibiotics .

Tracy 8:50

This one is something that they give you if you have to pre-medicate for your dental appointments . I've never had any trouble with it . It doesn't upset my stomach . It seems easy enough . But if you take a full course of it it can have some significant side effects , and one of them is that you can get C diff , which , if you're not familiar with C diff , it's a really bad infection that is highly contagious and it's something with I guess it's with the colon . Bill had it at one point and he got really sick because he had been on a lot of antibiotics and I won't go into further detail but if you are interested you can look that up . It's C and then space and then D-I-F-F , so C-d diff .

Tracy 9:46

So I've been taking a probiotic . I'm not sure that there's much else that I can do , but I have been in a lot of pain . He also gave me prednisone a course of prednisone steroids , so he didn't give me any pain meds . Now I had saved my Percocet from my knee replacement . Now I had saved my Percocet from my knee replacement but I told myself that I'd probably never take that again because it caused me so many problems . But I saved it in case of an emergency because it's so hard to get pain meds now . I mean , you have to nearly be dead to get something to treat your pain . So I would say that my pain level was on a nine at the worst and it was just incomprehensible to really it was just constant pain , and I was taking ibuprofen and Tylenol extra strength . It wasn't really touching it and you get to a point where you have been in pain consistently , where you're ready to just tear your hair out . So I took a half a Percocet , which would end up putting me to sleep . But sleep's better than pain , right ? So anyway , that's what that is . Now .

Tracy 11:18

The point of all this is that you shouldn't be afraid of having a root canal because hopefully in the end everything's going to come out fine . I'm not going to be in any pain . I had a little discomfort this morning , but this is day . Well , it's a week . It's a week later now that I'm recording this and I can brush my tooth without it hurting . I can eat really soft food on that side . I have to go back in three more weeks . He's going to put I guess he put a temporary filling in where he drilled . So he's going to put a permanent filling in and then I guess I have to go back to my other dentist and replace the crown , so it's not just one visit . But I started thinking about this and feeling like this really sucks , which it does . But I really have no one to blame but myself and I'm going to take responsibility for this , because I mean and I'm not going to be too hard on myself either but because of my dental anxiety , years ago I stopped going to the dentist and subsequently what happened was that this tooth somehow , somewhere in there , got a cavity that went really deep .

Tracy 12:49

I never saw it . I would always look in my mouth and look at my teeth , and if I had seen a big cavity , I think I would have gone to the dentist , but I didn't see anything . I think it started materializing below the surface or something , and this is the molar that broke . And , yes , then I did go to the dentist and I did do what I had to do , but the dentist told me that the cavity had gone really deep and he did what he could , and then he put the crown on , but he said , down the line , you might have some trouble . You might have some trouble . And so I could have alleviated all this if I had kept up with my regular maintenance and my regular dental appointments .

Tracy 13:38

And so note to self a lesson learned you got to keep up with what you got to keep up with and it may be not be the most pleasant thing at the time , but down the road it's going to help you out . It really is , and it's going to cut out any of these horrible , horrible , horrible experiences . I mean , I was just not even able to concentrate or think , and I have to admit that this week was also the election and , being the liberals that we are , my husband and I were depressed . I mean , we live in a very liberal state , we live in a liberal area , but we're disappointed in the election and we're concerned about the state of affairs for our friends who are some of the different populations , the gay and lesbian populations , the immigrant populations , marginalized people . We feel concerned about everything . Working in a non nonprofit , all these years working for nonprofit causes , it's really hard to be fully anything but liberal on these policies .

Tracy 15:30

It's been a week , but it's definitely been a week filled with physical pain , which is no fun . But lesson learned take care of yourself . What do you have to do that you've been putting off ? Doctor-wise , dentist-wise , otherwise . That's my question to you . So , with that question to you . So with that , I will leave you for this week . Happy Veterans Day . Thank you all to the veterans for your service to our country , and next week , well , we'll tackle another topic together . I hope you'll join me . If you like this episode , please follow the Only Child Diaries podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on and consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review . It helps others to find us . Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well . Visit my Instagram page Only Child Diaries or Facebook Only Child Diaries Podcast . Thanks for listening . I'm I'm .