— पांच हजार तीन सौ छियालीस —
What can I tell you about yesterday? Not a whole lot, except that I left work at 1:00 to make it to my first of two dentist appointments to get a crown.
I intended to return a library book and pick up one that was waiting for me. I totally spaced that
it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and that meant the library would be closed. This hit me literally when I got off the elevator on the third floor, on my way to the skywalk over to the building I like to cut through to Western Avenue. I really didn't need to leave work that early after all, but, instead of going back up to the 5th floor just to restart my computer for another hour, I said fuck it, and went home anyway.
I had already finished my library book, thinking I would have the next one to read immediately. Now I was annoyed that I'd have to wait another day. I got on the Seattle Public Library website to see if I could check out a digital copy for the time being. The site bizarrely says "0 of 23 copies available" and says there's a wait time of "about 10 weeks" on it!
But! It
also has a "read a sample" option, wherein I can get access to the first 70 pages, which was plenty. So, even though this is never my preference and I really prefer actual books in hand, I started the book on my phone while commuting home, walking to the Monorail, transferring to Light Rail, then walking home from Capitol Hill Station.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ छियालीस —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ छियालीस —
I had a bit of time, then, at home before needing to get to the dentist appointment—nearly an hour. It was probably 1:35 or so when I got home; the appointment was at 2:30 and I left at 2:15. The dentist I go to is all of four blocks from home, an easy walk. The dentist himself is from India, as many people in this region are—including, of course, Shobhit. And Krish, our new-ish CEO at PCC. I've got Indian-accented acquaintances all over the place.
The young woman who led me back asked how I was doing, and I was like, "Anxious to get this over with." The appointment was scheduled for two hours, although to their credit they barely took more than ninety minutes. I wound up letting her know my issues with needles, although I think I may have freaked out more than she expected.
Hyperventilating is just part of the deal when I get a shot, but it's definitely worse when I'm getting a shot directly in the mouth.
Three fucking times. If I remember I will ask the doctor about this at my next appointment—I have a temporary crown and will get the permanent one placed on February 3, maybe sooner if they get it sooner—because I didn't think to yesterday: I don't know if the multiple shots were to lessen the severity of the experience each time because of my anxiety, or if it only had to do with what he initially told me which was to let the Novocain settle in without getting into my blood stream. All I know is, he came into my mouth with that fucking needle three separate times. At least his hand shielded my view of it.
The woman assisting him spoke to me during it, especially the first shot, telling me to take deep breaths, and breathe out, over and over. More than once she told me to wiggle my toes. That was new. This happened again during the second shot, and by the third shot I was numb enough that I hardly gave a shit.
The young woman asked if I had headphones with me, and of course I did. She said I was welcome to use them, something I have considered in the past but worried about it being a barrier to communicating. I went ahead and listened to two different podcasts recapping Sunday's series premiere of
The Last of Us on HBO, and I did have to tap-to-pause a few times when the doctor spoke to me. I tried to keep it low enough in volume that I could hear speaking, but then they put this large suck-tube thing in my mouth that made a lot of noise for most of the procedure, so I had to turn it up.
The doctor told me the numbness should start going away a couple of hours after the injection, but offered me some kind of medication I could take to speed up the process if I wanted, which I declined. I didn't want to pump myself with more pharmaceuticals than necessary. And then, it took until nearly 8:00 before the numbness had gone away. It only started going away about halfway through my watching the Netflix movie
The Pale Blue Eye, which I then also reviewed and gave a solid B.
Shobhit made eggplant squash and a garbanzo bean dish, both delicious (albeit a tad too spicy in the latter case), to have with baked frozen naans. I was getting too hungry and dished myself up about halfway through the movie, eating carefully as I was still partially numb and I had to chew mostly on the right side of my mouth just to be careful. I had some licorice at work today and did the same thing. I was cautioned not to chew anything too sticky on the temporary crown, lest it get dislodged before my next appointment.
Once I was done writing the review we watched a couple of episodes of
Abbott Elementary, and at least that was a pleasantly amusing way to end what by definition would not be the greatest of days.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ छियालीस —
[posted 12:19 pm]
