Scheduling Mishaps

As I sit here on my couch with eyes dilated, injection sites in my arms, a band aid square on my back and a temporary filling in my tooth, I've realized something: I really should have spaced out my doctor's appointments.

It started a month ago when I realized I was overdue for my yearly medical check up. I also realized I never made that dermatology appointment I meant to years ago. On top of that, I had been wondering for a while if I could blame allergies for the general congestion I'd been feeling for the past few months. So decided to take yesterday off work and scheduled those two appointments - one in the morning, one in the afternoon.

I already had scheduled my appointment for my tooth filling and last week I ran out of contacts, so on top of everything, I now had to go to the eye doctor. The soonest appointment they could give me was this afternoon. I didn't actually plan on all of these visits falling within the same 36 hour period, but due to my doctor's availability, that's exactly what happened.

I hadn't thought much of the timing. In fact I was kind of comforted by the fact that I could just get all this over with. It wasn't until I was sitting in the dentist chair this morning that I started to regret my scheduling.

About a half hour into my 8 a.m. dentist appointment all was not well. After four numbing shots to my gums and several attempts at drilling my tooth, my dentist and I gave up. My tooth had formed a little sink hole and the nerve that was exposed would not get numb. It was painful, very painful. A pain that I certainly wasn't prepared to deal with on an empty stomach so early on a morning. The fact that I opted to visit with out of town friends the previous night until 1:30 a.m. probably didn't help either.

I'm heading back in a few weeks to get a permanent filling put in. I hope the tooth takes to the numbing medication because I'd really hate a repeat of this morning's visit. Even if it does go terribly, I can at least take solace that it will be the only doctor's visit I will have that day.

I will say after having gone through all these appointments, I did learn a lot about myself. For instance:
- My general practitioner was right. The mole on my back was suspicious. Suspicious enough that my dermatologist hacked it off on the spot. I'll find out in a week if it's cancerous, even though neither of my doctors suspect it is.
- I may have gotten a mole removed from my back, but I was informed by my eye doctor that I have a mole on my left eye, under my eye lid. Did you know people can have eye moles, because I certainly did not. It felt very yin and yang. Lose a mole on my back Friday, gain one on my eye Saturday.
- My vision has not changed. Whoopie! That's a first in years. Usually it gets slightly worse with every visit. It's still crap, but at least it's not crappier.
- I totally had more than pre-cavities. Once my dentist got in and started drilling, one of my teeth practically caved in. She described it as a small crack turning into a sink hole. And then she showed me a picture of the crater in my tooth. Let's just say I'm surprised I didn't have an echo every time I talked. That's what she's working on when I go back.
- I am not allergic to anything. I let the allergist prick my arms up and down with needles and nothing, no reaction to any of them. All I could think as I sat there, my unresponsive arms making a mockery of me is "Huh. I didn't know I was a hypochondriac."
- I am very healthy person, and I really should stop torturing myself with all this preventative modern medicine.