A few good men

Just when I thought things were looking up here was another kicker. On Thursday last week I had my teeth cleaned. Well I must have stirred up some critters hiding in the crevices of my teeth. Over the weekend, I felt a mild sensation around my right cheek bone and chose to ignore it. On Monday, I woke up to find my hand pressed into that cheek, as though to ward off sensations. There was hint of a little more pain this time, but I valiantly forebore, mentally willing it away. Little did I know this infection was going nowhere. It seems I had taunted it because it began to rear its ugly head sometime in the evening and then pound me with its fist through the night. I still resisted taking pain medication and then capitulated at 1 am when I could take it no more. I woke up with what felt like a nasty slap on the right side of my face and no I was not dreaming. It was only 4 am, and the meds had already worn off. I knew then that I needed another kind of offensive. I endured the pain through my yoga practice, refusing to medicate anymore till I got to the root of the problem – pun intended. At 9 am I was at my dentist’s. He put me in his Chair ahead of scheduled appointments and after one look at the x ray said – “looks bad, you need a root canal, I will give you the referral to the endodontist.” “Can it be now?” I countered. It was arranged for 11:30 am. I knew Dr. Wolfson from a previous root canal encounter and he was at his office ready, willing and able to see me. Big relief. The world had conjured to help me, I thought. I did not realize it then, but this was not the half of it.

I returned to the office, gathered all my work stuff, met with my folks to apprise them of these developments and set off, actually looking forward to the procedure and relief from the pain. But alas, things were not going to be so easy. As I drove along the highway, fire engines began to whiz past me. I knew then there was some major accident on my route and chose an alternate route preparing to exit the highway. I later found out a salad truck had rolled over and doused the highway with dressing – the city could have had a salad party on 401W, but I digress. I took 401E and as I was laterally crossing three lanes to get to my exit, a driver to my left began to wave wildly and flag me down. He eased his car in front of me and on to a shoulder of the exit ramp, bidding me to stop behind him. I was perplexed. He was dangerously parked. But unperturbed he came over and said, “you have a flat, just follow me” and walked me to the rear of the car shielding me from onslaught of exiting cars. The rear tire on the right side was completely flat. We got into our cars and I followed him into a parking lot just off the exit, when he got out a can of puncture sealant from his trunk and said “do you have one of these? If not always carry one. I am going to see if I can fix the leak with this.” and proceeded to empty the can into my tire. It was all so surreal. Alas it did not work. He then found out why. He pointed to a gash on the side of the tire and said “Unfortunately, there is a tear on the side from a nail, so you will need to change the tire.” Still dazed, I murmured “You are godsent” and handed him the money for the can of sealant, which he refused but I insisted he take. I took courage and moved my car to a parking lot where I would not be ticketed, thinking I had half an hour to find a cab to get me to the doctor. I was single-minded in my need to reach the doctor's. There were no cabs in sight. Then I spotted one but he did not have his light on, since he was on his way to pick up a fare. He must have sensed my distress. He stopped, cancelled his fare and said “don’t worry I know the address, I will get you there”, as I tried to give him directions through my pain. He dropped me off at 11:30 am. The doctor who was waiting for me, set me in his chair and said he would do what he could to make the pain go away. My dear husband, not to be outdone by the other good men in this story, offered to pick me up after the procedure. Later that evening he also met the CAA guy in that lot so the latter could change my tire. He left the car there overnight and the next morning dropped me off at the lot so I could pick up my car from there. Procedure and strong antibiotics later, I was fine in two days. I still have a swelling but no pain. I can live with this for now, knowing all's well with the world which has several good men!