Friday, February 25, 2011

Humbled by a Tooth

Have you ever taken anything for granted? This morning, David had part 1 of a much needed root canal. While employed through Countrywide Home Loans he had incredible (we know that now) insurance - medical, dental and vision. We were both covered and you guessed it, usual check ups - especially David and especially for the routine dentist appointments, he always had something more important to do at work that he just couldn't get away.

Since moving to Louisiana we have both had medical insurance - praise God for that, but not any dental, or vision. Luckily for low maintenance, routine eye appointments that occur once a year, the local Walmart is good enough to check our eyes for glasses and contacts. We budget for that expense and can 'afford' to pay out of pocket.

Dental and everything about it, is a whole different animal. It is no secret that most individuals working in non profit are not in this career field to become millionaires. With that said, since the Mission doesn't offer any dental insurance for me, one of the 'perks' is that in the event you have a toothache you can be seen by one of the volunteer dentist that come in to the Mission's clinic on dental clinic day. Thankfully, we have not had to use this 'perk'... until today.

David had been complaining about a tooth in the back of his mouth for a while, he came into the clinic at the Mission and it was decided he needed a full blown root canal. Many dentists that come into the Mission's clinic will just pull teeth, put crowns on, things of that nature. Anyway, the nurse who coordinates all the dentist coming into the Mission, said don't worry - he will get the root canal done. I took her at her word, and went back to my office.

She scheduled through one of the dentist that come to the Mission to have us go to his office and get the work done there. We went this morning. While we were incredibly grateful for the dentist to allow for us to come and have him work on David - it was so unbelievably humbling. You want to appear grateful, because we both were, but both of us couldn't help thinking there is someone worse off than us, or about all those times David had to stay at work for whatever file to go through and now he hardly even talks to anyone that he spent all those dreadful hours with. It is just one of those experiences that makes you so thankful that people do still exist that have caring and giving hearts. While on the other hand, makes you so frustrated you didn't take advantage of the things you had, when you did in fact have them!

Aren't life lessons crazy like that? Believe me, David has already written thank you notes to everyone involved in the process, as well as personally thank them. However, eating a piece of humble pie is never easy.

Having said all of that, David's got a 'special mouth'. Really? Did you think anything less? He was in such excruciating pain because as the dentist was numbing his mouth, his tongue and check went numb but his tooth was still sensitive. How is this possible? Because you have two major nerves in your mouth, one to the right and the other on the left. If you numb it and your tongue/check are numb then naturally the middle (your teeth) should be too... right? Nope, not David's mouth. He apparently has secondary auxiliary nerves that come down from where his ear/jaw meets. WHAT? Ya, so the dentist had to numb literally his entire left side of the face. I can't even imagine how much pain he has truly been in. The dentist was amazed that he hadn't pulled out his tooth by himself! David said, that last night he was sure tempted! Anyway, the dentist got everything cleaned out and it is now medicated with a temporary cap on his tooth. David will go back in to see him in March to finish off the job. Poor thing. You know that has to be the worst feeling in the whole world.

Lesson learned: when you have good insurance - no matter what - USE IT! Make time for those annual check ups, or whatever.

We were just extremely blessed to have God's hand over us to help get David's tooth better!

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