A few days ago, I started having some pain in the right side of my mouth. By Friday the pain had gotten bad enough that I decided to call the dentist to see about an appointment. They had time this afternoon at 2:45 p.m.

Since dad came home from the hospital yesterday and Perry and Chris were visiting them, Nina and I drove over to Soda Springs this morning. The pain in my mouth by this morning had localized to my lower jaw right front and I didn’t sleep very well last night. We had a good visit with mom and dad — who is very happy to be back home — and came back to Pocatello. I went to the dentist’s office for my appointment.

Today is a Saturday. I was rather surprised that the office was even open on a Saturday! I got there and discovered why: it was full of families with kids. Two dentists, the orthodontist, and the hygenist were there, all quite busy. They took an x-ray and the dentist told me that there was some infection going on at the bottom of one tooth in the right front lower jaw. I needed another root canal. Since I’m leaving for Belgium next Saturday, they decided to do the root canal right then and there. By 5:30 I was out of the dentist’s office, the numbness had started wearing off, and I headed for Walgreens to pick up an antibiotic prescription. The dentist said that I was down to six teeth in my mouth that could possibly need a root canal in the future. All the rest are either gone or the procedure has already been done.

My dad had all of his teeth taken out when we were living in Tooele and I was going to 1st Grade. While in the gene pool, I got his predeliction for bad teeth and have passed that trait along to a couple of our kids (sorry!). So, here I sit at the computer with a rather sore mouth. The numbness is almost gone. My stomach is acting like it doesn’t like the antibiotic. I’m a bit cranky. And it’s too early to go to bed … or is it?