Running Through the Novocaine

A few weeks ago I went to the dentist. In the last 5-10 years I have had just two fillings. I also apparently had one mystery filling before that, which I only found out about when I got my front tooth knocked out in college and the ER nurse asked which side my filling was on so they could orient the X-ray. And, I was like: what filling?

When I went to the dentist this time, he said, “So, you already have a few fillings. And, you’re going to need a few more.” I figured that meant three, or maybe four? Apparently, it meant six.

I’m a little skeptical about this. It like when you go into the car shop and suddenly you need $1,000 of work even though your car was TOTALLY FINE. They then tried to tell me to space the fillings appointments out and do 2-3 fillings at a time, but if I’m going to get shot up with Novocaine and waste a morning, then I’m only going to do it once. I asked them how long it’d take to do all six in one appointment. They said no one had ever asked that before.

That’s just how I roll.

You can imagine how this ended. It turns out having six holes drilled into your jaw is a lot worse than just one. So, I didn’t eat pretty much all day yesterday. Then, when I did, I got sick to my stomach. I also couldn’t talk well because the left side of my face was numb, which meant I couldn’t do any phone interviews, or rather I could but the other person couldn’t understand me — good thing that’s not like a major part of my job.

Of course, then, it seemed like a good day to start running again. Because why not.