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This morning started off with a bang. Well, more of a dull ache that slowly grew to a not-so-dull ache. I tried flossing my teeth as that sometimes helps. I have a tooth that has caused problems for years. Didn’t help.

Finally, I couldn’t really do anything. My body was only allowing me to focus on the increasing pain in my head. So, 8:00am this morning I called the dentist. As I have mentioned before, I am not a fan of people sticking large needles and drills into my mouth, but at this point that was a far more acceptable option.

Friday is my dentist’s day off, but thankfully I was given an 11:15am appointment with his partner, and made it there right on time. After a targeted x-ray using something that doesn’t actually fit in a human mouth, they put me in the chair and told me I have an abscessed tooth. Translation: It’s dead. The same tooth that has been causing me problems, had a major cavity and then filling… is now infected inside and quite dead.

He gave me two options. Pull the sucker, or root canal. I was hoping for a third, but never got that. He explained that the root canal basically saves the tooth, but costs a pretty penny. (His words were “a couple thousand dollars”… ouch!) But I am leaning toward the toothless option as 1) sounds easier and 2) we ain’t got “a couple thousand dollars”.

Today’s fix was to drill a hole in my tooth to let the pressure out from the infection. Seems to have worked. But also cost me a decent chunk of change (they don’t bill me as my regular dentist does, they needed the money hoy dia.) Add this to our van having issues resulting in a bill in the multiple hundreds (thanks to warranty, it’s not in the multiple thousands as it could be!)

When it rains, it pours.

So, we anxiously await God’s provision and/or direction as the bills continue to mount for these unexpected expenses. As we have seen so many times before, when the unexpected expenses mount, usually the surprise supplies do as well.