Wednesday

Frank went to daycare this morning. For me, the day has been an exercise in frustration.

I spent the morning off and on (I had to come in once in a while to cool off and get water) trying to dig out a few bushes in my front flower beds. Three of the four I wanted to dig out are in the bed I want to clear out and designate as my rose garden. The other bush is in a different bed. (There are three more bushes in addition that are in a different bed, too.)

I got two dug out. Two. I am so pathetic. I did also manage to clear out what was left of some scraggly ground cover in the rose garden, but two bushes? Also, the soil here...it's so incredibly rocky; I've never seen anything like it! I had a few boulders I had to clean out today, one of which weighed more than my son! Part of the reason it took me so long was because I kept stopping to toss rocks out. My rock pile is going to be ten feet tall by the time I get done with this crap.

I have to get some serious dental work done. I went to the dentist Monday, and it turns out I have four cavities. Two of them are easy, and I am getting them filled tomorrow. But the other two are on teeth on either side of the bridge I have. Basically, this means I'd have to get the brdige removed, get the cavities filled, and get the bridge back on...OR get a dental implant. This would mean I'd get the bridge out, and go to an oral surgeon to have an implant drilled into the bone in my jaw. :o Six months after that (have to allow it to heal, I guess), I'd go to my dentist, and he'd basically just screw in a new tooth, and that would be fine for life. The teeth anchored to the bridge now will basically just keep degrading, which my dentist who put the bridge in ten years ago had told me probably would eventually happen, so I can't say I wasn't warned. So, all around, while the getting of it sucks, eventually, it sounds to me like the implant would eb the right answer.

My insurance, it seems, does not cover implants at all. When I asked why, the rep whom I spoke with simply said, "That's what your group decided on." WTF??? As my husband said when I told him, "And people say we don't need health care reform."

So, now, I don't know what to do. I have an appointment for a consultation with an oral surgeon next week, and, as I've said, I see my dentist tomorrow. I plan on asking exactly how much this whole thing is when I do go, and I will be telling him point blank that my insurance does not cover it. Darrel said he'd check if he could get me on his insurance, if his covers implants, but his open enrollment isn't until December, and from what my dentist said, I don't think I can wait that long to have all this done, because the teeth on either side of the bridge will probably rot out by then!