I text my dentist and say the endodontist says root canal or yank it and I'm not willing to root canal based on my age/cost justification.

It seems every time I spend a few thousand dollars on a tooth it just crumbles afterwards anyway. The last time I went through this process it was upper left a tooth before the molar. I was avoiding yank/bridge for a year of painful work and failed recovery and it was definitely not worth it. The post did not stay in the bone. The tooth did not stay. The jaw crumbled. I ended up with the bridge anyway.

I'm going down the path of acceptance here, dentures eventually.

He responds with how important that tooth is and that the endodontist can root canal via drilling through the gold cap, not yanking and going through the total reconstruction, so I really should let her do it.

And it can't be replaced with a bridge because it's a back molar and you need two teeth for a bridge.

Key issue on taking advice is follow the money. Not always, but especially in the case of someone who has just misdiagnosed me. Look for profit motive. What's in it for them? And in this recommendation there is nothing in it for him. He wants to save my tooth and he's perfectly happy to let someone else do it, and if they do it, it's cheaper than him.

Discuss it with M and decide to go forward and give the root canal a shot. Damn it. Here we go again.

Endodontist office closed until tomorrow and then I will pursue that.

It's a positive/negative that I got lots of drugs right now. I never use enough to actually remove the pain and allow myself to eat but certainly enough to allow me to sit here on the edge of drivability.

I say the edge of drivability because the endodontist is 30 minutes away and I've got to be drivable during business hours. M works nights and sleeps during the day and maintains that schedule during days off. I have to be the one to drive myself.

I told them to call me at any moment and I will be there so I should get the next cancellation. Actually not today because they are closed but I prefer to maintain this level of control.

Another aspect of it is I absolutely could pick up a dependency and therefore I stretch out and skip doses. I have a doctor appointment in a month and I want to be able to bring in the bottle of Percocet the doctor prescribed for the tooth and be able to show her there's still half of them left. Assuming I get an appointment with the endodontist in the next couple of days.

My brother Robbie spent 3 years hooked on high dose oxycontin and Percocets. Same drug, different release schedule. The oxycontin was in the morning and then he got to pop Percocets at will in the evening.

His disease had continuing long-term progression, he was not expected to be healed from an injury. So this was expected to go on forever.

He had an immense daily dose due to his tolerance and you could never be sure if his pain levels were based on the actual initial pain that the medications were prescribed for or the withdrawal he was going through almost all the time.

He kicked it cold turkey after 3 years. Rehab? NA? Are you insane? Rob? Programs are for pussies. Oh I miss Rob.

I'd prefer not to end up like that, so I always have to monitor. The best example is a bad example. I was the best example for many for most of my life.

Okay, after all that babbling back to the original point of the thread. I'm not really that hungry anymore because I have a couple of cans of muscle milk. Vanilla, strawberry, and mix them together for vanilla strawberry. Not that bad.

I have lost 10 lb. I have another 15 to go if I can manage it. Always look on the bright side of life. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

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