FRIDAY the 14th too!
Jinxed! We thought we jinxed out friday the 13th when everything went on right on the actual day where things were thought to be and would be uneventful. Who knows, it was in fact the american time zone that we were being caught in and haunted by the evil curse!
I was due for my root canal procedure on saturday morning. Tempest decided to be nice and send me there lest I be late for my appointment again. The clinic is in Mount E medical centre... it was a saturday morning... it is a shopping district cum tourist zone... therefore the carpark rates were simply exhorbitant! $1.80 for the first hour and $1.30 for subsequent half hour. That 's gonna turn out to be $4.40 just for 2 hours of parking! That was Cairnhill carpark, situated somewhere behind Citibank Orchard. It was certainly a right decision made when he dropped me off first before moving on to find carparks with slightly better rates. It was already11.30am (also my appointment time), half an hour after he dropped me off, before he settled for Shaw Centre's which didn't come cheap either at $2.10 for just an hour of parking. THEN, he had to drive out again to look for parking. $2.10 per hour for a poor student is simply too taxing on the thinning wallet. Fortunately there was available lots (cheaper too at $0.50 per half-hour) at an open carpark behind Cathay Cineleisure.
(Read below entry for root canal story)
After my dental procedure and a very unhealthy lunch at the Chippy's, Tempest received a missed call and sms from N. It was SOS! She didn't want to meet Y and her fiance, Mr. Turd. I was pretty excited actually, to meet up Y and Turd, especially Turd. I had to see how a thirty-old year man looks as if he was forty, and how irritating he can get. Yet as fate will not decree, Y's office in harbourfront met up with some kind of flood and they had to abort initial plans of visiting Settler's Cafe in Beach Road. Hai.. another uneventful event. Tempest had already tore parking coupons for the next 2 hours till 5pm. And we had already walked quite a distance (under the bloody hot sun) from the carpark to Shaw Towers where we were supposed to meet the group. Cannot just go home! In the end, we forced N to stay with us till we are bound for the night safari (with Tempest's friends).
It was very entertaining with N around. She doused us with loads of her funny stories and even more intriguing experiences in Bangkok. She and G did almost everything that I wanted to do in BKK yet couldn't. They visited Lumphini Boxing Stadium and suffered through 3 hours of boxing competitions while Tempest & me only saw a quietened dark empty stadium; they went right into the Patpong bars and cruised through 2 hours of Thai girl show while we rejected every invitation that came our way. Lounging in a cafe (TCC) is seldom so engaging. Good afternoon despite all the earlier jinxes.
What was really jinxy was the 1.5 hours before we entered the night safari. Tempest couldn't find a Caltex petrol station to top up his tank; I had to enter into a recurring argument with him over a matter that was supposedly to have been resolved one week ago; he drove into the night safari carpark meant for tour buses only and was charged $4.80 for entry; he knocked into a curb while parking in the right carpark and punctured his front left tyre; we had diffculty trying to figure out how to remove the equipment from his car boot; he had never changed a tyre before despite driving since army days... *gasps*
Heng heng things turned out better ultimately; his friend came along and helped him out with the tyre-changing; we got the refund of $4.80 back from the receptionist though their machine for reading the cashcard (required to verify that the car did mistakenly go into the wrong carpark) was spoilt; and erm... that was about it. We decided to end our night early lest more things happen. Enough!
Endodontics 101
So.... I was off to the dental clinic.. alone. It was a nice clinic alright. Spanning across 3 units of floor space, it was pretty huge and nicely decorated with its warm yellow lighting and cheery nurse uniforms. Almost every uniform looks slightly different with its cartoony design on the blouse. Many of them seem to come from the Philippines & Indonesia - a pretty typical sight in the health industry, especially private clinics & hospitals.
What really took my attention was the dentist & the facilities they have. Placed at the ceiling was a huge 30" flat screen high definition TV! It could have been a really wonderful experience if the dentist and the dental operating lamp didn't block my view 80% of the time. Anyway, I guessed I didn't really miss out much since it was some Channel 5 program showing snippets of football matches, in muted mode. That was not the only flat screen around in the room. Placed on the right of the operating chair was a 15" or 17" LCD monitor which captures my xray! It's the first time I have seen my own tooth, enlarged up to 20 - 30 times! Really big hole by the side where it was impacted by the stupid wisdom tooth which I finally removed it on the 2nd of May, one day after coming back from Bangkok.
Oh, and the dentist was a dignified looking young man at his thirties. I thought he looked a bit like the man who acted as Taiwan's president Chiang Kai Shek (蒋介石) in the movie, The Soong Sisters. Very short hair, somewhat looking as if it's ready to bald once he hits forty, bright eyes paired with brooding eyebrows, fair yet shiny glowy skin. And he comes with a slight english slang! Pretty charismatic...
"Difficult", he commented on my condition, but luckily he said he will try anyway, to help me save my tooth. The seemingly excruciating procedure took about an hour.
Step 1: he dabbled the cylindrical cotton bud with a pinkish colored analgesic balm and rubbed it onto the affected area. It's got a sweet cherry flavor! I certainly appreciate the balm, if not for the added flavor. It helps to lessen my pain at step 2.
Step 2: he pulled out a long cylindrical needle and started jabbing my gums. That hurt a little, particularly when the thin needle teased my tongue accidentally. Oww! Hehe.. then he will go on his "sorry.. sorry" with his strong, rich-bodied voice. I also like it the way he rubbed the inside of the mouth as he poked at my gums. Simple little technique, but does wonders to minimize the resultant pain from the jabs. Other dentists should learn this!
Step 3: he took out a green colored plasticky thing called the 'rubber dam' and place it over my mouth, forcing open my jaw. "for your protection"; I was wondering about his words until I found out later that the dam is to prevent saliva from getting into the cleaned out canals.
Step 4: the drilling began. :-s That was a little painful; he was attentive to my frowning of my brows and stopped momentarily to jab more anaesthesia. One slightly more painful jab was when the pulp was exposed, and he threw in a big drop to numb the nerves before removing them. I couldn't really tell when or how he removed the pulp since I couldn't see it. The rubber dam, together with the goggles they made me wear also didn't help to make my movement any easier.
Step 5: the drilling stopped. He used an ultra thin ribbed wire-like instrument to clean out the root canals by manually pushing the wire in and hand-turning it rapidly. I could actually feel it when he did that. No pain at all. Just a little creaky sound and discomfort as he pressed the rubber dam against my jaw. He continued pulling the wire, pushing it back again, and then pulling it out again, tweaking it a little and putting it back again. Towards the end, he would attach the wire onto the drilling equipment and starting drilling at the root canal. He did that for more than 10 times, and only once did I see something whitish hanging onto the tip of the wire-like structure. Must be the pulp!
Step 6: patching up! He applied some sourish acid-like substance onto the teeth and it spilled into the mouth, causing to choke on the horrible tasting liquid! Yuck! Luckily, still painless. After covering the hole with a temporary filling, he went on to explain to me that he would place an octagram (bascially, a ring-like structure) around the tooth since it is weakened by the lack of an internal pulp. The ring will last me through the next few weeks till I get a crown done. $35.00 for that!
Take a real close look at the temporary filling. Looks like a piece of bubble gum stuck there... The blue dots are probably some listerine leftovers hanging onto the uneven surface of the molar... cool huh, my w800i!Step 7: prepare myself for a follow up 2 weeks from now.
Step 8: made payment. $455 for the first visit!!! The joy at experiencing minimal pain from the procedure translated into a sharp agonising heart pain!
Take a further look! No no... not at the other teeth with a yellowish discoloration.. I dunno why too.. i just brushed my teeth leh! :-s
Anyway, focus! Focus on the octagram! It fits snudgly.
