Nothing Is Easy… Ever

My tooth that suffered the indignity of root canal last week developed an abscess yesterday. It began to hurt last night. By this morning it was nearly unbearable.

I left a message on my dentist’s machine at 7:00 AM. If you know me, you know 7:00 AM means I’m serious!

Long story short, I saw my dentist and he fixed the problem. This sort of stuff happens.

I left with my pain greatly relieved, clutching a prescription for amoxicillin. I went to fill it tonight in Hartford.

I drove to a Rite Aid near the station and handed the white coated guy behind the counter my prescription, printed on 8.5′ by 11″ paper and signed by my dentist.

“Are they still open,” the pharmacist asked? He wanted to call and verify the prescription was legit. My dentist had long since gone home.

“Is there a big problem with amoxicillin abusers,” I replied.

Behind the counter someone older and wiser intervened. Prescription filled. Problem solved.

9 thoughts on “Nothing Is Easy… Ever”

  1. Priceless retort!!! I had an abscess after a root canal……it was down right awful…..the dentist was jammed up and could not get me in till later in the day, so he had his assistant numb me with Novocaine every few hours till he could attend to me….the pain was INSANE!

  2. You’d be surprised. I work at a pharmacy that supplies drugs to nursing homes and once a director of nursing called me up wanting to know how many instances a whole slew of drugs were filled on a bunch of patients and then eventually which nurse was sending in these refills for an “investigation they were doing”. You would think the meds would be painkillers and psych meds – nope, some of them were lasix (diuretic) and advil (something we generally don’t fill for individual patients on because they have a house stock for everyone at the facility). I ended up having to pass the work off to someone else because some of the information she was asking for I had no access to, but it’s pretty evident there was some drug diversion going on – though why for stuff like that is beyond me.

    That said, I still think the scrutiny over an antibiotic script is a little ridiculous. I’m sure whatever pharmacy you filled it at has their share of junkies trying to scam them for oxycontin or what have you, but a little common sense probably could have prevented the whole situation!

  3. My first root canal was so painful that even injecting novocain directly into the root didn’t help. I had to have it done without anything but you know…the more pulp they took out the better it felt and by the time they were don I didn’t feel a thing. I became a big FAN of root canals.
    But I had my share of problems with them too; one tooth ahd a crooked root and they had to drill through my jawbone to get at that tip and remove it, then fill it, had an abcess too. They’re not fun.
    As for the pharmacist question; yeah that was pretty stupid. Guess he was expecting an illegible scrawl on a scrap of paper.
    Rinse your mouth with warm salt water two wor three times a day. Keep some clove oil or clove powder handy. It’s a natural tooth number. Also a bit antiseptic.

  4. Geoff – if anybody else recommends a root canal, I’d just get it pulled and implanted (if needed). I’m absolutely serious. I’ve had three root canals by two different, respected endodontists, and they all abcessed and had to be redone and eventually pulled after I’d spent $1800 each on them. Others had given me the same advice – wish I’d listened. Not worth the pain and expense..

  5. I had a root canal a few months ago and knock on wood, no abscess. However I was wondering about paper scripts… doctors and I presume dentists are moving to electronic scripts now so this problem will become a non-issue. Good or bad, there it is.

  6. Glad you got to the root of the problem…..seems you have had a bad run this year…2013 can’t come soon enough…uh, oh “13” ????? Me thinks we may need some help…..

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