k0an.com

My biggest phobia by far is of dental work. I would rather have my leg broken and be incapacitated for months than have a cavity drilled.

There are many reasons for this:

• Apparently I had an over-zealous dentist when I was ~5 who decided that most of my teeth needed to be drilled for cavities.
• When I was ~10 I had an infected toe that needed surgery. The doctor gave me 10 shots of pain killer and I could still feel what he was doing. He said he'd never given so much pain killer to someone before.
• When I was ~17 I had a cavity drilled. The nitrous oxide did nothing to me and I kept saying I could feel everything. Then the dentist drilled through the tooth and straight into the nerve. I instinctively raised my hand and slapped the drill out of his hand. He was pretty upset and proceeded to give me 5 shots of painkiller in the mouth.
• When I was ~19 I had my wisdom teeth taken out. Most people say that when they knock you out they count from ten down to one and by the time they reach five you are out. Well, the surgeon counted down to one and then we talked about California politics for several minutes and he finally knocked me out. However, I woke up in the middle of the procedure and he had to wrestle me down and knock me out again.
• When I was ~27 my dentist told me that one of my molars had a deep recess (not a cavity) and that she wanted to drill it and fill it to prevent anything from happening. So, I sat down, she turned on the drill, I panicked and ran to the bathroom and threw up. I then asked her if I HAD to have the procedure and she said "not really" so I left.
  

So, I don't have a great history with dental work or painkillers. I found out two months ago that I had to get two teeth drilled. It's not because I had cavities, it was because two of my teeth's fillings were starting to have gaps around them and there was a small amount of decay in the gaps. I told this new dentist my history and he said they would give me valium. I would have preferred to be sedated completely but he didn't do that and my crappy insurance probably wouldn't cover that. So, for the next two months I was stressed out and had nightmares about it but I was resolved to get it over with. The valium prescription had two pills but was only supposed to be one. I took one and waited a while and I just felt a tiny bit drowsy but nothing else. I asked the dentist if I could take the second one and he said it was ok. I took the second one and still felt pretty alert which was disappointing. I made sure that he numbed my teeth three times as much as normal and he went to work. The whole thing was over in around 15 minutes and I barely had any pain. It was perhaps the first positive dental experience in my life! I feel like a great weight has been lifted off of me and that I can relax.

Another thing... they also had to fit me with a night guard to help with my teeth grinding problem. It costs ~$300 but my insurance said they would pay for it. However, when I got the bill today they said that portion was declined. They said they would only pay for a night guard when a patient has some obscure surgery on the bones in their mouth. That doesn't make any sense because the night guard is marketed as a device for helping people grind their teeth. It also doesn't make financial sense for the health insurance provider because they would have to pay for thousands and thousands of dollars in corrective care if I ground my teeth down (root canals, etc...). So, I am going to pay for it myself because I want to protect my teeth but it's just ironic that this happened a day after watching the movie "SiCKO" which is about how the health care industry has no concern with preventative care.

I saw an advanced screening of "SiCKO" last night and I was very impressed by it overall. Sure, there were scenes in there to try to make you cry or get really upset like any "docuganda" that Michael Moore puts together. But, he repeatedly and clearly compared universal health care in other countries with private health care in America and let's just say it's not even a fair fight. He does a good job of providing arguments against historical criticism of universal health care. It's really amazing (with respect to health care) how much better almost every other industrialized nation has it. The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world and yet our infant mortality rate and life expectancy rate lags behind a few third-world countries.

This documentary has also pushed me away from voting for Hillary Clinton. I liked the idea of a smart female Democrat in the White House to stir things up but she really abandoned her principles for money. Her only vocalized political ambition as first wife was universal health care and now she is one of the top recipients of lobbyist funds from the health care industry. I already have the assumption that every politician is at least partially corrupt but I won't vote for someone who is so obvious about it.

Congratulations on surviving the week. Here is something to make you laugh:

"Diving Makes You Look Stupid"



via b3ta

Last weekend we spent a few days in San Jose because we couldn't afford to go somewhere more exotic. On one of the days we took Jace to the Children's Discovery Museum. It was full of fun things for kids his age to do and he had a great time. I put together a video of the experience: