What emergency?

Yesterday morning as I drank a glass of Banana, Strawberry, Orange juice I felt something funny in my mouth. I carefully swallowed the juice and spat the object into my hand. Gosh golly, it was the composite cap from my front tooth. Shit! I raced to the bathroom in disbelief but it was so... It was a clean break though, I could fit the cap back on and it would sit there without falling out. What to do? What to do? It was only six in the morning mind you. Well as much as I wanted to do something there was nothing I could do. I have to admit that one of my "solutions" was Crazy Glue. Had I followed up on this I might give new meaning to the term Crazy Glue. I foresaw putting too much glue on the cap and using my tongue to keep it in place until it hardened and then having my tongue welded to the tooth also. Well, I thought better of that. God does of course take care of fools and children.

I went and sat on the bed with a hand mirror staring at the tooth as if my sheer will could bond it back into place. It did not work. That's not my super hero power anyway. I decided to just go about my day. I first went to the computer and checked out a few of those chain sites. My actual dentist who replaced the composite a year ago I believe left town for higher pursuits shortly there after. So, around ten after ruling out Aspen Dental and the others I decide to go to the emergency section of the dental factory I have gone to before. To my surprise I had a very different idea of what constituted an emergency. I have had this problem through out life but it was still a bit of a shock. "Is there bleeding?" No. "Is there great sensitivity?" No. "Is there any sensitivity at all?" No. "So, your only problem is that your cap came off and you don't like how it looks" Yes, but you cheapen things. The very loud woman shouted over the moans in the waiting area to tell me that I needed to go upstairs to my regular dentist's office.

And that I did, I went upstairs. I told the fluffy fellow at the desk my problem. "I'm sorry for that Sir but, you need to make a regular appointment." I asked him if he meant a regular appointment as in a couple months from now. Yup! I took the cap out and showed him while telling him that that was unacceptable and I needed to see some one today. I did not mind waiting. I realized that I was a walk-in where walk-ins are not welcome but, I needed to see someone today! He seemed very uncomfortable. Nothing like an angry black guy to get people all jittery. He then went in the back and when he returned he told me that no one could see me because they we all at lunch and would not return for at least an hour. "I'll wait," I told him and without waiting for a response I sat down.

I waited for an hour and a half. I have to admit I was mildly entertained by the other patients. This would be with the exception of the guy next to me trying to hack up a lung. At one point he made it known that he was a doctor. Well, then he should have known to get a friggin' mask or something. After I continually adjusted myself enough where by back was to him, he made a teeth sucking sound and got up and moved off to the corner where he should have been to begin with. As well, the woman with her boy/girl 14 year old twins was also entertaining. I won't tell you why because she was too scary. She had apparently just been released from prison and was still "bonding" with the youngsters.

Moving right along it was now more than two hours into my wait. I then heard the check-in guy and the woman next to him talking about me as if I was not there. He told her how I had lost a cap and I expected to be seen by the doctor. (Did you pick up on the point that it was now more than two hours I was waiting?) He asked the woman if he should even tell the doctor I was there. At this point I stared directly at them and the woman looked over at me. Noticing my expression she told the check-in guy, "I think we better." Ten minutes later the doctor appeared. Oddly it was my original doctor who I had thought had gone away. I waved and she asked how I was doing. The two at the desk told her why I was there and she looked over at me and then told them to check me into the computer. I could tell that I was the only person who really wanted this to happen. -Not like I haven't been in that situation before. The doctor took me back and asked what the problem was and I told her. She said, "we can take care of that but I have four patients ahead of you." Fine.

About a half hour later I was taken to the back and a half hour after that I was better than new.

The moral to the story: your emergency very often is not anyone else's emergency but, it still does not mean it can't be treated like one.