"Dental update"

I found a place to go for "low income" people.  Although the bill will be about $120, the key thing is that they saw me without asking me to pay up front.

The medical assistant x ray-ed my left side and told me some 10x to relax my tongue!  I don't know how the hell ur supposed to do that, but she said that I should be more cooperative, so I told her to stop yelling at me!

She got the x ray but it was very painful.  The wait was almost 3 hours in a room that had a tv and a radio going at the same time.  I asked them if I could wait downstairs but they said no.  I told them that I'll go out of my mind listening to tv and radio!  I at least found a place to wait for the first 2 hours that was away from all the commotion.

I set most of my belongings on achair in the dental room but someone came in and took everything off saying that she needs the chair.  I asked the dentist where I should put my newspaper and he said: that paper your reading is just trash, so why don't you put it in the trash can!

The x ray showed that I have no cavities, he then did a manual exam.  He came to the conclusion that there may be a small opening near the older fillings and perhaps that is what is causing the pain.  He said we could remove the old fillings and put in new ones but there is no guarantee it will stop the pain.

I said "What's the worse that will happen if I don't take your advice."

"Because I don't have the financial means and I'm really not ready for all that"

He said that due to the fact that there is no decay the only problem is that it will keep hurting on the left side.

I told hiijm I have fibromyalgia and lyme and he said that so does his brother but not a very bad case.  He thought he was being funny and said "the bottom line you know with chronic fatigue syndrome is that he is just lazy!"

I didn't find it humorous and did not smile or say anything.

Anywho I'm just glad the exam is over with.

BTW, one of the questions on the paperwork I was given asked:

How do you feel about your smile?

I wrote

GORGEOUS!

"Street Smarts for Women"

I was speaking with a woman today who grew up in Carroll County, briefly lived in Baltimore City and moved back to Carroll County. She said something that made me smile knowingly. She said one big lesson I learned about living in Baltimore is "Never Smile!"

I learned the same lesson years ago I told her, especially on a public bus. I asked her "How did you know that this is an unwritten rule in Baltimore?" She said, "If I smiled I got all sorts of unwanted attention from men" "One day, I smiled at a man in a grocery store, so he followed me out and kept following me. I had to avoid going home so I could lose him."

This inability to smile was one of the main reasons she decided to move back to Carroll County.

I told her that I lived 12 years in the city and I've developed such a tough outer core that I'm totally unprepared for all of the people who smile at me since I've lived here in Carroll County. I can't even prepare a smile in return fast enough for them to notice!