Dentists and Kittens

My curse upon thy venom'd stang,
That shoots my tortur'd gums alang;
And thro' my lugs gies mony a twang,
Wi' gnawing vengeance;
Tearing my nerves wi' bitter pang,
Like racking engines!
— Robert Burns, "Address to the Tooth-ache," 1789

Be true to your teeth and they won't be false to you.
— Soupy Sales

"I think," said the dentist, stepping outside again, "I'd better give you gas." Then he moved aside and hummed an air from a light opera, while he mixed up cement.
I sat up in my shroud. "Gas!" I said. "Yes," he repeated, "gas or else ether or a sulphuric anæsthetic or else beat you into insensibility with a club or give you three thousand volts of electricity."
These may not have been his exact words. But they convey the feeling of them very nicely.
— Stephen Leacock

Well, it took longer than I expected, but the offending tooth is gone.

Gone, but not forgotten, as it left behind a hole in my jaw bone, a couple of stitches in my gum, and swelling in my jaw and neck. And medication that makes me alternate between sleepy and queasy.

I saw the dental surgeon who decided because the root of the tooth had grown into my jawbone, was really brittle, and was sandwiched between two nerves, he couldn’t go in with a local anesthetic. And because the regular anesthetic had to be administered on an empty stomach, he couldn’t do it that day. And in fact, he didn’t have another open appointment until January 7th.

Yikes!

Fortunately, they had another dental surgeon at that office, and with a little finagling, they got me in the following week. It meant another week of escalating pain, but it was better than January 7th.

Now all that’s left is for the gum to heal and the swelling to go down.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

The kittens have pretty much taken over the house. They’re still not allowed in the basement, but they seem to be okay with that because they’d really rather be where the people are anyway. And they’re still getting locked up at night because we can’t really trust them not to get into trouble while we’re sleeping. They don’t seem to mind that either.

Maybe after Christmas we’ll give it a try, you know, after the Christmas tree has been put away for another year. Or what’s left of the tree. I’m not looking forward to that, let me tell you. They both like to climb. Good thing our decorations are kitten friendly.

Dinsdale is over the sniffles he had, thanks to a week’s worth of antibiotics from the vet. And apparently he made up for lost time as far as gaining weight. When we got them, Dinsdale weighed 2.8 pounds and Khaos weighed 2.1 pounds.

At their first vet’s appointment Dinsdale weighed 2.14 pounds and Khaos weighed 3 pounds even. When they went for their booster shots last week, Dinsdale weighed 5 pounds, and Khaos weighed 4.4! No wonder we’re going through the kitten chow so fast!

They seem to get into equal amounts of trouble, but Dinsdale is the more affectionate of the two, and Khaos is more feisty. He’s more cuddly, and she purrs louder. They’re getting better at respecting the laptop, but when the zoomies hit, all bets are off!