ouch

monday night i felt the twinges of a toothache. tuesday it got to the point where i was nearly snapping at rude customers, and since i've needed massive dental work for years and have been planning on dealing with it soon-ish (as soon as i have $$ for it), i made an emergency dentist appointment for today. $150+ later, he wants to *start* with $875 worth of extractions. i wasn't really sure whether my wisdom teeth were in or out-- i had so many teeth pulled as a teenager that i can't tell one from the other-- but apparently two of them are in and want to come out. plus, the tooth that had the root canal years ago that i never got a permanent cap for now needs to come out (there's $800+ down the toilet), and another one next to the upper wisdom tooth is apparently useless. seems there's a mild infection somewhere, which he gave me antibiotics for, and he wants to pull the four in a few days, at the end of the pill run, and *then* do a full evaluation to figure out what needs to be done with the teeth that are staying. now, first of all, i'm leaving a week from tomorrow for yet another indefinite period, most likely six weeks. second, i'm already broke before leaving, and i certainly don't have the $1050 it will cost to get to the end of the extraction/evaluation run. third, well, see "second." i KNOW i need to take care of all this, and i've wanted to-- it's on my "100 tasks" list-- but wanting does not make money grow. even if i could come up with it, if i got the teeth pulled tuesday, as he hoped, i wouldn't be able to comfortably get on a plane on wednesday. so i'm screwed, and i'll probably have toothaches for the next two or three or more months while i come up with all this money, which will be extra-impossible (??) since i won't be here to pick up cafe shifts. in the meantime, he gave me lorcet, which was probably a waste of money to fill, because historically hydrocodone does nothing for me, but i figured i'd give it a shot. wish me luck.