Finally Putting My Feet Up - This Pregnant Lady Loves the Dentist

Who likes going to the dentist? My experience today took me from feelings of ambivalence to sheer pleasure... and I also enjoyed observing a bit of irony in the whole thing.

I was in the middle of giving DS a bath this evening when the dentist's office called. Uh oh. I was late for my appointment. After spending an entire day rushing about, I was looking forward to having DH put DS to sleep and spending some quality time with my computer. Instead I found myself hurrying out of the house once more.

When I got to the dentist's office, I finally had a few minutes to calm down. The room was air-conditioned, the TV was on, there were plenty of magazines to browse. The secretary wasn't angry with me. The dentist had taken someone in since I was late and I was able to take the time to refill my water bottle at the cooler and catch up on the latest television commercials. It's been so long.

Just a little too soon, the dentist's door opened. She called my name. She asked how I was doing. And then she invited me to sit down and put my feet up. I was glad to oblige.

I have had two chief complaints in this pregnancy, and especially in the last couple of weeks: edema, or big, fat, swollen feet, and sinus pain in my cheek. I just finished a round of antibiotics for my sinus pain, which was discovered by the dentist via x-ray at my last appointment. I'd originally thought it was a toothache. Well, today I took care of it all in one shot. It turns out that at least part of the pain I was feeling and attributing to sinuses was tooth pain. The dentist said that a previous filling on this same tooth had come loose and there was food in there, which might account for at least part of the terrible pain I was feeling.

But as I sat there with my fat legs raised comfortably at the end of my dentist chair and had my cheek problem taken care of at the same time, I wasn't thinking about the painful anesthetizing needle or the drill in my mouth. I reflected on how happy I was to not be washing dishes or running about or picking things off the floor. And I was very happy to be taking care of two pregnancy symptoms at once-- from my head down to my toes.