A Bump in the Road

It got harder to keep my secret as the possibility for Washington got stronger. I was itching to tell people. On top of this itch I was having a sharp pain in the front of my mouth. I had always had problems with my teeth; I was born prematurely and without enough enamel. I had plenty of experience with dentist over the years and detested everything about them. I had been ignoring the pain for a few weeks. I was so busy and it was easy to distract myself from it but the pain continued to grow. Someone with a heart condition would not be advised to ignore a pain in their chest just as I should not have ignored the pain in my teeth. I avoided it mainly because I didn’t want another problem to deal with. The sharpness of the ache only grew and I knew I needed to get it checked. I had hoped that it was a minor problem but the tooth that was hurting had been traumatized in the past. I had damaged the tooth in sixth grade during a tickling war where I was accidently kneed in the mouth. It bent the front two teeth back and caused some major damage to the roots but the teeth remained intact and strong so the dentist at that time left them alone. They straightened out and were fine until high school when I had to have root canals on the two. I tell you this because the problem stems from that simple knee to the mouth into a full out dental disaster! How silly that this all happened so long ago and was now threatening my big opportunity. I caved and made an appointment. After a mouthful of x-rays and some poking the verdict was in, and it was neither minor nor cheap. The tooth was committing suicide in my mouth and had to be replaced. I needed an implant- a dental surgery that can cost upwards of four and five thousand dollars. That wasn’t a kink in my plan that was a full out nuclear bomb! I couldn’t pay for that and still go to Washington. What was life trying to show me and how was giving it time making anything better?! I needed a rain coat for my life… I had a feeling it was about to storm…