Waiting for the tooth fairy

So as I mentioned yesterday, on Sunday I broke a tooth. It was the back part of a rear bottom molar, and it left a sharp edge that began to slice and dice the underside of my tongue. On Monday morning I called my dentist's office only to get a message that they'd be closed until Thursday. If there was an emergency, I was to call one of the dentists at her home. This was all very baffling and frustrating, but I left a message on the dentist's home machine. She called back an hour later and referred me to another dentist in the U District. I happily called the number she gave me ... only to discover that that office was closed until next Monday. What the fricking fuck?!!!!!! I was beginning to feel picked-on at this point.

I should also mention that I was feeling like crap in general, and the lacerated tongue was definitely not improving my sense of well-being. I called my dentist back. She recommended that I try filing the edge off myself, using a nail file. If that didn't work, she'd come into the office just to file it down for me. It was almost noon by now, and I was starting to feel a bit desperate, even frantic. On the way up the Ave to Bartell's to buy a nail file (I thought about asking somebody in the office if they had one, but would anybody want me sticking their nail file into my mouth?), I popped into a random dentist's office along the way. No way they could fit me in, sorry.

So I got a nail file at Bartell's, and I filed the edge off my broken tooth, starting in the alley behind Bartell's and then, when that seemed too weird, continuing in the privacy of the bathroom in the office. It was hard to tell how successful I was, because my tongue kept running the lacerated parts against the tooth, and that still hurt. But my finger said the edge was gone, so I stopped filing.

Today all is well. The tongue is no longer in pain and is capable of registering that the edge is off the tooth. I'll see the dentist on Thursday to begin the repair process. But it was the kind of thing that made me wonder why I didn't think to file the edge off first thing Sunday afternoon after I broke the tooth. I was so fixated on the idea that the dentist would solve the problem the next day that it didn't even occur to me that I could do something about it myself. Well, okay, I fantasized about covering the sharp edge with wax or something. Not very practical! And thus I did nothing.