Stitches Out and A Golden Morning

Posted on June 5, 2009 in Dentition Routine Weather

Rain wet the pavement overnight. Clear sky forced a broad opening in the sky so when Lynn took me to get my stitches pulled this morning, sunlight lit the ripe grasses yellow. As we drove through [[Irvine,_California|Irvine]], I used my unique passenger-side view to scan new developments. The strawberry fields were disappearing: a new community called Stonegate boxed them in. Once through all that, however, everything was pretty much the same as it had been all the years I’d been going to [[Tustin,_California|Tustin]] for periodontal work. Green lawns and walls protected the subdivisions from the traffic of Irvine Boulevard. Strip malls let the big corporations peddle their wares to passing travelers. A series of traffic lights slowed the cars, but we managed to get through in time to make a 7 a.m. appointment.

They took me in faster than I could find an article to read in the latest National Geographic. The assistant clipped out the harp covering the hole where the doctor had pulled the tooth 16 days ago. The extraction had defied him: the root broke off and when he went after the broken piece, it broke again, necessitating that he dig long and deep. I felt the pain in cycles for days, oinking up twelve vicodin tablets as it surged and itched every third day. Today, I took two tylenol an hour before I went in. She pulled the stitches quickly and tossed them onto the tray. Dr. Dornan ((No relation to the infamous Congressman)) examined the healing wound and declared it doing well.

I left with instructions to keep using [[Peridex]], avoid crunchy foods, and return in ten days.

Lynn drove us along Santiago Canyon Road. I wish that I had pulled the Mino HD camera that I had in my pocket out and filmed the golden hills and dark clusters of live oaks as we passed them. You don’t appreciate the difference in the morning light until you have not seen it for awhile. I made a note to get up early some morning and hike out of the dawn with my camera in hand.

Remind me to keep that imperative.