ENOUGH ABOUT TRUMP ALREADY, WHAT ABOUT ME?
Everyone's got their something, and my something hurts right now
Yes, I know everything is terrible, and Trump bombed Iran because he wanted everyone to stop talking about Elon’s tweets exposing the Epstein Files and the stolen 2024 election, but my mouth hurts.
No, I don’t have a regular dentist, so that’s why I ended up going to Urgent Care yesterday. I woke up at 4 am—it’s always the middle of the night when scary medical things happen—with pain on the right side of my face, and I knew exactly what it was. There’s a tooth that needs to come out, but because I don’t have dental insurance and I live paycheck to paycheck, going to the dentist is an extravagance I can’t afford.
I managed to go back to sleep, and when I woke up again at 8, my face was warm and swollen on that side, fun! I used a cold compress, swished some warm saltwater around my mouth, took some Ibuprofen, and consulted with Dr. Google, who suggested I probably had an infection and should seek medical attention. I went to Kaiser Urgent Care, but thanks to it being Sunday, they only had two providers working, resulting in a 3-hour wait. They offer Virtual Lobby, where you can leave and they’ll text you when your turn is coming up, like a brunch waiting list, so I came back home and hoped I wouldn’t need a long and dramatic emergency surgery like Teddy on “Grey’s Anatomy”.
I got my text around 2:30 and headed back to Kaiser, where I had to wait about 45 minutes to see the doctor. She shone a light into my mouth and said, “Oh yeah, you’ve got an infection there, and that tooth probably needs to come out.”
She sent me home with amoxicillin and Tramadol for the pain (1/2 of one of those babies is like WHEEEEE for someone who doesn’t take narcotics), but I have to find a dentist ASAP to extract this evil tooth and look at the rest of what might be going on in there. And that’s going to cost THOUSANDS.
I don’t know why teeth aren’t covered by medical insurance, considering they’re part of your body. But dentists have their own insurance racket going, and there was a time when I paid around $75 a month for dental insurance, yet it didn’t help to cover anything beyond basic exams and X-rays. That time has passed, and I no longer have insurance beyond basic Obamacare.
As I crowdsource my Facebook friends for dentist recommendations, I’m also going to have to create a GoFundMe to cover the expenses. I hate asking for money without being able to provide something in return. So this is when I ask you to consider upgrading to a paid subscription, even the cheapest one, because it would help so much if even half of my subscribers did that.
Thankfully, not all of my personal news is as dire.
While I’m still fighting fascism and I’m still querying agents for THE SOUND OF SETTLING (with zero responses so far WTF), the universe did hand me a small win today in online traffic court. I got a red light ticket back in February on one of those rare days when we had sun. It was 4:30, people were going slow thanks to the fireball in the sky, and I got stuck in an intersection as the light turned from yellow to red. I didn’t try to speed through; I was clocked at the speed limit. It was either keep going or sit there. I had my whole defense ready for this morning’s virtual hearing, confident that if the truth didn’t get me off entirely, it would hopefully at least reduce the fine.
And…
Except I can’t open my mouth that wide, because the tooth.
The tooth won’t stop me from doing things, though. I still managed to make my usual Monday morning appearance with Hal Sparks today, BEFORE the traffic court thing. Never say I’m not committed to our democracy, my friends. You almost can’t even tell my face is swollen on the right side.
The tooth also won’t stop me from doing THE TARA SHOW tomorrow & Thursday at 2 pm ET/11 am PT, and I hope you’ll join us because we have A LOT of stuff to talk about.
And if you happen to know a great dentist in Portland, please let me know!