My partner and I had gone for a walk. The weather was clear and cold, but the sidewalks had all been shovelled at this Illinois retirement home. We walked quickly and I was becoming out of breath. As we approached the back door of our apartment building, I paused for just a moment, and suddenly I opened my eyes to see the pavement below me, flat against my face.
I hadn’t felt myself falling, nor do I believe that had lost consciousness. But who knows? I lay stunned upon the pavement while my domestic partner called out to me, “Are you all right? Can you get up? Here comes someone.” In the meantime, as I was catching my breath, I was gathering up pieces of teeth that were jiggling around in my mouth and that had fallen on the pavement.
A person that I had never seen before ran up to us, and together with my partner, pulled me up to my feet. We had pressed our call buttons, so a public safety officer and two nurses arrived, and we went inside to get out of the cold. I didn’t think that I needed to go to the hospital, but the nurses insisted, so my partner got his car and, for the next six hours, he and I hung out at the hospital in the waiting room together and then separately when I was sent into a cubicle in the emergency room itself. I hadn’t seen what I looked like yet, so I took a picture of myself.
I was horrified! I knew that I had a fat face, but THIS??? My right eye was swollen almost shut, the right side of my face was bloody and just waiting for the inevitable bruises to show up. A huge purple bruise came to cover my cheek and then slowly slid downward beneath the skin into the neck. Really! That’s gravity for you.
Finally I got out of the emergency room (No broken bones, just teeth). I called the dentist the next morning and he took me right away and got to work.
This great dentist and his marvelous assistant Selena saw me off and on for the next three weeks, during which I also had a root canal by a specialist who only does root canals. (Yes, seems like anything can be “special” these days.) Then, suddenly when I was at home drinking a cup of coffee, a tooth fell out.
Just fell out.
In my mouth.
While drinking lukewarm coffee.
I called Selena, and she somehow manufactured and cemented in a new fake tooth until the dentist could return to fix the whole darn thing.
Finally it was all over. This incredibly amazing dentist and his amazing assistant Selena together made me look like a movie star (well my teeth at least). It cost me about $15,000 for the whole thing, which I’m told, was not out of line.
Why did I fall? That’s a topic for another day. But just watch for a post about “balance.”