Weekly Update 04/18/26 – 04/24/26 (Root Canal Experience, Primary Care Doctor Change, Online Scams Impact)

It has been an uneventful week. The big items have been my root canal, a new PCP (almost), and what I’m thinking of as the death of trust.

To begin, on Wednesday, I had my root canal. I must admit I’m very impressed by how much anesthesia has advanced in my lifetime. I remember my first filling when I was a kid, my mother warning me over and over that I had to be careful after the procedure because the whole side of my face would be numb, and I could bite my cheek or my tongue without even feeling it. She was right. My whole face felt strange, and I had no idea what my tongue was doing.

This time it was nothing like that. There was a little tingling around my eye, but not my whole face. The entire time I could feel my tongue and was never in danger of biting it. In fact, if it were not for the pain of the injection in the roof of my mouth and them testing the tooth they were going to work on, I would never have known that my sensation was gone. As for the procedure itself, I didn’t feel a thing apart from a slight sensation of drowning when the water they were using became overwhelming.

My biggest complaint was that they did not advise me until after the procedure that they were installing a temporary filling and that I should not chew on the left side of my mouth until I have a crown installed. This is a bit of a problem, as I don’t have many teeth on the right side and already have trouble chewing there. Also, had I known, I would have scheduled an appointment the next day to get fitted for the crown. Now I have to wait to get that appointment, and since I may be out of town the first week in May, this temporary filling may not be so temporary.

On Thursday I had my appointment with my new primary care doctor. Unfortunately, it turns out this is also likely to be my last appointment with her. It looks like she’s leaving the practice in late summer, so I’ll have to find another new primary care doctor.

I have heard several times recently that the crime rate has been going down for years. That made me think. I don’t believe that is true, at least not in terms of how much criminal activity affects day-to-day living. It used to be that crime and criminals were a distant part of life, apart from when it happened to you. But today I’m approached by criminals almost daily. Scammers call my phone to the point that I need software to prevent them from contacting me. Others reach out through my email several times a week. Crime has become a constant annoyance. I don’t want to give up my internet or AI, but it is frustrating. I’m not old enough to remember a time when people left their doors unlocked, but I do miss simpler times.

Have a great week.

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