Today was a tough day.

The day started out great. Well, other than that disgustingly sweaty walk to work. I also got a lot accomplished at school and have many things laid out for the first couple of weeks of school. Need to do plenty more but feeling pretty good about the overall picture.

To tell the tough part of the day, I have to go back a few weeks. At the beginning of the month I had an old filling replaced. I was doing just fine with it but my dentist convinced me that it was time to get rid of the metal and replace the older than dirt filling. I should have just gone on my merry way but I replaced it. It turned out to be bigger and deeper than he expected so it's been pretty tender for the past few weeks. I thought it was getting better but since I've been here it seems to have gotten worse, even waking me up at night.

Today my whole jaw hurt and I knew it was time to do something about it. So, with the help of the school nurse, we went to a local dentist. So not only am I in a new country where I can't speak the language, I now have to go for my first medical visit. Are you kidding me?!

Well, surprise surprise I needed to get a root canal. Again, are you freaking kidding me?! I've never had much drama with my teeth other than a couple of fillings so this absolutely sucked! What's amazing is he did it right there. For only about $30 he did a root canal. Isn't that crazy?

I need to go back in few weeks for a crown and at that time the cost will be covered by my insurance here in Taiwan. The total procedure will cost $8000 Taiwanese dollars. That's about two hundred and sixty American dollars. Amazing!

The dentist's office was very modern and actually really beautiful. They had modern equipment and the dentist spoke some English. I mean, he seemed about 16 years old but as I get older, I can't discern anymore. I had no idea what a root canal involved but from what I can tell he did a great job. When I left the office my whole jaw hurt and my tooth is just aching. Is that normal? When I was leaving no one spoke English so we had to pretty much pantomime to schedule my next appointment and I had to figure out how to get home. My GPS on my phone wasn't being helpful so I just looked around and started walking.  Surprisingly, I did find my way home by looking at a couple of tall buildings that looked familiar and recognizing a couple of street names. I was truly proud of myself.

I have to admit that on my walk home I cried most of the way. Stupid, I know, but at that moment I just wanted my mommy. What terrible timing; but I figure a root canal is never good timing. So now I'm home with a bag of different colored medications that the doctor gave me and I don't know what they are and I am deciding whether I should take them. Instead I'm having a big drink of rye whiskey with a splash of water. I'm glad this day is over.  Well, at least I found myself a dentist in Taiwan.