"I appreciate your professionalism" - Part 8

As is often the case when we stay in hotels neither of us slept well Sunday night, but the upside was we didn't have to leave to drive to the dentist until 9 am, so it all evens out I guess.  Before we got on I-8 to head west to Los Algodones we stopped off at the local ARCO to fill up our tank for the drive home.  We arrived at the border parking lot by 9:30, and after our short 4 block walk were at Dr. Urena's office by 9:45.  I have not been looking forward to this day......the day when my gums are 'opened up' again, a hole drilled in my jaw bone, and an 'implant' screwed into the hole.  Let's face it.....none of that sounds like much fun, and seems to portend a lot of post surgical pain an discomfort, right?  Forget about the actual procedure!

I was led into the first of two rooms about 10:10 am to get an Xray to be sure the bone had healed from the January 29th surgery to remove the old tooth, and once it was determined it had was taken to the surgical room for the procedure.  Once again Dr. Jose Barrera had the honors.  I'm not sure why, but I expected this to be a drawn out affair with a certain amount of discomfort, but it only took about 30 minutes beginning to end, and there was NO discomfort.....at least not on the level my mind was anticipating.  When I heard him say the implant was in I was surprised it was already over....within minutes he had me stitched up and I was at the front desk writing a check for that day's charges.  

Originally, drawing conclusions from TLE's implant process, I had expected to have to return to have my stitches removed, and have the implant inspected, but I was advised by Dr. Barrera that I would not have to come back for a few months.....my stitches will begin dissolving after about 3 weeks.  So we do not have to drive back down to Los Algondones on the 27th after all meaning we will probably leave for South Lake Tahoe a day earlier than expected!

We were back in the border parking lot starting the VW (TLE's turn to drive) by 11:30.....TLE drove while I reclined my passenger seat and took a nap.  By the time we arrived at the ARCO Travel Center in Salton City I was still feeling a little punk from the massive amounts of novocaine I had received, but I took over driving nonetheless......about 20 miles later we stopped at the ARCO Travel Center in Mecca, CA to visit the Starbucks for some Frappuccino's (vanilla bean for TLE, and, of course, mocha for moi)......after ingesting the grande mocha frappuccino I perked up a lot and was ready for the final 93 miles home.

We were cruising at 70 mph westbound on I-10 just coming even with Palm Springs when the westbound traffic came to an abrupt halt, and for the next 25 miles it was stop and go.  Why this was we still do not know......there was no accident.  Instead of our original arrival home at 3:30 we didn't get home until 5:15......almost two hours behind schedule.....WOW...that was a very, very long day!

I spent the evening drinking my dinner, and watching more NBA playoff basketball, and was in bed by 11....TLE hit the sack by 8 pm....I guess she got way less sleep than I did Sunday night.....:-).

Thanks for stopping by!