Happy teeth and reason to think I am not diabetic after all

Tuesday 7/15/25

Up even earlier than usual. Just sick. Might as well do some work. Keep trying. Get to the going.

I'm attentive to the sensations and discomforts when I am ill. It's a way of not giving in. And not wasting any experience of life.

I went back to the dentist yesterday to have the temporary crown removed and the permanent one put in, thus--hopefully--bringing to a close this situation that began with the pain in my mouth about a month ago that had me leaving Dr. Raffi a message at five in the morning and then being seen later that day and subsequently being driven by him to the endodontist.

My mouth had been bothering me since Thursday. Then on Sunday, I got a piece of kale--I eat a lot of kale--stuck in the space between the tooth with the temporary crown and the one behind it. This space had become wider. I couldn't get the kale out for a while. You can floss, but you're not supposed to lift the floss back up; that is, you pull it out the side. Finally I was able to remove the kale but I was unsure if I got it all.

The gums had been raw anyway. No bleeding, but sensitive. I'm a fastidious flosser, in part because there's a link between not flossing and heart disease. The bite was also uneven.

My appointment yesterday was at nine in the morning. I got the 8:20 train. Dr. Raffi said it would be a quick visit, but it took a bit longer, I think, than expected. He saw that the gum was inflamed right away. I declined being numbed, because I find when I am it's hard to know if the bite is right, and I was hoping to avoid making yet another trip on behalf of this issue.

He used a pair of pliers to remove the temporary crown. I was surprised how easy it came off. He said that pieces of cement had been irritating the gums. Dr. Raffi tells you what's going on and what he's doing as a general rule. He sprayed water on the area, and this hurt right away, which had to be because of the gums, given that there's no nerve in the tooth.

Then he had me rinse, and let me tell you: I didn't like the feel of that nub or whatever there was in that space of my mouth. Gross. Not into that at all. So for the rest of the time I kept my mouth open as much as possible in order that I'd be less likely to touch it with my tongue.

He put the permanent crown on and then flossed pretty vigorously, which hurt quite a bit on that one side in particular, but he had to do this to make sure everything was clean and the debris had been cleaned out.

It took quite a bit of adjusting with of this permanent crown because it was high. In my experience, these sorts of things tend to be that way. Once, I went home and had to go back for an adjustment. I believe that was when he replaced a silver filling with something better which would prevent me from having issues later.

You bite on this thin black paper, but I don't trust that paper. It seems to say one thing but in my mouth I feel something else. He kept working on the crown, though, with some kind of buzzing, mechanical implement. Smoothing it down, I think. My mouth was sensitive and you're not totally sure when it's like that, but it felt better, and if I needed to come back, he said to just give him a call. I was to rinse with salt water for the next three days, and then the gums would go back to normal. I don't own any salt, of course. I wouldn't put salt on anything. Salt gives you a heart attack. It's an enemy. But I did have some left over saltwater rinse from years ago when I had some sort of mouth irritation, so I'm finishing that up.

I got out of the chair, we shook hands, and he went off to get me a couple of cold water bottles--"for the train ride"--and I thanked his assistant. He returned with them and we shook hands again, and I thanked him for everything. For driving me that day, his expertise. Told him how much I appreciated everything. He had given me a discount, too.

He put is hand on my shoulder and said, "I am your dentist." He's really a good guy and he's passionate about what he does and good at it and I'm going to like anyone who is like that a lot.

I'm at a point in this thing that is worse than hell where the only people I have, as such, are park rangers and a dentist. And my mom. That's how it is right now. I'm alone. I am living a life that is unlivable. I have myself.

But my mouth does feel very good. Before I had gotten back on the train, I could already feel everything calming down. Getting back to normal. That's how fast it was with the gums. It's not one o'clock in the morning yet here on the next day and having flossed again, everything feels fine. The spacing is correct once more--that bigger gap is gone--and the bite feels perfect. As Dr. Raffi would say, which he typically does at the end of a procedure, "Do you know what we have here? Happy teeth." And yes, he really does say things like that. The visit before, he goes, "This time, my goal is..." He has a goal! I think that's awesome. It's like the perfect pairing between dentist and patient.

Coming back on the train, I read this article about the humidity in Boston so far this summer. As I've said, my sweating in the Monument--and on the stairs at City Hall--has been extreme. Rivers of sweat. Shirt as saturated as if you had sunk it in a pool, and shorts as well. Sneakers soaked all the way through like I'd been out in a downpour for hours and gone through every puddle in my path.

Excess sweating is a symptom of diabetes. What I'll do is behave as if I do have something and I'm trying to undo it, which helps me be healthier overall. It's a weird system, I know. This sweating is so copious and I can't recall that it's ever been like this for me, hence why I was looking into the diabetes thing. We don't know much about my family medical history. Obviously, this journal is very candid and specific about how I live, how active I am, my workouts, what I eat and drink (and don't eat and drink). I'm sure someone reading it would think How does this guy do all of these things and also How does stick to a diet like that?

Anyway, it turns out that thus far, this summer in Boston is one of the three most humid/muggiest on record. People think it's been awful. (There were quotes from Bostonians to go along with the hard data.) The article talked about at what dew point people sweat a lot more and how hard it is for them to stop sweating. Basically, it seems like I've been running an insane amount of stairs in a historically humid summer. That looks to be the explanation right there. I get that someone reading these words would think, "Duh, guy," but I don't like to assume and I also am not someone to view what I do as how another person would view it. It's me for me, not someone else, and the things I do are ordinary to me for me.

Tomorrow is supposed to be very hot. The Monument could be closed. Hopefully it won't be and I can chase this sickness today while having a good, long day of work, and I'll be back to myself and can try and do and be better than I was.