Good and not so good

The good news is that the endodontist feels the problem I've had lately isn't in my teeth, which means no need for a root canal. No getting around it, this is good news.

The reason I'm not more joyful, more full of exclamation points at this news, the not-so-goodness of this news is that this leaves me without an explanation for the achy discomfort I've been feeling when I wake up after sleeping on my left side*. Although the endodontist's job ends with declaring that I either do or do not need a root canal (and of course, I do like the choice he made), he offered the theory that I might be grinding my teeth due to stress (who, me?), and that if it continues, I could talk to my dentist about a night guard. Lovely. It just never ends, does it? While I was waiting to go in, I was wondering which circle of Hell is like a waiting room, where you have to listen to dental drills and Sounds of the 70s, on top of a headache that is starting Day Three.

*I know, I know, stop sleeping on my left side! It isn't that easy, I'm a toss-and-turner, all night long. Ask the cats, I disturb them something grievous.

So I could make this a very gripe-filled, self-pitying post, but instead I'll tell a sappy kitty story. Last night Pan walked by and I picked him up sideways, held him in the way he doesn't like, and told him how much he means to me, and how dear he is, and that I can't tell him often enough (which you can't anyway, but with a pet with a heart condition, you really can't), that he is in my heart, and "I. Love. You." and only after all that did he struggle a little and I let him down out of the pose of no dignity, and he found a bit of something on the floor to chase, to assert his will to do as he pleases, but he knows he is loved. And tonight, Pan and Harold are locked in a feline staredown, about to whap the snot out of each other. Sublime and Ridiculous. I'm off to the laundry. Sock photo tomorrow!