Where everybody knows your name

I've decided that my residency in any location is only deemed official once the local health professionals all know me by name. It's funny in retrospect, but sometimes it gets a little ridiculous.

Yesterday I walked into my pharmacist to get my new prescription of antibiotics and she was so happy to see me alive and well-meanwhile recounting my story to the girl who sat next to her. I'm glad someone could be entertained on my account.

This all started because I needed a root canal. Thanks to my previous lovely dentist who didn't get all the decay out, I had a filling put in, meanwhile my tooth was roting away. It's disgusting really. So when my new dentist here took my old filling out she found a tooth that couldn't just be cleaned out anymore, it needed a root canal. Now mind you, I've heard awful horror stories of root canals, so of course I was a little apprehensive. My friend Rachel told me about her dentist who did one on her, and she had the best experience. So early Sunday morning, off I went to check out this supposed "good looking" dentist who does amazing root canals.

Check up and X-rays were fast and free, but "your tooth is severely infected', says "good-looking" dentist. "Are you allergic to any medications?" "No" I say and off I go with prescription in hand. He wanted me take a couple days of antibiotics before he did the root canal.

I finally arrived home later that afternoon after stopping at my pharmacist-where the woman insists on speaking to me in Arabic and even writing my directions in Arabic because she knows I can do it. I wish there were more Arabs in this city like her, I might actually learn Arabic. So I take the prescribed anti flammatory and antibiotic and precede to go workout. All of a sudden my body just feels super hot, itchy, and I'm not feeling so hot. All I kept thinking about was the movie Hitch, and how soon my entire face is going to puff up. Quickly I eat something, thinking I took too much medication on an empty stomach. Now my entire body is red and I've now thrown up the food I just ate-lovely-I know you wanted to hear that. Because I've taken Amoxicillin a million times in my life, I decided it was the pain medication that was not treating me so nicely. Fever, chills, swollen joints, redness, and itching-I finally slept it all off. And decided to never take that anti-flammatory again.....

Next morning I pop another antibiotic and no less than 5 minutes later, my body is itching, my head is hot and my body is turning red. I walk out into the living room and ask my roommates if I am red. To which they reply, yes. I leave and come back and in that span of time I had turned 10 shades brighter. No joke. I looked like I had been stranded on an island for 30 days without shelter. And my wrists, ankles, and fingers looked like sausages. Quickly I gather my things and walk down to my pharmacist because I figure she'd know what to do, meanwhile calling my dentist to cancel my appointment. I can't get cavities filled when I'm a walking strawberry. I walk in and she just stares at me and of course tells me I'm having an allergic reaction. She quickly calls a doctor in the area and asks him if he has the makings for a cortisone shot. So she gave me directions and I was off to see the doctor who saved the day with his super painful-seriously it hurt like a mother-cortisone shot.

By Tuesday-root canal day-I was all better after laying around for 2 days dying-well it felt that way. Yes, I get dramatic when I'm ill. But my body was not happy, and neither was I. Root canal was a success though extremely painful due to the infection. He had to give me three shots to finally numb it entirely, one straight into the root canal. Sick. But I did get all caught up on my Arab soap operas and now know that I'm allergic to Amoxicillin....who knew?