The Toothache Diary Chapter 12

TOOTHACHE DIARY
CHAPTER 12


At the same time that Regina is being taken back to her room, the doctor walks into the waiting room.
“I’m back. And I brought some good news. Regina is awake now and she seems to recuperating fine. We just need to do a few follow up tests and she should able to go home.”
“Oh, thank God,” Sissy said with a sigh of relief.
“You can go see her in just a bit but I want to show you something first.”
“Ok, what is it?” asked Sissy.
“Well, I did what your niece asked me to do. I took x-rays of Regina’s teeth. I have them here in this envelope. I wanted to show them to you in private so as not to embarrass her further. I could tell she didn’t like having her picture taken.” The doctor opened the envelope and took out the first x-ray slowly and carefully.
“I took x-rays of her front and both sides of her mouth. This x-ray here shows the frontal view. As you can see she’s missing most of her front teeth. The ones she has left are riddled with decay.”
The doctor hands the x-ray to Sissy so she can have a closer look. Sissy looks at it briefly and then gives it to Miss Thang to view. Miss Thang barely looks at it and returns it to the doctor. Neither Sissy nor Miss Thang needed to see the x-rays. They know all to well what Regina’s teeth look like.
“These two x-rays are the right and left side of Regina’s face. Again, you can see significant amounts of tooth decay and enamel damage. This has got to be the worst case of tooth decay I’ve ever seen. The condition of her teeth mimics that of a meth addict. Has Regina ever experimented with crystal meth or?…..”
“My mother is no meth addict and she’s not a crackhead.”
Miss Thang knew her mother was guilty of a lot of things, but being a drug addict was not one of them. Not in the sense he was thinking anyway.
“Hun, why did you ask me to look at your mother’s teeth and take x-rays of them?”
“So you could better understand”
The doctor throws up both hands in exasperation.
“I don’t understand any of this!! We’ve gone from aspirin overdose to missing teeth and tooth decay. Am I missing something here?”
“My mother was taking aspirin to relieve her toothache.”
“Her toothache? She has a toothache?”
“You saw the x-rays. Her teeth are full of cavities. And what happens when you have a cavity? You develop a toothache, right doctor?”
“Yes, true enough. But the amount of aspirin in her system doesn’t make sense. Besides I’m sure there’s a dentist in your area…”
“Do you know what my Mom does for a living? She works at a fast food restaurant. She makes minimum wage. She barely has medical insurance, let alone dental insurance. So to cope with the toothache she takes aspirin. For some reason, aspirin works better than any other pain killer. Plus a bottle of aspirin is a lot cheaper than a trip to the dentist.”
“Ok….but that still doesn’t explain the overdosing.”
“Have you ever had a toothache before doctor?”
“Yes I have”
“Then you know how painful they can be. So imagine if you had the amount of cavities my mom has. Now imagine all that pain happening at once. I remember one day my mother and I were talking in the kitchen while she was cleaning dishes. All of a sudden she grabbed the side of her mouth and ran in her room. I asked her what was wrong and she told me her tooth was hurting. She grabbed a bottle of aspirin off of her dresser and poured out six pills. She took all six at once. I guess it wasn’t working fast enough so she took six more. Twelve pills in less than eight minutes. Fifteen minutes later she could barely hold herself up. That was the first time I saw her do something like that. But is wasn’t the last time. I’ve watched my mother do this shit for three months straight. Everyday, all day, all night popping pill after pill after pill. Taking them without a care in the world. And you know something doctor?”
“What?”
“I don’t think it’s just a toothache she’s trying to kill. I think she’s trying to kill herself”…..