Thank You Nice Lady in the Bathroom at McMenamins:

There I was, sitting in the movie theater on Saturday watching the Civil War game with my husband at  McMenamins  in Bend.  Drinking my "Shot in the Dark" coffee and eating popcorn.  The light was dim, so I was not self-conscious about digging out stray popcorn slivers with my fingernail. 

I was rooting for Oregon of course, because I really am a Duck, but it was hard to tell who they were without their names on their wrong colored jerseys.  I really was enjoying watching that little Jaquizz Rogers play for OSU most of all.  He is only around 5' 7'',  and gets so much done running circles around and in between those bigger players.

Anyway, I was done getting the popcorn out of the right side of my mouth and went over to the left side.  There, I found something that made my heart drop.  A huge bump on the inside gum in the back of my mouth.  Under my tongue, so I couldn't feel or see it before then.  A tumor?  I was trying not to freak out.  Cary came back in to sit beside me, and I told him about it.  He said that maybe it was an abscess.  He had troubles of his own, batting away cigarette moochers when he was outside.  (On Friday night, there was this one guy who would follow him outside and pick up his discarded butt and smoke the rest of it.  There are some desperate smokers out there these days, you guys.) 

I went into the bathroom to look in the mirror and, of course, the light was dim in there too.  I could only see that it was a really big lump.  That is where the reassuring nice lady comes into the story.  I made her look.  She told me that it was probably an abscess, that her husband had one removed awhile back.  Did I have a dentist?  Did I have insurance?  There is a new low income dental clinic on the corner of such and such in Bend.  If I needed an oral surgeon, Dr. K. was THE BEST.  Don't worry, she said, you will be just fine. 

Nice lady, I just want to thank you for being so nice to me during my time of duress.  You calmed my fears and helped me not worry too much until Monday, when I went to the dentist.  You reminded me how important it is to take just a few minutes and be kind to others.  After that I was a bit worried that if it was an abscess that it might burst before Monday and fill me with poison, like a ruptured appendix.  And then, I might die or something.  And, I don't even have my tree up yet.  That didn't happen, thank goodness.  Most of the scenarios that I worry about don't actually happen, I have noticed.

Yesterday, I went to the dentist.  He took a look and said, oh, well that is only a Torus, an extra bone growth.  Lots of people have them, and usually you can just leave them there, unless you need to get dentures or something.  WHAT??? I had never even heard of such a thing.  How can I be 52 years old and the existence of Torus' had gotten by me all this time?  The dentist opened his mouth wide and showed me his.  Later, when I was talking to my Mom, she said, yes, I have one too.  Bone growths in mouths are all over the place apparently.

Well, since there was nothing to worry about, I won't worry about it.  I made an appointment to get my teeth cleaned soon.  All is well that ends well, they say. I hope that this story didn't gross you out.  I was pretty grossed out about the whole thing for a while, but I got to thinking that if I didn't know about Torus growths, then maybe some of you didn't either.  This post is just one big FYI.  And a shout out to the nice lady in the bathroom.


Kathy