Dentist One

Mom met me at the elevator looking good in a new and fashionable top in her signature rusts and oranges. On the way to the dentist she said, “I would very much like to go to Safeway when I’m done at the dentist. I’m almost out of cat food.” She turned down my offer of doing the cat food run for her during her appointment, despite my concern that she might not feel up to the grocery after two hours in the dentist’s chair.
She was taken back soon after we arrived, and I strolled the neighborhood. The first phone call from the office was about mom’s concern over the cost. I asked them to let her know it was taken care of, and then voiced, “She can’t not have this work done.” The second call brought me back to the office. Mom needed to talk to me. When I got there she said, “I had NO idea this appointment would take SO long.” I replied that it was a two hour appointment, which was a long time to sit in the dentist’s chair. I made sure to wink at the doc. On my way back out I paid the half of the out-of-pocket amount, so as to reduce the chances that mom would worry about cost. The doctor walked her out at the end of the procedure, and sat down to talk with us. Really, he was talking with me, and was able to flawlessly include mom when something one of us said caught her attention.
He took me back to see mom’s x-rays. It turns out there’s another tooth, with a crown, that has decay. After a careful conversation, which included topics such as quality of life, money, time, how far does one take dental procedures with someone who is 83 and has a life-limiting disease etc, I decided that we should repair the tooth (yet another crown) now, rather than put a watch on it. The doc suggested that we don’t tell mom that additional work is being done, but rather say we’re ‘working on the right side.’
Between phone calls from the office, my daughter called me. She happened to be working in mom’s community today. She asked me to pick up an over the counter medication for mom. I asked her what kind of cat food Elvis ate. After finding the cat food, my kiddo looked in mom’s fridge and said, “Eewwwwww.” She removed a number of rotten things, amongst them a piece of brie that was black. At least the fridge is small.
Mom was ready to put her feet up when we got back to the community. I took my leave.

A side note: After coming unhinged that one of the public bathrooms at the community was out of toilet paper the other day, mom has been hoarding TP in her room. The GM shared this with me and my daughter this morning. I smiled and said, “We all have that ‘thing’ that makes us feel secure. Our cousin needs Cheetos in the house to feel secure. When we were all in TX, we’d (me and my daughter) combine several open bags, and a new bag would show up!” The GM asked, “Crunchy or puffy.” I said, “Crunchy for sure.” He smiled and showed us Cheeto dust on his fingers!