Yesterday afternoon, I was driving us back to Akumal in the Jeep. We take the toll road as far as Valladolid and then cut over to the coast at Tulum. Just outside of Merida, we drove into a wall of black. It was fearsome. Rain came down in buckets, visibility was only a couple of feet, the road was instantly a hydroplane. Even though it is a good road along there and it is sloped for runoff, it was coming down so hard that there wasn't time for it to run off and there was a solid inch of water on the road. I stayed in the middle and was thankful I was on a divided road. Suddenly a lightning bolt struck just ahead of us and I swear the Jeep shuddered from the force of the instant thunder.

Holy shit! It was scary. Lightning flashed and thunder cracked instantly, we were right under a huge storm. Mimi is my lightning expert as she loves it (but respects it) and is from Colorado. I'm a wimp from California where we only get occasional flash lightning and not these terrifying bolts. She just kept saying for me not to stop - like I was even considering stopping in the middle of that. We came to an overpass and I asked if we should sit under it and she said no, keep going. Then I realize she is hunched over to stay below the steel roll bar and she is keeping all arms and legs away from the door. Ack! She also said to stay in the middle of the road and watch the trees for a lightning hit that could send one over us! I digested all that between jumping at every strike and then said a little shakily, "I don't want to get hit by lightning" She agreed and said the good news was that the trees were taller than we were and the bad news was that they were right at the edge of the road and we have a soft top.

It was a very long 45 minutes but then we emerged from the dark and there were blue skies and a gorgeous sunset. Oh, and we didn't get hit by lightning and no trees fell on us. Phew! We got back to Akumal and had a pre-birthday drink for Mimi at the Buena Vida. Sometime in the middle of the night we woke up to such loud thunder that I swear the walls shook. Poor Hombre was freaking out so we brought him into the bed and he crawled under the covers and stayed there until he got too hot and the storm passed on. It is a LOT nicer to listen to thunder and see lightning when you are inside a big building, it's even better when you are warm in your bed inside a building.

Today, I had 3 dental implants along with bone augmentation or something like that. Let's get honest here, they put some powdered dead person's bone inside my jaw! Yak! They showed me the bottle, it was from Oklahoma and it is supposedly radiated and baked and whatever to make it sterile. Still... yuck!

I had 3 dentists working on me. My guy Dr Ruben, my other dentist who does my cleanings and laser whitening, Dra. Alicia and the specialist in bone and sinus surgery whose name I've forgotten. Did I mention that these teeth have been gone for so long that the bone receded and my sinus expanded and thus they had to go through the bone and raise the sinus cavity up without breaking it and then add extra dead person bone powder? I'm not at all sure how I agreed to this procedure, the words just came out of my mouth last week and I've been in a low level panic about it ever since.

I was to get one implant on one side of my upper jaw and 2 on the other side. They started with the single one. The specialist who I'll be nice and just say that she is supposed to be an expert at her job but she has little to no chair-side skills. So, she takes this needle and proceeds to stick it about a foot up into the roof of my mouth. I levitated off the friggin chair. The pain was incredible, I started crying immediately and couldn't stop for the next 45 minutes.

They had this paper thing drapped over everything but my mouth, I was inside my paper Chador with tears pouring out and trying hard not to hyper ventilate or just stop breathing and pass out. At one point I thought maybe passing out would be a good thing but I couldn't hold my breath long enough. My doctors, Ruben and Alicia could tell something was wrong, maybe because I was stiff as a plank and my legs didn't touch the chair at all. Or, maybe it was because the tears started pooling in my ears and then running out and my shirt was drenched, or maybe it was the moaning and shaking. Ruben kept asking me if I was in pain, saying they would give me more numbing medicine. I was too terrified of that shot in the roof of my mouth to admit it and I just kept shaking my head no and trying not to move while this person was using power tools in my mouth.

It was a 9 on a 10 point pain scale. I don't think I've ever experienced pain like that. What a torture technique, I would give up anyone and anything if threatened with a needle to the roof of my mouth. Shit! I'd give anyone up if they even mentioned the possibility of a needle to the roof of my mouth. I could tell that the Novocain had not reached the areas she was working, it probably was all in the bottom of my brain which was why I didn't leap up and run out the door. I actually almost grabbed her by the throat when she gave me that shot, only my fear of moving the needle in my mouth kept me from it. Nothing was numb, not my lips, my gums, my cheek, none of the places that should have been numb were at all numb. So, basically, I laid there and cried and let someone drill a hole in my jaw bone and then push my sinus cavity up and then twist a screw into the hole and pump in a bunch of dead person bone and then... stitch the whole thing with what felt like a huge canvas needle. That and I cried under my paper Chador. Oh, and Mimi was off at the grocery store so she couldn't step in and make them stop.

Once they finished that one tooth. I said I couldn't go on. I was shaking and crying and in a complete panic. I've never been afraid of the dentist. Dr Ruben kept asking me what happened to his good patient but I couldn't even get it together to tell him that NOTHING WAS NUMB!!!

I knew that not getting the other 2 done defeated the whole point of this which is to eliminate the need for a bridge. I also knew that if I walked out the door I would never, never return. So, I laid there and cried and shook and couldn't talk. Finally Mimi arrived and I think the whole lot of them went out to greet her with open arms and tell her that something was wrong but I wouldn't tell them what. I was really glad to see her. During all the above I kept thinking I heard her voice and hoping she would walk in and stop all the pain but then I'd realize that the voice was speaking Spanish, not Mimi.

I managed to tell her what happened, Dr Ruben was the only other one there and he immediately touched my gum and cheek and when I told him I could feel it he was horrified. He got a sub-lingual Tordol under my tongue, Mimi rubbed my feet and talked slowly to me until I stopped shaking and felt calmer. I was still unable to say I'd stay for the other 2, just the thought would send me reeling off into fear and crying. I'm really not a crybaby, I have a pretty high pain threshold and even used to get my teeth filled without novocaine. I had to be calm at the start though, know it was coming and be able to float over the pain. That first incredibly painful shot had killed any hope of me dealing well with what followed.

Dr Ruben assured me that he would give the novocaine for the next 2, that he would do it slowly and make sure that it worked. What the hell, I finally agreed and he kept his promise. The only real pain in the last 2 was at the end with the stitching, I think the numb was wearing off.

So, that's been my last 24 hours. Fear and more fear and unbelievable pain. Now, I'm sitting in my living room with the doors open to the ocean, my kitty asleep on my chest, stoned on Tordol and white wine. Life is definitely better.

Oh, today (now yesterday) was Mimi's birthday. She has spent it taking care of me and she's doing a fantastic job of it. We will celebrate it later this weekend perhaps, assuming I keep getting better. I can't eat solid food but I can drink and I had some great Top Ramen for dinner along with a really nice Monte Xanic Chenin Colombard. I feel like I got run over, nothing really hurts (love that Tordol) but I'm completely drained.