Even though I've been blogging my weight loss on another forum as well as here; and I've whined, bitched, moaned and complained at length about what it's like trying to drop a shit ton of weight without access to any medical help, there is this whole dental thing which I've never discussed.
Long story short, one of my back molars -- the last one back there before the wisdom tooth on the top right -- started literally crumbling apart about 3 years ago. At first it was tiny little pieces and over time they got larger and the remaining stump of tooth had rotted to the point where you could literally bend it back and forth. I mean, the actual structure of the tooth had become flexible, like tough licorice or something. The toothaches which accompanied this had me using so much Ora-Gel and oil of cloves that within a couple of weeks it was like my entire tongue was being singed away. It became impossible for me to eat anything even remotely spicy, and that's coming from someone who loves red pepper flakes on his pasta, tons of jalapenos in his chili and on his veggie dogs, and so forth.
Three or four years later, and you can feel a couple little tiny shards of tooth still poking out back there, but I consider myself very lucky in that all the pain is gone, unless I try eating or drinking something very cold. I can once again enjoy spicy foods within reason, so that's nice.
On the other hand, I'm sure this was just the first problem of many I'll be in for as I get older, and like the already copious amounts of loose skin I'm dealing with from my weight loss, I'll just have to join my tens of millions of other 'fortunate Amercians' in picking myself up by those wonderful, mythical bootstraps.
But I understand. All these wars and resource grabs and bailouts for the rich are much more important than my health, comfort or survival despite how much I've already accomplished with only one person backing me up and helping me or any of the other tens of millions who share my plight.
= new reply since forum marked as read