Merlyn Dizon Franco

Sometime in February I fractured one of my left top molars twice and a couple of pieces from the tooth broke off each time. I expected it to start hurting soon because I assumed the nerves will be exposed.

It didn't.

Two days before I left the Philippines another molar on the other side, top right this time, started hurting, somewhat tolerable pain so I figured perhaps it'll go away.

Well, it didn't.

I arrived in California Monday the 14th. Wednesday evening after dinner it started hurting, on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst, this is like 12! This is the first time I've had a toothache. I'll be 55 soon and trust me when I say, a toothache is no fun, I wouldn't wish it on my enemy. Well, perhaps on a really bad enemy. Anyway, the pain lasted for about less than 10 minutes and it was fine after that, a dull pain but tolerable. It's time to go to bed and I had to brush my teeth. After brushing, here it comes again. Son of a gun! Fortunately, this lasted for only about 5 minutes or so. It's decision time. I have to see a dentist. In my situation, seeing our family dentist is sort of out of the question.

Batchmate Bert Franco is married to Merlyn, a dentist, and they live all the way in Palmdale, one to two hours drive from here depending on the fraffic. I figured she's my best bet.

Here she is with Donna and Bert when they visited our house under construction back in 2006.

So Thursday I made the call. I told her my story, the fractured tooth, the hurting tooth, etc. Long story short I needed a root canal. Woo Hoo!! Dan and I went there Thursday evening and she worked on my tooth for almost two hours! She had to give me three shots to numb it. Of course that was only the first phase. And of course they took us to dinner afterwards. Today almost a week later, Dan and I went back to see her after we finished our shopping in Chinatown in downtown LA. And this time it's a little over two hours. The difference though, she has her assistant, Rowena, Bert's niece. When she finished my root canal, she filled up the cracked one saying there's no time to put a crown on it. She may just do it the next time we're here. I lost count of the X-rays they took. While they were working, my mind was mostly in Egypt climbing the pyramids or enjoying the view off the Eiffel Tower or frolicking by the great waterfalls of the Amazon jungle. Well, you get my drift.

And they wanted to take us to their home afterwards so we can have dinner there. Dang, I don't know what I did to deserve all this kindness. Bert and Merlyn are too much. I had to turn them down because another classmate Boy Dizon (Donna's cousin) and wife Remy were inviting us for dinner.

Thanks Merlyn, I owe you a whole bunch. I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you. That tooth ache was unbearable. You saved my life! Have you heard of the guy who jumped off the Golden Gate bridge because of a tooth ache? Hey, it could happen!