I'm getting my teeth worked on by a couple of graduate students at the UW. I'm up for a little bit of surgery and I had to get a new panorama Xray taken.

Evidently, there are some faint circular shadows on my jaw and one had seemd to change from one panorama to another. Or so one student thought. He wanted me to get a CAT scan.

So, we're talking about possible cancer here ?

Oh, no, oh, no--it could be one of twenty things !

We went back and forth about this--I don't have medical insurance and a CAT scan was a lot of money. But, as it turned out, We could find out with some sort of tomograpy that was quite a bit cheaper.

So, I've spent five days thinking about life and death and how much longer I might have left and all that sort of thing...

So, I had it done today.

And, long story short--things look OK.

Now I feel much relieved and a little tired. So, there is that.

Now that you have a CAT scan, you can get a mold of your own skull made.

I'm glad to hear you're doing okay, y2karl.

Er, tomography--I had my head propped on a post while this x ray machine swirled around my head like some sort of Tilt-a-whirl. up and down and back and forth. It was very strange.

But at least I got an instant response on the it all looks OK part. At least, that's how it sounded. Haven't talked to my dentists yet, so I'm feeling tentatively, rather than definitely, better.

Good deal, Karl. I'll buy you a beer at the meetup on Saturday (Elysian 6 pm) to celebrate.

I would take what your grad student said with a huge grain of salt, especially where it comes to any diagnosis about significant aspects of your health.

Glad you're ok, y2karl. But sorry you had to go through that. Scary stuff.

This is why it is called medical practice. They just keep practicing.

And we're supposed to be patient.

Teeth are a bitch, my man. I'm tempted to remove 'em all and grow baleen like a whale, although that would make eating ribs difficult.

Nah, you just have to suck really hard.

Teeth are a bitch, all right - I recently decided to finally get something done about mine before they all fall out of my head. So far I have spend close to $2k in the past few months with very little visible difference. it will be good to be able to eat whatever I want when the work is finished, but I won't be able to afford to buy food.

Glad to hear that your results were positive, karl.

Glad you've got at least tentative good news, y2karl. I, too, will buy you a beer to celebrate.

If you need an feel like venting any fears to a near stranger, I'd be happy to listen.