u/IAmPookieHearMeRoar

Hey Madison - and you voyeur lurkers - I posted a couple times over the last few weeks about dental issues I was having, and I’m sure at least a few of you are curious to know how it turned out. But also, hopefully I can help some of you avoid the hell I just went through. Strap in, it’s a long story…

Quick recap: I don’t have dental insurance. Just after the pandemic started, I randomly went to First Choice Dental to get a bunch of work done that I had put off because of personal problems. I chose them because of “reviews” but also because they were one of the few to offer discounted rates for people without insurance. I know now that is all a bunch of bullshit, but didn’t at the time. They basically inflate all their prices, and then made up a “discount“ program and showed them side by side to make it appear like you’re getting a good deal. I did hours of my own research later about prices to figure that all out, but what a scummy thing to do in the name of being helpful to people with no money.

But a couple weeks ago, I started having some bad pain when I drank anything cold on a tooth on which they had already filled and covered with a bridge. Like LITERALLY only 18 months ago, so still mostly brand new bridge they themselves put in. I called around, called FCD again and posted here asking where people go. That was all while the pain was something I could avoid by just using the other side of my mouth. Many here agreed with me FCD sucks, but as the days went on, I couldn’t find any place that could get me in soon without charging me a lot as a new patient. So as the pain got progressively worse, I just sucked it up and got in at FDC as an emergency appointment same day.

By the time I walked into their office, my mouth was blinding me with eye watering pain…literally. My gf had to drive me because she didn’t trust me to go a mile and a half; why? Because that night before, I experienced some of the worst pain I’ve ever had. Anyone who hasn’t experienced it, I may sound ridiculous. It’s just a tooth, right? Fuck no, this was throbbing, POUNDING pain radiating through my entire jaw even down into my upper neck. I could feel my pulse, in my FACE. There was about a two hour period where my gf was getting clothes on and grabbing her keys to go to the ER because all I could do was scream. I don’t do much crying but this made me bawl like a baby. Eventually I passed out and woke up an hour before my appointment and the pain was still there but had subsided just a tad.

The dentist looked around and said, yup, you got an infected tooth. I asked the plan, and she said that she would refer me to their specialist on call guy who rotates to all their clinics going where he’s needed to do stuff like this. And for the excruciating pain? Amoxicilin. Actually this part pissed me off more than the rest, she must have thought I’m just a fucking idiot because I explained in detail the pain, as did my gf, and asked her if the antibiotics would help with the pain. She was making eye contact until that question, and immediately looked at the ground and said “sure.” It doesn’t, by the way. It treats the infection which takes days if not weeks to even START to make pain better, but this bitch was telling me point blank that the amoxicillin will start working in a matter of hours and the pain should get better.

She gave me an invoice, telling me the root canal to fix it would cost 2700 bucks, which I thought was high and came back here to ask if you guys thought so too. And most of you did. The soonest they could get me in with this emergency dentist was in 8 days. And for the blinding pain, she told me to take fucking Tylenol with the amoxicillin. I know that opiates are the current cat’s meow as far as the government’s scape goat for their own shitty policy allowing fentanyl in that cause overdose deaths. And I’m fully aware of the danger of developing an addiction to them. But she didn’t even ask me any more questions or even to call back later if my pain persisted, Tylenol and antibiotics were it. Badgering her for pain meds would’ve just made it all worse, so I just left. But for fuck sake, a couple hydrocone 5mg or even maybe a Valium or two would help blunt it a tiny bit. Not for me, even, I just can’t stop thinking about how many others go through the same hellish pain, and for what? That’s despicable. Apparently immense human suffering is something they couldn’t care less about.

But I wasn’t done there. Luckily, that emergency dentist had a cancellation so I was able to get in two days later to get this root canal. I’ve had multiple other cavities and root canals from dentists in the past, and none of them were as rough as the one I had last week. Dentists usually try and hide the needle under their arm to not scare their patients with the imposing needle, and say there will be a little pinch. This guy put it in my face and said bluntly, “this will hurt.”. And it fucking did. Neither the dentist or assistant talked to me before, during or after the procedure; but they talked to each other. A hilarious conversation where they joked back and forth about how everything is more expensive and their SO/daughter was having problems paying rent, high insurance rates, etc. Complaining about things we all complain about, so pretty relatable. Until the assistant started talking about how many times she’s seen Morgan Wallen in concert, and how awesome he is each time. And she’s seeing him again next month, but she can’t afford rent or hardly even do laundry!? It was a nauseating feeling then, too when the dentist started rattling off all the times he’s seen Wallen and gushed about how much he loves him, too. The guy working on my mouth loves Morgan Wallen. And the last time he saw him live, he raved about how excited he was that Wallen brought out Brett Favre on stage. Dumbass literally said Favre is one of his idols and is “a great person.” I genuinely wondered for awhile if I was being punked.

Anyways, the pain was gone. Massive relief. Dentist left, I never got to ask him any questions about the procedure or future care. The assistant walked me to the front desk and asked for my credit card, to be charged the “quoted price.” She swiped my card, came back with the receipt to sign. For a total of $3900. Bitch, WHAT?? She looked annoyed more than anything that she had to look up my account. She saw that I was being charged for a root canal and a bridge replacement and told me I need to go back to my original clinic to replace the bridge on my right upper molar. Nope! Other clinic told me they would do the root canal THROUGH my bridge, there would be no other appointment. And the root canal was on my LEFT molar. She again looked annoyed, changed the invoice around and charged me the original price but said she had to add $180 for one x ray they took, and because the root canal required extra filler that wasn’t quoted originally. Not even a whiff of an apology, btw, but I just signed the fucking thing and am going to my original clinic to try and make sure they eventually got it right. That assistant wasn’t going to let me leave without paying.

It’s just fucking stunning. And I truly feel like this is just a microcosm of American health care in general. It’s so defeating. I try to at least occasionally tell myself things will eventually be ok in light of the insanity happening every day in our government. But I find less and less to be optimistic about every passing second.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. And I hope I can help even ONE person avoid the same shit show in the future. Stay the fuck away from First Choice Dental. And if you’re in any pain? Suck it up, doctors aren’t there to help with that anymore. No matter how bad it is, apparently. ✌️

I had been wanting to watch this new version of Lord of the Flies since I saw it pop up on my “coming soon” list. Maybe I’m a dork, but when I was an early teenager, I read this book. it’s truly a classic in most every sense of the word. I also saw the film released in the 80s, and I thought the movie actually put the story on paper to the screen quite well.

So unless I missed them, I’m kind of surprised not many here have talked about it. The few that have seem to have raged about things that, in my opinion, aren’t that big of a deal. Everyone can like what they like, it just seems like some people went into it wanting to hate it; so they found reasons to do so. Could be wrong?

But I just finished it. And I’m baffled by the super low scores on IMDb and rotten tomatoes. The critic score is much closer than the audience one, imo. It’s not perfect, not even close. But it searches the theory and nature of mankind in a pretty clever way, and that was the entire book’s purpose; a bunch of innocent kids are dropped on an island to fend for themselves, ignorant and immune to a more mature understanding of human experience…and almost immediately resorts to tribalism and violence. There’s a TON of interesting concepts in this story that are timeless, and while I found certain aesthetics offputting, I quite enjoyed the series. I loved for instance, the very opening scene when Piggy wakes up after the plane crash. He’s hurt, confused, scared. And as he starts searching for other survivors, he comes upon a little mini stream. He hops over it, stops with a big child like grin, and hops back and forth over it like you see a toddler do in a mall parking lot waiting for their parents to drive off. A little kid, in a very scary and adult situation, is still just a KID.

There were some musical choices I thought sucked. I found it odd that they had happy, hopeful operatic tunes at some of the darkest parts of the story. And I didn’t really care for how they tried to straddle the line between being contemporary and also stick with the original story, they made it clear it was happening in the 1970s or so, but still tried to apply things from today’s culture. But those are pretty small complaints. at least to me.

I suggest giving it a try if you keep an open mind. But just be aware, it’s not the same as the source material, nor is it too much like the movie. I still give it a 7.5-8/10 though. Tell me if you disagree.

Not that anybody wants a lecture, but I was just catching up on the day‘s news and noticed a few things that I occasionally forget, since we live in a world where nothing is ever good enough; ever.

I watched a press conference where the new co owner of the Bucks pretty much took over. He reiterated what he’d been saying in statements over the last few months. He is so offputting, his entire condescending demeanor. But the worst is how he just became a part of ownership and he’s telling the press and fanbase that he knows “how important Giannis is to the team and the franchise.” We can all rest assured this egotistical, allegedly racist piece of shit billionaire will accept nothing but the best “for” Giannis. Lip service to the franchise, ignoring the actual fans.

And following the Brewers, I see the team overperform each and every year before taking a massive shit in the middle of the diamond in the playoffs. A constant revolving door of great talent leaving every year because they become stars and sign with LA or NY. The one or two times we get to sign a bonafide star like Braun or Yelich, they miraculously get matted down in the injury report and never sniff another MVP caliber year. And that’s when the owner DOES open his wallet.

And don’t get me started on Badgers sports, Luke Fickell specifically.

We don’t have that as packers fans. There’s no way for an out of touch, out of state asshole billionaire to come in and all of a sudden become the entire front office. Cowboys and Jets fans may have their scapegoat owners as a place to put blame, but they have no way to change those guys’ minds about anything short of selling the team. I will admit, I bitch. We all do. LaFleur, imo, sucks ass. I have appreciated a few decent seasons but I personally don’t think we’ll ever take that next level step unless he’s gone. I’d love to be proven wrong. But he’s always held accountable. Just like Gutey and everyone else in the management structure, they’re all accountable to the shareholders: US. Well, not me personally, but you know what I mean. We got it good and sometimes shit shows from our other Wisconsin teams really drive that home. Take a moment and bask in the gold and green glow!

I posted recently about advice for finding a dentist that is both competent and affordable for a guy with no insurance.

I ended up getting an “emergency” appointment at a First Choice Dental. I understand some of you say FCD is awful, and that’s fine. But from my last thread, FCD ended up being my logical choice. I’m not here to talk about my choice…just the price.

With their “discount,” their stated price for simply one root canal comes to $2.701.00.

That seems high.

I did a quick search and most prices for root canals are between $600-$1700.

Lady at reception said it’s a “normal price” for molars, and front teeth are cheaper.

I am a simple man. Can anybody just please tell me if I’m getting fucked up the ass? Because I don’t have a lot of extra finances to spend frivolously; and even if I went to another place, I’d have to pay hundreds just to be SEEN.

Help a brotha out? And please, no smart asses. I’m tired and in a lot of pain. Not in any mood for arguing…😕

When you come up on a four way, flashing traffic light stop; if it’s flashing yellow to YOU, it should be treated as a minor “yield.” Usually a quick brake check should suffice, and you can go through. Easy peasy.

When you come to a flashing RED light, you treat it as an effective stop sign. This is typically a less traveled road so it’s treated as a stop so as to not bunch up traffic on the busier road.

I drive often enough at around 10-12pm that this situation comes up a lot, and unfortunately a solid 30-40% of you people have no idea how this is supposed to work. Tonight I had a minivan stop at a flashing yellow in order to let me, stopped at a flashing red(turning right, into a SEPARATE lane mind you) light go first. I saw the situation and thought I had a few seconds before proceeding, so by the time I looked up that minivan was completely stopped and flashing their headlights at me to ”go ahead.”

A second car behind that minivan nearly plowed into this idiot, and was honking and screaming…with good reason. Being a polite driver is fine, but not when you’re ignoring actual traffic law to do it. I’ve seen this happen way too often and it’s infuriating. Be better, Madisonian night owls. This shit was taught repeatedly when you got your license, and it sure would’ve ruined my night too if I had been part of an actual car accident. Even if it wasn’t my fault.

Cheers. ✌️

The movie Go was recently added to the platform(in the US, not sure about other markets) and I gotta suggest anyone who has not seen it, to give it a try. Even if you HAVE already seen it, it holds up really well and maybe a rewatch is in store.

The film is super fun, action packed and intricately told; it’s about an elicit drug deal gone bad from three separate perspectives. It’s loaded with very familiar faces(like an insanely young and awesome Timothy Olyphant) along with some faces you may recognize from the 90s who you never ended up seeing again. If you were a teenager in the 90s or early naughts, the nostalgia will absolutely bowl you over…in the best possible way. The soundtrack along took me back instantly, they just don’t make movies like this anymore! (I know, a cliche at this point, but it’s true)

I saw this one multiple times over the years with friends but had trouble finding a physical copy to purchase, and was so happy to see it pop up on my screen on Netflix. Come along for the magic carpet ride… ✌️