Monday the 2nd – DENTAL FUN 1 – Well, after suffering with all of my teeth hurting (upper and lower) on the right side of my mouth since Thanksgiving, today was the day I was seeing my dentist Dr. Acosta. He was going to look at my #2 (the upper molar in the far back right next to where my wisdom tooth would have been) and prep it for a crown. It had lost part of its white filling and needed to be crowned. So I went in first thing in the morning. He numbed me up and started drilling. Once he got all of the white filling out he told me that he now knew the reason why all of my teeth on the right side had been hurting me. He said that food and decay had gotten up underneath the white filling and the decay had reached the nerve. Apparently, these white fillings aren’t any good. They don’t bond to the teeth well and bacteria can get into the margins and screw up your teeth. So avoid the white fillings at all costs! My previous dentist had encouraged me to have all the metal fillings in my teeth removed in favor of white fillings, but I hesitated. And now I’m glad I did because this could have happened to all my other teeth as well. So, he popped some temporary cement on the tooth and made me an appointment with a specialist to have a ROOT CANAL! Joy of joys. I told him I wanted to do it asap, so I got scheduled with Dr. Okada for the very next day. Damn those cheesy white fillings anyway! So, luckily the Novocain wore off pretty quickly and I was able to make my audition later that morning at Kalmenson and Kalmenson for McDonald’s. After the audition I stopped by a Smog Check station to get my car smog checked. In California, you have to have your car tested every couple of years to make sure the exhaust output from your car is within legal limits. Then you get a certificate and you can renew your car’s registration for another year. I passed with flying colors and was on my way to Patches. There I did three more radio spots for Scott’s turf builder. In the commercials, I play Matt…the next-door neighbor of NASCAR driver Carl Edwards. So they had three more spots for me to do. They played me Carl’s tracks that he had recorded previously and I interacted with them. Which is a neat trick considering the producers were in another city playing them for me down what’s called an ISDN line. A super high quality phone line. It was a lot of fun, and one of the producers said she was a former dental assistant, so she was familiar what I had been going through. Small world, huh? Anyway, after that I sped over to Studiopolis to record tracks for another episode of “Bleach,” and then I went into one of the other studios to record my voice tracks for Dad and Magmion for an upcoming episode of “Gormiti.” Since I had another job during the usual Friday morning “Gormiti” session, they let me record my tracks early. Then I hopped in my car and went over to Vitello’s to join my pal Bruce Kulick and his girlfriend Leslie for her birthday party. I was also joined by Bruce’s pal and drummer Eric Singer, as well as my friends Scott and Vickie Sebring, my pixie pal Sara, and a few other fine folks. It was a great time and after eating some scrumptious Italian food we went across the street to enjoy some gelato. MMMM! When I got home that night I found a very instructional video on You Tube about root canals. I knew EXACTLY what was going to be done to my tooth, as I believe fear is bred in the unknown. But now that I educated myself about the procedure, I could face it without fear and with a mind packed with knowledge.
Tuesday the 3rd – DENTAL FUN 2 – Well, I got up early like a good boy and went to the offices of Dr. Okata in Burbank. As we sat in the chair talking before the procedure, he asked what I did for a living. I told him I was a voice actor and mentioned some shows I was doing. Turns out he was a BIG “Family Guy” fan! That’s nice to know just before going into a root canal, because you’d think that he’d make sure to be a little extra careful and gentle if he digs what you do. He also told me something that made me feel not so crazy. Remember, all along I was being told by doctors and dentists that the intense pain I had been feeling in my teeth on the right side was probably due to a sinus infection or an ear infection. So I was being treated for that. I was told it was NOT a dental issue. So I believed them, but still knew something was wrong. Then something happened the previous week that told me it was DEFINITELY me teeth! Well, Dr. O told me that I wasn’t crazy, and there’s something called “referred pain” which I experienced. He said that when one tooth is inflamed, it can definitely affect the other teeth. Which is exactly what happened! SO I WASN’T CRAZY! Well, at least not for that! So he put the swab of topical Novocain in my mouth and let it sit for awhile. Then he came at me with the needles. But you know, I didn’t feel a thing! He really knows his stuff. Then he set about drilling out the temporary cement that Dr. Acosta had put in the day before. Again, I brought my i-Pod along and would crank it up high whenever the drilling would commence. The whole procedure took about an hour and a half and went like clockwork. But the weirdest thing was hearing the filing he was doing to file out the canals in my tooth. It sounded like somebody was filing my skull, but I didn’t feel a thing. Weird! But he finished, cemented me back up and I was on my way with a prescription for some painkillers. The rest of the day I just relaxed, took the painkillers, and napped after watching some “Mannix” episodes on DVD. But that night I woke up and realized I was starting to get a cold sore. Apparently that happens sometimes when you have that type of surgery. Your mouth is open for an hour and a half and all sorts of stuff can aggravate your lips. So I contacted my medical doctor and got some cream to make it go away. UGH. I’m ready for all this to be over, but today’s activities was just phase 2 of a 4 phase procedure. I still needed to be prepped for the crown, and then have the crown attached once it was ready.
Wednesday the 4th – DON’T FEEL LIKE DOING MUCH! – Luckily, I could tell my dentist that I could have the root canal immediately because, as luck would have it, I had nothing going on in my schedule for the next few days. Isn’t it funny how God works? It’s almost like He knew what was coming so he…”cleared my schedule!” So after doing a quick audition at Voicecasters for Coke Zero, I stopped by Dr. Okata’s office to take he and his assistant Stella some signed “Family Guy” photos I promised them. Then I went over to Best Buy in Burbank and picked up some new Blu Rays…”Office Space” and “Napoleon Dynamite.” Then I went home to rest some more as the area where Dr. O worked was hurting. Though the tooth no longer had a nerve in it, the area around it was sensitive. So, back to bed. It was raining anyway, so it was perfect sleeping weather.
Thursday the 5th – ZZZZZZ – I had fully intended to get up and try and go shooting, but I thought better of it. It was raining cats and dogs anyway. I kept eating on the left side of my mouth, because until a titanium post is placed in the tooth that Dr. O hollowed out, it would still be prone to breakage if I chomped on a nut or hard candy. So I kept all the food to the left side. I had to back out of a meeting we had scheduled for our homeowner’s association because I was hurting and wanted to rest that night. I’ll be so glad when this is over.
Friday the 6th – BACK TO WORK! – I was starting to feel better, though I was still occasionally popping an Ibuprophen from time to time to ward off the pain. I went to Technicolor in the early morning to work on a new game called “Empire” which sounds terrific. I got to work with the sensational Chris Borders again, and we had a blast. They had initially intended for me to do a third character, but after one of the producers had heard me talking about “the old radio days” he wanted me to ad-lib some radio DJ patter that could be worked into the game. Apparently some of the characters are sitting around listening to the radio as they’re cleaning their guns or something. So I took on the name of Jon Michaels, (an old radio buddy of mine from the old days in South Dakota) and fell right into it. It’s kind of like riding a bike. Your mind just gets into that “DJ” mentality and starts firing off patter. It was a lot of fun to do again, and especially fun to be able to improv some stuff for the game. You never know in this business what you’ll be asked to do, so it’s best to keep all your ammo polished and ready to go at a moment’s notice. I stopped by It’s a Wrap and found some awesome clothes. I got a burnt orange, long-sleeved t-shirt with a tiger print on it, I also got a black hoodie with a Disney logo on it, and a pair of snappy black leather pants that I can’t wait to wear somewhere! After that I went by Denny’s and picked up my usual fried chicken salad and buffalo chicken strips to go. My goal was to get home, take some medication, eat my lunch while watching “Mannix” on DVD and catch some sleep. Which is precisely what I did. However when I got home, there were several auditions I needed to do first. So I finished those off, and enjoyed my lunch in bed while watching “Mannix” and then took a nap. I was starting to feel better! That night I got up and had a late dinner with my pal Sara at DuPar’s. It was a nice rainy night, so I needed some of DuPar’s comfort food.
Saturday the 7th – OWWW! – I woke up Saturday in pain. The area where Dr. O worked was really sore! Darn! Just when I thought I was getting better. So I took some painkillers and went about my day. Now, this weekend would have been the weekend for my church elder’s retreat, but months ago when they were signing everyone up, something in the back of my mind said not to go. I wasn’t sure why I was picking up on that vibe at the time (because normally I love going up to the retreat every year in lovely Santa Barbara) but I was definitely not inspired to go. Well, now I know. I probably wouldn’t have been able to go anyway, as I didn’t want to be hours out of town and have a potential problem with my teeth. So it’s good I stayed in town. After my maids came to clean Planet Wallywood, my pal Scott Sebring came by so we could go to my seamstresses’ house and get fitted for two new “Star Trek” shirts I was having her make. I already have the Captain Kirk style, but I wanted a blue Spock shirt and a red Scotty shirt just for the collection. Just in case, ya know! So we drove out to her house in Palmdale and fought heavy rain most of the way. But it was fun, because I had made a CD of some of my favorite James Bond soundtrack music to play on the way. I did the fitting, and as we were pulling out of her driveway, Scott pointed out the most amazing rainbow I think I have ever seen! It was almost the FULL arch, and in rich, vivid colors. It was stunning, and I almost couldn’t take my eyes off it long enough to watch the road. But we soon found our way to Del Taco for some lunch on the go. In the rearview mirror on the way back home, I noticed the rainbow had become a double rainbow. Fantastic! It really makes you pause and consider the marvel of creation! Later that day Scott and I joined my pals Fred Westbrook and Sara for a trip to my buddy Ralph’s house to see his amazing 1966 Batman collection. Ralph works on a morning radio show here in LA and has met and known Adam West for quite a few years. It was a lot of fun, and later we all (including Ralph’s wife) came to Planet Wallywood for a tour. Ralph’s collection is mostly contained to one room in their house, while my ENTIRE house is filled with collectibles. I’m sure when they left Planet Wallywood Ralph’s wife said, “Don’t even think about it!” It was a great night, because the party didn’t stop there. We all went to the Smokehouse for dinner. When we walked in it was wall-to-wall people. I told my gang that “THE RECESSION HAS BEEN CANCELLED.” There were plenty of people spending oodles of money on dinners there so apparently the recession isn’t on any longer. But I believe if you put something out there it becomes reality. If fear is generated in the press, then soon the consumers of that press will really believe what the press is telling them, and start fearing. But my new counter to that is to output positive vibes…so…tell all your friends that THE RECESSION HAS BEEN CANCELLED.” Perhaps everyone will stop living in fear and we’ll all get back to being faithful Americans. We were soon joined by Chuck McCann and we talked well into the night. What a great evening!!
Sunday the 8th – DOWNPAUSE! – The rain had cleared out for the nonce, but was expected again later that night. My seamstress Kathy was going to come drop off my “Star Trek” shirts, but she got busy with other stuff and never made it. In the mid-afternoon I did a phone interview with my pal Evan in Minnesota. I’ll post the link when it’s up on-line. Then I set up my spare computer in The Puppet Room so I could start to have computer capability in that room as well as in my office/studio downstairs. I got showered and dressed and headed over to evening church. Since I was one of the elders who didn’t make the retreat, they still needed attending elders at all of the services, so I volunteered for the evening service. After the service I walked out and saw a huge full moon in the sky covered with beautiful, yet ominous clouds. It was amazing! Again, you just have to marvel at creation! I met my pal Kristy later that night at Jerry’s Famous Deli, and we were joined by Chuck McCann. We had a nice meal, but as it was ending it started to rain again. So I high-tailed it home to get my auditions done and posted on-line so I could get to bed. The next day, it would be Phase 3 of my dental adventure!
Monday the 9th – DENTAL FUN 3! – Now that my tooth had been hollowed out, obviously a lot of the “referred pain” I had been experiencing was now gone. What a relief. And even the sensitivity I was feeling in that area where Dr. O did the root canal was diminishing. I was finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel! So today was the day I had Dr. Acosta prep me for my crown. He got inside and shaved the molar down for the crown. He also put a titanium post in the canal in my large root, which would fortify and strengthen the tooth for chewing. Then he placed a temporary aluminum crown on. As I left it was still raining, but word had it that this storm would be moving out soon. I got home, got in my pajamas, took some painkillers and watched “Mannix” in bed while eating a delicious Tombstone pizza, and CHEWING ON MY RIGHT SIDE AGAIN! It was marvelous! I slept most of the afternoon and evening, but when I woke up I was awakened to the most amazing thing. The rain was gone. The pain was gone. And shining in my bedroom window was a beautiful, silvery full moon with clear skies! Creation is a marvelous thing! What a way to wake up! So I got up, checked e-mail, printed my audition copy, wrote this Wally’s Week, and then joined my pal Chuck McCann for a late dinner at DuPar’s. Strangely enough, while I was in the dentist’s chair earlier in the day he had the radio on. And I heard Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now.” As I sat here typing this later in the evening, I realized how profound hearing that song was on this day. Like he said in the song “the rain is gone.” And now, the PAIN is gone. As I stared at the beautiful full moon that lit up my room like a movie set, strains of that song ran through my head. I really COULD see clearly now! For both the rain AND the pain was gone. Now here’s hoping the rest of 2009 is free of any more physical issues!
And how was YOUR week??!!
