Steph, at least in my experience, the need-a-root-canal symptoms were extreme pain due to heat (spontaneous crying, whee ) cold was the only thing that made it better (I went out and bought a teething ring, seriously, and only slept by packing my mouth with ice.) I do have cold sensitivity normally. My dentist has taken to painting over my "hot spots" (really, cold spots) with something that over many cleanings, has made the spots less sensitive. And I do use a sensitive-teeth paste, for many years now.

But even if you do need a root-canal, OMG, I thought mine was the Best Thing EVAH. Instant pain relief!

And I bet I can beat you all with dentist-avoidance: a decade. In which molars were falling apart and the only thing that got me in was it hurt too damned much. Two gold crowns, one which then needed the root canal, plus a double nonmetal crown, and god knows how many fillings. But I've been pronounced good for over 2 years now. And I schedule my next visit at every cleaning, to avoid starting up the cycle again. Thing is? Dentist thinks I would have needed most of this work anyway, even if I'd been seeing a dentist regularly. Just might've avoided the fillings.

Okay, y'all I am coming down to NO soon . We need to hang, and I have things for the cousins. And probablya few for Bev. Who will be there when?

I will be here at all times except possibly the weekend of Sept 23rd- I need to visit my dad at some point at the end of September.

So maybe Oct or Nov. I would do my BD but that might be a Morgan gathering, which I'm not quite up for.

DJ, where are your Morgans from originally? Always New Orleans? My Morgans are mostly from West Virginia.

Nora, that's an awful lot of stuff to deal with all at once.

{{{Nora}}} That’s so much. I’m sorry, honey.

In personal news, I need sympathy. I am in an enormous amount of pain. I’m pretty sure I have 2nd degree burns on the back of my thighs from an unfortunate combination of poor sunscreen application and a frantic call from a friend in crisis that caused me to lose track of time and stay on my stomach for two hours in the direct sun. The only reason they haven’t blistered is because I’ve been applying a lot of aloe vera consistently since Sunday afternoon. The first 12 hours hurt a lot. The second 12 sucked. Now my skin is tightened so much that sitting makes me want to cry, and I’m kind of a mess. And I have to commute. t /whine t /whimper

Pix, have you got the cooling aloe with lidocaine?

Aww, Pix. That's miserable.

I second the aloe/lidocaine recommendation. Skin pain really sucks. So sorry, Pix.

Thanks guys. I just have pure aloe. It’s been so so long since I’ve had a bad sunburn I don’t even know what’s on the market.