SoCal Bad Luck Streak

I don’t know what it is about traveling to Southern California for me… but the last 4-5 trips haven’t been so lucky… My little sister, her husband and new little baby Lauren, live in Orange County so I like to visit often… but check out these statistics for my last four trips:

1) Getting out of the car from the airport, I step in a grass covered hole and twist my ankle.

2) While at a popular theme park, a bee flies in my mouth and stings my lip (see previous blog, including pictures of my Angelina Jolie lip)

3) A week prior to another visit, my sister thought she got food poisoning a few days later with her we discovered it wasn’t food poisoning, but a really bad case of the flu… how did we find out? I woke up at 2AM one morning with a really bad case of her “food poisoning” – ugh.

And the latest adventure? The night before I’m took my niece and nephews to Disneyland, we were eating pizza and chomp! Ouch! It felt like rock in my mouth! Shooting pain went through a tooth… “Ouch! What is in this pizza?” I exclaimed. When I thought I was going to fish out a rock, out came a gold nugget! Now I guess some would say with the rising price of gold these days it was good luck, but seeing it came out of my mouth at random, that wasn’t my immediate thought. I quickly figured it out… it was a gold filling I had. Or used to have!

Let me explain, back in the early 90’s a friend of mine was in dental school and begged me to come in so he could practice cleanings. During my cleaning he said, “Ooh I see a cavity I better fill it!” I knew I didn’t have a cavity, but he was just eager to practice. I told him “No way!” I can’t believe he talked me into it by saying he would make it a gold filling. (I guess as a poor college student I thought I’d be more valuable?). It was nothing like you’re thinking.. Not Dr. Teeth from the muppets or anything.

It was a little gold filling on a bottom back tooth. You really couldn’t see it unless I pointed it out. Anyway, it was making its grand appearance now at the dinner table, leaving in its place a gaping hole! Too late to find a dentist, I called my own in the Bay Area the following morning. I told her of our packed agenda of Disneyland rides and my lack of pain. She said to keep the foods soft and opposite side, and if it began to hurt at all, she gave me the number of a recommended nearby dentist. I never had to call, but I did have a tough time finding soft food at the park. I was reduced to the “toddler meal” of rice and chicken and applesauce in critter country. This brought a lot of laughs to my niece and nephews as they chomped their bacon burgers and fries. Long story short, I’m going to the dentist this afternoon. By the time you read this I will no longer have the extra hole in my head I once did, and perhaps a shiny gold nugget around my neck. (I really don’t think so, but this is what my nephew Matt suggested).

Laura Garcia Cannon
NBC11 Anchor