The Accident

Well if you haven't heard by now, there was a slight mishap in Germany. We stayed one night in a hostel (with bunk beds) in the city of Ingolstadt where we attended a conference on immigration. On the fateful night of March 7, 2008, around 2 in the morning, I woke up on a top bunk and realized I had to go to the bathroom. The next thing I remember I was in a bathroom trying to no avail to rinse out all the blood in my mouth, and wondering what the heck was wrong with my teeth. Luckily I blacked out most of the incident, but I have come to the conclusion that I missed the ladder on the way down and knocked my chin/mouth on the bunk bed, which cut open my chin and knocked out one front tooth completely (root and all), as well as severely damaging 3 other teeth that were about to fall out. Somehow the other 11 people in my room slept through this, but I managed to wake someone up (not having idea what happened) and soon everyone was up and figuring out how to get me to the hospital. Went to the ER around 3 a.m. where they put stitches in my chin and determined I needed to go to a specialist to attempt to save my teeth (which was an hour cab ride away). So after the scary cab ride, I had emergency dental surgery to restore my teeth and had braces like things. Anyways, I'll spare all the details, but should mention the bill from both hopsitals was less than $400 combined (and would be cheaper if the exchange rage wasn't so high). Universal healthcare anyone? I know there are plenty of arguments against it, but we have a broken system in the U.S. that is ridiculous and something needs done.

Anyways, that was the slight mishap on my trip (about halfway through) but it did not ruin the experience by any means. Just gave me quite a story! Unfortunately the whole ordeal has caused me a slight headache since my return. I won't go into everything, but I have had several trips to the dentist, a root canal and oral surgery due to the accident. And after three opinions, unfortunately it has been determined I need braces for at least 18 months to fix everything, and I will end up losing a total of three teeth. Life happens. I plan to fight with insurance companies until the end to get some money, because this whole ordeal costs thousands of dollars. It really sucks to have braces late in life and for the third freakin time, but oh well. Probably will get them on in a month or so. Sucky. But in two years I will have a better smile than I started with....(at least I hope so!) And by the way, the front tooth I lost completely is currently glued in place with no root, fun huh?