Today, a sleep check-in

While I usually look forward to going to the doctor (catching up on magazines, time alone in the waiting room, free water), today I am not enthusiastic at all about today's visit. It's a check-up for my sleep regimen, to the dental specialist who gave me over five thousand dollars in oral retainers. I've been pretty good about the night one but wonder if I'll be scolded or worse if I haven't made any discernable progress. I can't imagine how many more weeks of wearing this thing at night I can tolerate.

I usually know where to go
After years of having doctors all over Manhattan, I decided to consolidate with one street on the Upper East Side. There, along one 2-avenue stretch is my internist, allergist, gastro-interologist, ear-nose-and-throat and of course the Sleep Center. The exception really is this dentist, which is much closer to work on Madison Avenue. I like him, but I hate both my retainers.

Their combined effect, one from day wear and one from night, is to pull my jaw forward which will have things line up more nicely and better air flow at night. This also relieves pressure on my left side of my head, which will relieve the occasional pain I get in my shoulder and also result in my ability to lift dozens or hundreds (I forget what he said) of extra pounds at the gym. This is a correction from how my mouth shifted after my wisdom teeth were removed and from the untold damage from my orthodontics. The braces bit really bugs me since it's more proof of the damage my parents did to me through how they chose medical care; the orthodontist was a client of my dads and they bartered law work and braces.

It's working
Bryan says that he hasn't noticed I'm snoring at all anymore. This means the correction is totally working, or I wasn't really snoring in the first place and Bryan feels really bad.