My prayer was answered

I had a really neat experience today, so in the spirit of remembering, I thought I would post it.

It all started this past Saturday...a toothache. A terrible toothache. The pain climaxed for me on Sunday evening when it was too painful to eat dinner. I called my good friend in our ward--who is a dentist--and asked what their availability was the following day. (We had talked at church and she said she would let me know what the availability was on Monday, so it didn't come out of the blue). They were so good to me and said they could see me first thing Monday morning. Side note: I don't have fond feelings when it comes to going to the dentist, so the fact that I was willing to go shows that I was in a lot of pain.

So, Monday morning came. The dentist looked at it. I had no sensitivity to cold, and after some x-rays, it looked like I might need a root canal...a.ka. I had a dead tooth. He was 66% sure that would be what was needed and referred me to a root canal specialist.

I was having a hard time with the fact that I was going to be having a root canal before my 24th birthday. It solidified the fact that I need to take better care of my teeth and get over my dentist fear. But really, a root canal at 23??? That just sounded pathetic to me!!

The pain was so annoying and unbearable that I wanted the root canal--anything to make the pain go away, I would do it! ...at least, that was my thought yesterday.

Last night, as we were preparing to go to bed, the "fear of the dentist" started to creep in and the thought of a root canal started to freak me out. I don't know why, but it did. Taylor was trying to calm my fears by saying there was a 33% chance it could be something else....but I was still scared.

As I prayed last night, I don't remember exactly what I said in terms of the root canal...perhaps something like, "please don't let it be a root canal!!" but I do remember something I prayed for specifically....I prayed that the dentist would be inspired with what was wrong and that he would heed whatever prompting came to him.

This takes us to today. I went to the dentist first thing this morning. As he was examining my tooth, he told me that I had a hole in my filling. So, long story short, he said that I had a cracked filling and that by just repairing the filling (take it out and put a new one in) it could fix my pain. We have known this dentist for years and so he takes pretty good care of us.

He is a talker, so in a sense he tells me what he his thinking. He said that a lot of dentists may just do the root canal so that the 'tooth can no longer talk,' or so there won't be anymore problems with it. But that what he was going to do was more of a challenge because my filling was so deep as it was....he took the filling out and it was so deep that it exposed a little bit of my nerve. He had his wife come in and give a second opinion and at one point said that they are doing what they would do if I was their daughter.

Overall, I didn't have to do a root canal. I still had to be numb, I still had to have a filling put it, but, a filling is a lot less expensive than a root canal. As I was sitting there in that chair, I wasn't focused on the drilling and the fact that I was at the dentist, instead I was praying prayers of gratitude that the Lord had answered my prayer.

I truly am grateful that the Lord knows our fears and our heart. I know prayers are answered. I know prayers may not be answered as quickly as we would like or how we would like, but I know they are answered. And today, I am grateful that mine was answered in the way that it was because it was a big deal to me and meant a lot--and I know the Lord knew that, because he knows me.