Dental Rant

Right before I had Gavin last summer, one of my back jaw teeth started to hurt out of the blue. I went to my dentist to see what was going on, and he said that I had a pretty bad cavity that was deep and was on top of the nerves. He told me that I'd have to have a root canal soon. That was August...and now 7 months later I'm actually going to have to do it. I put it off as long as I could, but it started hurting me again last week - and I knew I had to do it. I'm on Spring Break this week, so I thought this would be a good week to do it. (I now regret this...spending a beautiful warm spring day in the dentist office.) So, my appointment is tomorrow afternoon. I got a message on my answering machine today confirming my appointment and telling me how much I'm going to have to pay. Ok, here's the kicker. She told me that they looked into my insurance benefits and my "estimated copay is $618, due tomorrow." WHERE IN THE WORLD DO I GET $618????????? Oh, that's right...it's in my back pocket!!!!!! And that doesn't even count how much a crown is going to cost me. A crown, I'm told, is like $700. Are you telling me that 1 tooth in my head is going to be worth $1000 when it's all said and done????? You know, a plain ol' extraction would be cheaper - I'd almost say just pull the darn thing, but it's a jaw tooth, and I need it. I need all my teeth, actually. But you get my point. Holy cow!!! I guess it's going on my credit card - there's nothing else I can do. Feel sorry for me, please. Pity me. And say a prayer that I survive. I'm really nervous.