My day started with dental implant surgery. A dental implant from several years ago appears to have gotten infected in some way, so it was removed in a 45-minute procedure this morning by an extraordinarily nice Dental surgeon named Timothy Kelling in Saratoga Springs.

The staff was also extraordinarily nice and attentive, it was as pleasant as those things can be. Everything avoids strong pain-killers like the plague now, and I know that is a good thing, but I could have used one today.

The procedure went well, and I think I won’t get another implant – ever.

It was a mess on the other end as well. I’ve got some stitches and gauze in my mouth for the blood, and I stopped and bought some Motrin for the pain.

It’s working well, though I confess to missing the old stuff a bit. I also got a bone graft to replace and build up the bone that was lost by the implant.

In two weeks, I’ll go back to get the stitches out, in four months I’ll go back to see what we will do next, if anything. At the moment, I’m leaning towards nothing.

I’m on antibiotics for the infection, but looks like everyone will be good.

Maria think’s I’m good looking, believe it or not, and she doesn’t care if I have a missing tooth, it won’t hardly be visible.

I have never seen my implant, so after Dr. Kelling took it out, he showed it to me, it was attached to a gold tooth. I brought it home as a souvenir.

I always feel fortunate after these medical occurrences. It could have been worse, it could have cost a lot more than $875, it could have been more painful, more serious.

People have a lot worse visits to doctors than this one, and often get a lot worse news.

And the Motrin is working pretty good, the sun is out and bright. All in all, the world looks pretty good.

P.S. Got a half-dozen e-mails from people in different parts of the country who were trying to call my radio show on Wednesday, and couldn’t get through. So maybe there were some technical details. I hope they try again next week, the station is checking their system.