brainpaint | Writing Towards Happy

6-19-13 11:36am

So, I’ve been catching up on dental work from the past few years. Bad experiences with several dentists kept me away for a good 3 years while a giant hole grew in one of my teeth. My meds make my teeth decay faster so it wasn’t a great combination, seeing as I was averse to brushing my teeth. However, thanks to the springboard motivation from BrainPaint, I am now brushing my teeth rather regularly and seeing the dentist to fix the damage.

I wanted to share my awesome dental insurance and great dentist. (see below) Since I need a lot of work done I wanted to find a policy that covered everything I need and was affordable. I settled on Blue Shield Individual Dental HMO. It’s great. I can apply online as an individual and it only costs me $19.80 a month. There is no deductible, no waiting period (except for braces), and no annual maximum. I do have to choose a dentist on their network but I found a great one so I’m stoked.

The dentist I love is Dr. Pham at Bright Now Dental in Rancho San Diego. He and his staff are kind and gentle and down to earth. He told me what I needed to have fixed without scolding me for letting my teeth go. The hygeinist, Lydia, is awesome. She did scaling and root planing for me also without ever patronizing me for why my teeth needed it. I feel welcome there and they don’t try to push anything on me or convince me to do something I don’t want to. Kathlene, the office manager, is great too. She laid out the price list for the services I need and let me choose in my own time what I’m ready for and offered to help me get Care Credit if I needed it to pay my insurance copays. So far I’ve had a root canal, scaling and planing, and a temporary crown placed with no pain. The only thing that bothered me was a filling that they smoothed out for me. They often have same or next day appointments available. I really like it there.

I’m proud of myself for taking care of my teeth again. I don’t want to lose them. And I’m so thankful to have found this insurance and a dental office that I love, that gets me. I still get anxious going there sometimes and take a Xanax, but I feel safe. I know I will be okay.

If you want to try out the insurance:

Check out the Blue Shield Dental HMO overview (last column under “all ages”)
To apply, go here for a quote. Click on the “Dental Plans” tab. The quote page will allow you to apply online.
On the application, for provider name/number enter “Dung Pham.”

If you don’t want insurance but want to see the dentist anyway, he has a new patient special – cleaning, exam and x-rays for $29. Just print the coupon.

PLEASE tell them Michelle Routhieaux sent you if you choose to go. It will help me pay for my dental work. :)

5-3-13 10:12am

27. Mom thinks it’s the magic number, the number when everything clicked. Really, it’s just a number. Although I hear ____ say, “27. Now that was a good year.”

I turned 27 March of this year. It was not a remarkable day – appointment, lunch with Mom, major crash, terrible pain, OCD group. But my mom says something around then changed. She attributes all my recent growth to a number. Figures. She’s been in Texas. Today I feel great. A little dizzy, awake. Change is hard work.

A month or so before my birthday I spent 3 weeks in the hospital (see “Even Dark Clouds Pass.”) When I got out I was still going through it. The time since then has been fireworks. For the first time in years I started an antidepressant. I added structure & a complex schedule. I updated my day list and started using it. It is a list of things I do every day in the morning and evening that I keep in a page protector and check off with a dry erase marker. And I started BrainPaint, which I believe to be the key to my success.

BrainPaint. A simple notion. Painting with your brain. Ha ha! Not so fast, my friend. I paint with my brain indeed. BrainPaint is automated neurofeedback. EEG leads tell the computer what my brain is doing and the computer makes real-time fractals (pictures) and music to guide my brain into the wave pattern it wants. Forget training a dragon. Train your brain!

I’m doing BrainPaint at Healthy Within under Dr. Divya Kakaiya. She determined what areas we could work on. I’m almost through my treatment. I don’t want to stop. I go 3 times a week. I consider it an outpatient program even though it’s not. It’s not all peaches & cream, but BrainPaint saved my life.

I feel tired of writing.

I have 3 pages of what’s changed since BrainPaint that I may choose to share here later. Most notably, I don’t want to die every day anymore. I’m sleeping, brushing my teeth (yay!), and can tolerate being at home. Kinda crazy. I even got my permit. I am blessed that my mom was in Texas for the past month. Without limits or rules or judgement or simply the energy of another person I’ve been able to settle into life, to blossom. I’ve been repotted.

27. I like it.

Writing Towards Happy

The experience of making positive change in my life

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