Euphoria!

Here is a bit of background information. Before I started working for Rainier Pacific, I didn't have dental insurance.

Timeline of events:

• I was mailed a medical/dental packet in November.
• I couldn't get a dental exam until January 2nd, but knew that I had 4 cavities to be filled and made the second appointment for February 6th and 7th.
• I had the exam, and it turns out I needed 11 fillings and 4 wisdom teeth pulled. Ok, lots of work, but manageable right? Well not so much...
• February, I had the first appointment for my dental work. We get part way through the dental work on the first day and find out I need a root canal. Day two we find out I need a second root canal. I spent a week at the dentist instead of two days... I ended up spending around 15 hours in the dentist chair. But, 9 fillings later, two root canals with fillings, and wisdom teeth gone I finally overnighted my dental packet to Peace Corps.
• On March 10th I got a letter from Peace Corps. It was a temporary denial for the two teeth that had root canals. No one had told me that if you had a root canal you have to have a crown. My dentist did a really nice filling on each (composit) so that I wouldn't have to spend the money on the crowns. At this point my very loving and generous grandparents had already paid for all the rest of the dental work! The last thing I needed was crowns added on to of the cost of everything else... but nonetheless, Peace Corps wanted crowns. So I made my appointment for May, since I had to save up for it this time for $1400-1700 "depending on complications."
• So, May 11th comes, and they make the temporaries for my crowns. I have to come back May 23rd for the permanents to be set. The permanents are set, I end up only having to pay $1350 for the crowns, and all I need now is a letter from the dentist confirming that the work is complete.
• They didn't do the letter ahead of time to have it ready on the 23rd, so now they have to mail it out to me. It just needed to have one sentence that said "the crowns on tooth number 11 and 23 have been completed." That's all I needed. A week goes by and I still didn't receive the letter, so I called... they forgot. So I finally get the letter in the mail, and sent it in overnight to peace corps on Saturday June 2nd. Monday I called to confirm they received the packet, and that there was no more work to be done.

Today, finally, after 6 months of this, my dental clearance was granted! My status was updated online as complete! I don't think I could be any more relieved or excited. That was the last of what I was waiting on! The battle with the dentist is over!