Leaving it too late.
For the last year or so I've had two big holes in my teeth, one a molar halfway up my bottom jaw, the other in the same spot on the other side.
I've done nothing about them for a few reasons - dentists cost too damn much, and they weren't hurting anyway.
A few weeks ago, I got a major major headache - my first migraine I thought. It had me in bed for most of a weekend, unable to sleep because of the pain, and when I did fall asleep, getting woken up by the pain.
It happened again over the weekend just gone. But I'd been doing some thinking about it, and perhaps it was my teeth. While my teeth hurt during the headaches, it was mostly in my cheekbones and down deep inside my skull. But maybe it was still my teeth - they still didn't hurt much, although they were a bit more sensitive to the cold lately, and I was getting awful sick of picking gunk out of the holes after I ate. I also think they're doing nothing for the quality of my breath (never mind the smoke smell :)
So I called my dentist this morning, and booked an appointment. They got me in today (which is very weird, normally it's like a months wait). And I got them to agree to paying the bill off slowly, because I was sure it was going to be large.
I got in there, and had X-rays taken first. The tooth with the smaller hole was actually the most serious, and the dentist agreed that it was likely the cause of the headaches - it had got in far enough that the nerve was infected. So today was working on tooth number one, and I'm back next Monday to get number two looked at. Hopefully number two will only need to be filled and that's it. Number one, today's jobby, was not so lucky.
He was concerned first and foremost with getting rid of my pain. He numbed me up, and set to work with the drill. When he got to the nerve area, I jumped a mile - a sure sign of an infection, he said. He gave me a second injection of anaesthetic, and went back to work, and I still jumped a mile. He injected more anaesthetic around the tooth itself and sprayed a little inside it, and it still hurt.
It funny how shaky you get when you know that real bad pain is coming (talking from a non child-bearing sex, obviously). He said because of the infection it had swollen, and with that comes a heap of rushing blood, and that was the main problem. He said he needed to get it open, and he promised to be quick. I said go for it, but my foot started jittering something chronic. I love my dentist - he was quick, and very apologetic, even tho it wasn't his fault, it just needed to be done.
So we got through that, then he applied an antiseptic straight on, which actually hurt the farking most! He left some goo on it to sort the infection out, then placed a temp filling (I hope it's temp, it's rough as hell and doesn't feel completely right) over the top.
So the infection should clear up soon, within a couple of days. Next week he fixes up tooth number two and checks out how number one is - he's expecting it to not be fantastic, and it to require root canal work. I'm not entirely sure exactly what it means, but I know it's expensive. I've had recommendations from several people now just to get the tooth pulled out. I'll talk to the dentist about it next week.
I know, I should have had it looked at ages ago. But for some reason I didn't think of getting a payment plan sorted out with them. Today was almost $200, I expect about a hundred next week (no x-rays needed, ha!), and he said root canal work will probably be around the $700 mark. On top of that, he said then I should really get a crown on it, and that about a thousand!
So what does this have to do with development?
I think it's appropriate to quote a tenet that is often spouted by my boss at work. The sad thing is that given the state I'm in (coming down off the anaesthetic, jaws a bit sore, generally not in a good mood), I can't quote it word for word. I think it's something like this...
There's always enough time to do it right, there's never enough time to do it again.
What does it mean? Essentially, it comes down to a much simpler sentence. You better get it right the first time, because there's never any time to go back and fix it. If I had of taken care of my teeth when I noticed the holes, they would have got filled, and cost me a little money. Now it's costing me a lot more, and I'll likely get one pulled out.
If you write some code to which you think to yourself 'It's working for now, but it really should be done better', then chances are, you'll never get the chance to write it better. There's always another deadline to meet, a more important big to fix. It's working? Fine! There's no need to waste time on it when you could be doing other things. Oh, it's broken? Fine! Fix it, but don't take too long, there's other things you need to be doing. I don't know how many times I've had to whip up a quick fix, because we can't go and modify a large chunk, and besides, I'm busy trying to meet this other deadline.
This is sort of like saying that you should live every day like it's going to be your last. For every method you write, you really should make sure that it's the way it ought to be right from the get-go. If you don't, who knows when you'll get a chance to improve it?
Thank you, you've been a lovely congregation. Thank you for not snoring too loud from the pews.
This is Brother Geoff saying 'See you next sunday'.