June 2026 Bamboo Shoots Writing Contest Prompts

A friend of mine has just gone through some very major surgery. Thankfully, the procedure was successful. Another friend has just gone through some major surgery, and while the outcome was good for the most part, she will still have to undergo further treatment to be sure that the problem is “solved,” although you know how sometimes you won’t know that until years later.

The older I get, the more I worry about my health. It’s a kind of rule of nature, I guess. If you do age and you don’t worry about your health, more power to you. And if you die at a ripe old age without ever having been seriously ill, you are the envy of most.

I’ve had three major surgeries over the years, but nothing as serious as those my friends have just gone through. I had smoked for 45 years, and I still wonder if that could come back to haunt me in the end.

I have a cousin, now in her mid-70s, who has never had a cavity in her entire life. Or braces, or root canals, or post implants, or any of that. Geez. I’m sure all of us who’ve been through our share of dental trauma would envy her.

I remember when fluoride toothpaste first came on the market. Everyone at my school was issued a tube of Crest toothpaste and a new toothbrush. They even had a person come in to talk about correct brushing technique, and they gave us these red tablets that we’d chew to stain our teeth before brushing. The goal of this exercise was to brush away all the red stain on your teeth. If you didn’t, you needed to work on your technique.

Before fluoride toothpaste, I had one six-month dentist visit where I had 14, count ‘um, 14 cavities.  Some were minor, others major. I had to go back so many times to get them all filled that, many years later, when I saw Marathon Man, the “Is it safe?” scene, where Laurence Olivier goes to work on Dustin Hoffman, revealed the true level of dentistry PTSD I’d suffered in my pre-fluoride toothpaste days. Gruesome flashbacks. There was no novocaine for me back in those days either.  The horror, the horror.

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If you can relate to any of this, share that story. If not, please feel free to write about anything you choose.

Happy penning.

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