October update on Ted Braden (Teen in Jail)

Ted was released from the Largo Residential Reentry Center on August 13, 2010.

Since that time, he has been doing quite well. He went to get a one-time shot to stop smoking on August 26, 2010. (For further information, visit www.stopsmokingamerica.com. It is located in Tampa.) The one-time shot and follow up one-week anti-anxiety medication cost $462, but it was well worth it. According to the iPhone app “Quit It,” he has been smoke-free for one month and 26 days. He’s saved $342.47 by NOT smoking 1,142 cigarettes in that time (at one pack a day).

He also had oral surgery on his wisdom tooth at a discount dental center run by the University of Florida in St. Petersburg. Ted could have had this done for free in prison, but he would have had to leave the work release center to go back to a “real” prison to have the dental work done and it might’ve taken weeks for him to get back to the Center - if at all. The tooth was cut out by a dentist for $342. It would have cost upwards of $750 or more with an oral surgeon. His face was swollen for days.

Ted did go on a trip with me for six days during the Labor Day holiday. One day, he and I just decided to get in the car and drive! We traveled through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Lousiana and back to Florida. (More on that trip later.)

Ted was paid $300 by his former job at Discount Energy as a settlement. He was owed upward of $750. Ted wrote a blog entry about his dealings with Discount Energy which I will be posting soon.

One person left a comment that Ted had been re-arrested for possession of marijuana and probation violation. This is not the case.

First of all, Ted was not put on probation after his prison sentence. Secondly, Ted has studiously avoided contact with all of his former “friends,” all of whom have no clue where he is living. Ted is living with another family (out of the old neighborhood) and babysits a two-year girl for eight hours a day, five days a week. He is surprisingly very good with children. He is not taking drugs of any kind and not smoking.

Ted does not currently have a computer where he is living. We are working to remedy that. One blog reader was looking into getting him a laptop. Ted is also not sure what to write on the Teen in Jail blog now. He says it was a blog about jail and prison, and since he is no longer in either, is not sure where to take it from here. We’ve discussed starting some other type of web site, but haven’t hit upon the perfect idea yet. Any suggestions of a new site would be welcomed. You can still send emails to teeninjail@yahoo.com.

Photo: Ted smiling (finally!) at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans on September 4, 2010.

Excruciating pain

The last couple weeks I’ve been in excruciating pain. 

I knew I had a cavity in my tooth, but at first, the pain wasn’t that bad. It only took a few weeks for the pain to go from mild to AHHHH! HELP!

What’s worse is once it got really bad the pain wouldn’t subside. It was constant.

Without going to medical, you can get one pack of Ibuprofen (two tablets) every six hours. That didn’t even dull the pain at all.

Finally, I couldn’t take it any more, so I went to the dentist. They found a huge hole in my tooth and a nerve was exposed. They put me on prescription Ibuprofen until they can pull my tooth. For right now, the medication is helping, but it still hurts most of the day.

They are supposed to pull my tooth sometime this week. Probably Tuesday. I can’t wait.

This pain gets so bad at night that sometimes it’ll keep me up for hours. I’m sad I’ll be missing a tooth even though it’s in the back of my mouth, but at the same time, I can’t wait to get it out.

This was written before Ted had his wisdom tooth pulled. He still needs his wisdom tooth extracted.

Getting a tooth pulled in prison

I spoke with Ted on Monday evening. He had gone to the dentist and they had pulled his upper molar at 11:20 a.m. on Monday. They used Novocaine during the procedure, but he still felt pain, he said.

He was given one 200 mg Ibuprofen tablet at 4 p.m.

Ted said he could ask the dorm supervisor for more Ibuprofen – but only one tablet every four or six hours (he wasn’t sure how often).

When he called me at about 8 p.m., he was tremendous pain. He had received a piece of paper for more pain medication, but they never came to get him to give him the medicine.

After talking with Ted, I called the prison. I was told it would be straightened out the next morning. Meanwhile, they told me Ted could ask the dorm supervisor for another Ibuprofen.

Ted said the tooth finally stopped bleeding and they gave him Tuesday and Wednesday off from work. He said he would try to write more blog entries during that time.

I didn’t speak with Ted tonight on the phone. Hopefully they arranged to give him more pain medication than one 200 mg Ibuprofen tablet. I know when I had my tooth pulled, my dentist gave me Morphine and it still hurt!

Ted will still need to get his wisdom tooth pulled…

Work release

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it or not, but I’ve been approved for work release [camp]. Now that I’m approved, I can’t wait. Every week I hope they’ll come and get me so I can go back to my county and be near my family.

It’s so hard being far away from the ones that love me. Plus, once I get to work release, I can get a job and start making money for when I’m released. That will help so much, considering I have nothing when I get out and I have to start over from scratch.

I can use the money to pay off my fines ($2,000) so I can get my driver’s license back and put some of it toward a cheap car. Even if I don’t make enough money at work release for a car, it’s all right. The little bit of money I do make can still make all the difference.

At a work release camp, inmates leave the camp and work at a regular job for eight hours, returning to the camp after work. I’ve heard that 45% of their pay goes toward the cost of housing and food, and if they owe restitution (which Ted does), 10% of their paycheck goes toward paying that off.

I did talk to Ted tonight. He saw a dentist. In addition to the wisdom tooth pain, he has a huge hole in another tooth and the nerve is exposed. He is given Ibuprofen (500 mg) at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. It doesn’t help, he says. He mentioned he would see a dentist to fix the hole on Tuesday hopefully.

Wisdom tooth pain

I talked again with Ted on Thursday at about 6 p.m. He said his wisdom tooth hurt tremendously and he had finally turned in a dentist request form two hours before. Ted was trying to put off seeing a dentist because he would be transferred back to Lake Butler (RMC) to get his wisdom tooth removed and Lake Butler is not a nice place to be. He doesn't know how long it will take for him to see a dentist and he doesn't know if he will be at Lake Butler for a few hours, a few days or a few weeks. He also doesn't know if his bed will be waiting for him back in Lancaster work camp. He was worried he might be stuck at Lake Butler.

He also mentioned that people were sick all over Lancaster work camp, not just in his dorm. He said less than half of the inmates were sick and the flu lasted three to four days. He added that two COs called off sick from work. Luckily, Ted still hasn't got the bug, but he said it's probably only a matter of time.

The trial that Ted was going to testify at as a witness on March 9 -12 was postponed, so he won't be transferred to the Pinellas County Jail for that trial.

Ted also said that he may not get to go to a work release camp after all. Another inmate told him the waiting list for the Largo work release camp was very long and it may be months before a bed opens up. If he isn't transferred to a work release camp before a certain length of time, he won't go at all. Supposedly, those with less than three months remaining of their sentence aren't eligible. This is all based on what another inmate said, so who knows if it's true. A couple of weeks ago, Ted had earned enough gain time to be released on October 3, 2010.

Hopefully he will get his wisdom tooth taken care of soon and they'll give him some sort of numbing medication for the procedure.

A trip to the dentist

Every institution I’ve been to, I’ve had to go to the dentist about my two back teeth and every dentist I’ve seen says I’m fine and my teeth don’t need any work done.

Well last week I decided to try to talk to the dentist here at Lancaster with the hope that I’ll finally come across a dentist that actually knows what they’re doing.

Today I got called to the dentist and when I got there, I walked in, sat down and they took x-rays of my two back teeth. I fully expected that just like all the other dentists, they would say my teeth are fine even though they hurt.

When the dentist called me back in, she said, “You do have a cavity, but I don’t think that’s what your problem is. From what I can see, your wisdom tooth is coming in at an angle and pushing the tooth in front of it.”

I couldn’t believe she actually admitted there was something wrong with my teeth. So right then, she gave me two [temporary] fillings for my cavities and told me that if my pain was bothering me in a few days, to fill out another dental call out and they’ll have to ship me back to Lake Butler to cut my wisdom tooth out. I’m just glad something is finally being done.

Ted has been in a lot of pain since he wrote this entry. He’s trying to put it off as long as possible because he really doesn’t want to go to Lake Butler, even if it’s just for a few days. There’s no way he’ll be able to avoid it though.