I have an abcessed tooth............Help!?

Ok on christmas eve I started having this horrible pain in my mouth, it was so bad that I had to go to the ER, all they did was give me pills and sent me home. Course I couldn't go to the dentist til after christmas, but the day of christmas I noticed that the pain wasn't so bad, and by the next day I noticed that I wasn't in any pain since the night of going to the ER. Well anyways the other day I went to a dentist that I went to my whole life b4 I got off my dad's insurance, and he gave me an x-ray and found that I have an abcessed tooth, he said it's # 12 on the top, he said I would have to get a root canal if I want to save it, thing is........it'd cost over 1,300.00 and I don't have the money and of course I lost my dental insurance, I think I would like to get it pulled cause then I wouldn't have to deal with anything else in the future. Anyways I tried going to other dentist to see if they were cheaper...which is hard, and whenever they look at my teeth I swear they are not looking at the same tooth, and they don't give me an x-ray to see and make sure they are looking at the right one. I am so scared that i'm waiting to long and that my abcessed is going to spread to other teeth. I really do want to get it pulled by the one dentist that I trust but I don't have the money now but i'm thinking that if I just save up all my money that I could just get it pulled and have a fake tooth and then it'll be done with. I was talking to my friend and she said that she's had an abcessed tooth for years, I almost died, she said it's so horrible cause she doesn't have the money or insurance to get it fixed. I only found out about this abcess less than a week ago and i'm freaking out that if I don't get this done within this month i'm gonna get really sick. What should I do? I am taking penicillan and pain bills from the doctors but they aren't gonna last forever? I'm so scared.:(
--------------------
don't procrastinate, the sooner you get rid of the problem the better. trust me, it will get worse over time. the meds aren't gonna last forever. it should be taken for like at least two weeks. it mostly works to lessen the chance of infection once they've actually taken out the tooth. if you delay, the infection is gonna find it's way out, spread to other tooth or the gum to which the tooth is attached will get swollen, and it is gonna be painful. even if there's no pain now, it will come back over and over again, increasing in intensity.
Source