I want to preface this post by saying one thing: It's my first post in a while AND it is kind of a vent. Actually, its a full on vent. Sorry. The last month for me has really sucked for my mouth. Okay, don't give me a "that's what she said" comeback because things have really been painful. Ugh.Let's take it from the top, shall we... About a month ago I had two cavities filled. Three weeks ago I had two more filled. (Total cost: $740. And that's with insurance. So basically my wallet took a huge hit too. Don't even get me started on that because I am still bitter.)
Then two weeks ago I had a terrible toothache. It was my first toothache ever and it freaking hurt. The pain felt like it was coming from my wisdom tooth. Huh? What? Why am I 31-years-old and still have a wisdom tooth? Funny you should ask because no one seems to know. Six years ago I had my top two wisdom teeth pulled. My bottoms have never shown up on x-rays which I get at least twice a year so it was odd when a few months ago my dentist randomly asked how old I was. I asked him why, and he told me I was growing a wisdom tooth. Just one. On the bottom right. It wasn't impacted and wasn't bothering me (besides the feeling of teething again) so we let it grow in and I was actually planning to have it pulled when I go home for winter break in three weeks. I figured it could wait because it was a non-issue but I just wanted it out because having one extra tooth on one side of my mouth just feels weird. However, last week it really began to get extra sensitive and really hurt. Like super painful. I also started to get night sweats and have a fever. Not good! I called the dentist and got them to fit me in right away. When I got there, I told the dentist the tooth had to go. He looked at me like "hey crazy lady, let me do my job." But after taking x-rays, it seemed like I had a big infection in that tooth and it had to come out immediately. He numbed me up and pulled that sucker. I didn't get put out and was awake the whole time. That's not how I had envisioned getting that tooth pulled when I scheduled my appointment but can't win 'em all. I had it all planned at home to get put under for the extraction and then get some good drugs afterwards. However, since this tooth had to go right away, I had no choice. It was pretty painless during the procedure but afterwards, I was in a lot of pain. He gave me antibiotics for the infection and Tylenol 3 with Codeine for the pain. That did absolutely nothing AND I had to go to work the next day because I had so much to do there. (I even found 5-year old Vicodin in my closet and tried that. Desperate times call for desperate measures. That didn't help either.) Had I not had a big Thanksgiving event coming up, I would have called out because I had a gaping hole in my mouth, my face was swollen, and I was in hella pain. It wasn't a good look but I am a trooper. Obvs.
Anyway, as that began to heal, I started getting another toothache in another tooth on the same side as the wisdom tooth. As the days went on, the pain intensified and if any food or liquid touched that tooth, it hurt so bad. It's amazing how one tooth can affect a person so much. I was shocked. I consider myself to have a pretty high physical pain threshold (mental pain is a whole other issue) because of my whole walking-on-a-broken-foot-for-a-week-before-seeing-a-doctor sitch two summers ago and my whole UC-pancreatitis hospitalization two years ago. This pain was pretty high up there on the scale and I kept trying to suck it up. I got yet another appointment with the dentist and it looked like I may need a root canal in one of the teeth where I previously got a cavity filled. I didn't care if he did it right then and there, but I needed some relief. After scoping it out, we decided to try something else before going for the full root canal. The filling looked raised so he filed it down for me hoping to ease the inflammation and reduce the pain. As soon as the file hit my tooth, the tears began to flow. I was mortified. My dentist, who is a nice looking Jewish guy, my age and normal, seemed surprised. I think I had held in my tears from pain for two weeks that they finally came out as he filed. The hygienist was wiping them away but I couldn't stop crying. It hurt so bad. But hopefully relief was on the way. He prescribed me Vicodin and said if it's not better by Friday we might have to go ahead and do the root canal.
At this point, I just need to not be in pain. It's been a solid two weeks of excruciating mouth pain. Let me reiterate I have a high pain threshold but this is just horrible. And to make things worse, the dentist thinks that my wisdom tooth infection and other toothache/potential root canal tooth was just a bad coincidence and bad luck. Sucks to be me apparently. Blah. Anyway, this has been pretty brutal for me the last few weeks and have tried to put on a happy face and keep business as usual to the best of my ability. But man, this has sucked. Fingers crossed this filing procedure works, the new Vicodin works, and the pain subsides. Otherwise, back under the drill. Frankly as long as it stops the pain, I don't even care. Ahhhhh. All in all, I now have a new sympathy for anyone with a toothache and know how much it can really hurt. These last few weeks have really been a pain the ass...err, mouth.
take care~
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