Ugh. What an ordeal. I’ve blogged before about how I cracked my tooth and would need to have it extracted. That was back in March. When I made the appointment to have the tooth come out, they didn’t have time until July. Then they called back in early May to let me know that actually the guy who was going to extract my tooth in July had quit, and they rescheduled me for September. The tooth wasn’t actively hurting me too much, so what else was I going to do?
Well, all of that changed on Friday. Suddenly, the whole jaw was aching. It began as a dull throb, but a bit before lunch, I texted Denisa to see if she could find any place that might have an opening earlier than September. (I was at a conference and unable to do any of the calling right then, and I had a hunch I’d want to get something soon.) Then at lunch, I upped that to “can someone see me right away to have it out?” The tooth pain was ramping up, and I was worried about having to deal with it too long.
Thankfully, my usual dentist could fit me in today, so things were lined up. Unfortunately, the pain got steadily worse over the weekend. I was taking OTC painkillers like clockwork, and it was just barely enough to stay ahead of it. Sleeping was difficult, eating was far from pleasant, and . . . yeah. Not good. I’ve never related to Tom Hanks in Castaway quite so much, though I never actually went looking for an ice skate.
That doesn’t mean I was calm about getting it extracted. I was still pretty anxious about the whole thing. I’m a baby when it comes to tooth pain (although my tooth was doing its best to get me more used to it as quickly as possible). This morning, I just sort of tried to forget it was coming, but it felt like I’d made an appointment to slam my fingers in the door as hard as possible, and I had to just wait for the chance to actually slam them.
The good news is that it was much better than I feared. (Go figure.) My dentist numbed me with three different shots, and I didn’t feel a thing. (He described the process afterward, and I was very grateful I hadn’t felt any of it.) All that I registered was pressure as he worked the tooth back and forth, and then it was gone.
Apparently it’ll take some time to heal. I have to sit here with gauze on the site for the next while to stem the bleeding, and then I have to watch what I eat for the next couple of weeks. My current plan is to get an implant in a half year or so, once the site is healed. The good news is that should be in the next calendar year, so the $5,000 I’d set aside for it isn’t money I have to spend just yet. (And with all the expenses that have been coming, that’s a very good thing.)
Anyway. I’m off to lie down for a while. Thanks for all the well wishes!