dental.
mostly for my own records, so later I can remember when and what:
my doctor says I have overactive nerves. I have a nerve pain condition that I've been dealing with for about 3 years now, and then I suddenly acquired migraines,which she says is connected. Now I have this root canal, and it hurts ALL the time - and every time I go I get sick or I get a cold sore which leads to weird virus-y pain all through my face.
This has not been a good experience.
Last night I headed for the dentist for the 4th time for this same tooth. This was my first and only cavity that I've EVER had, and in fact, I didn't feel it. I had no idea I had one. It didn't hurt. My dentist said "oh, it's really small, I'll just fill it real quick" and so I said "okay" and then he started, and he said "hm, that's weird" and I said "that's not a good thing to say when you have needles and drills pointed at me" and he said "well it's small in diameter but it goes all the way down to the root and now you need a root canal." So I had him start in that session, and everything was fine. The second time I went back, it was tender, and then a few days later, it started HURTING.
It hurt so bad that I had to miss work (the A2A tiki boat trip for one), I ended up whimpering on the office floor at 3am, and I had an emergency dentist appt. where the dentist told me that pain was common. I cried enough that he gave me antibiotics. I took them for about a week, and it seemed cleared up, but meanwhile, I had to speak at a conference and I got that cold sore, so I didn't want to go back to the dentist and risk not being able to talk.
About 4 days ago, my tooth started throbbing again. I feel pain every time I breathe through my mouth. I can't open my mouth all the way, and the action of drinking through a straw is excrutiating. At some point that side of my face started feeling hot and even the outside of my cheek and ear became sensitive.
So I called on Monday, and got an appointment for Wednesday. They gave me a little numbing gel on a q-tip, which did nothing. They gave me more. My lip was numb but I could still feel the tooth and the surrounding area - it felt like I could feel it even MORE - maybe in contrast to not being able to feel anything else. He tried to give me shots of novacain anyway. SO MUCH PAIN. That was not fun. I was whimpering, he was stabbing - excuse me, but I have to curse - holy FUCK that hurt. I could feel it every time, and it wasn't just the gum that hurt, I could feel it in my eyes and it made me want to puke. He dropped a few drops of the medicine in my mouth which made me gag. He tried a shot of another ---cain, which was worse. I was crying this whole time, and he said we'd wait for ten minutes to see if I got numb.
Ten minutes later, I got up out of the dentist chair and told him that he needed to prescribe me antibiotics, because there was no way I could let him touch my mouth with the pain I was in, and that I'd come back in when it didn't hurt anymore. He then tried to tell me that this pain is still normal, that I'll probably be in this much pain for another 3-5 days, but after that the antibiotics will kick in.
I stumbled my way out to the car, drove to my mom's house, held on to the car door and tried not to throw up, got myself inside, took vicodin and 4 ibuprofen, and watched How I Met Your Mother til my mom got home with jamba juice a few hours later. I took another vicodin around 11pm, and went to sleep around 2am. The vicodin helped a lot with the pain, but I could tell that after round 2 I was getting hostile, the way I usually get when I take it. The dogs chewing was making me angry, for example. I didn't think I was that affected by the vicodin in any other way, but my sister told me I was slurring my words all night. I knit a whole beanie last night. I'll call it the Vicodin Hat. It's brown and chunky with sparkly yarn along the brim. I was very focused on that for muc of the night. The TV was going and everything away from my hands and knitting needles was kind of shiny and blurry.
This morning my left side of my face is very puffy, but Adam said that last night both sides of my face were puffy. He can stop calling me his "little chipmunk" any day now. I haven't had to talk much yet, and I don't want to. My eyelid and my earlobe even hurt. I can't smile, which makes me feel like I don't *want* to smile, which puts me in a worse mood. Eating sucks. I'm hungry. My body hates me.
the end.
my doctor says I have overactive nerves. I have a nerve pain condition that I've been dealing with for about 3 years now, and then I suddenly acquired migraines,which she says is connected. Now I have this root canal, and it hurts ALL the time - and every time I go I get sick or I get a cold sore which leads to weird virus-y pain all through my face.
This has not been a good experience.
Last night I headed for the dentist for the 4th time for this same tooth. This was my first and only cavity that I've EVER had, and in fact, I didn't feel it. I had no idea I had one. It didn't hurt. My dentist said "oh, it's really small, I'll just fill it real quick" and so I said "okay" and then he started, and he said "hm, that's weird" and I said "that's not a good thing to say when you have needles and drills pointed at me" and he said "well it's small in diameter but it goes all the way down to the root and now you need a root canal." So I had him start in that session, and everything was fine. The second time I went back, it was tender, and then a few days later, it started HURTING.
It hurt so bad that I had to miss work (the A2A tiki boat trip for one), I ended up whimpering on the office floor at 3am, and I had an emergency dentist appt. where the dentist told me that pain was common. I cried enough that he gave me antibiotics. I took them for about a week, and it seemed cleared up, but meanwhile, I had to speak at a conference and I got that cold sore, so I didn't want to go back to the dentist and risk not being able to talk.
About 4 days ago, my tooth started throbbing again. I feel pain every time I breathe through my mouth. I can't open my mouth all the way, and the action of drinking through a straw is excrutiating. At some point that side of my face started feeling hot and even the outside of my cheek and ear became sensitive.
So I called on Monday, and got an appointment for Wednesday. They gave me a little numbing gel on a q-tip, which did nothing. They gave me more. My lip was numb but I could still feel the tooth and the surrounding area - it felt like I could feel it even MORE - maybe in contrast to not being able to feel anything else. He tried to give me shots of novacain anyway. SO MUCH PAIN. That was not fun. I was whimpering, he was stabbing - excuse me, but I have to curse - holy FUCK that hurt. I could feel it every time, and it wasn't just the gum that hurt, I could feel it in my eyes and it made me want to puke. He dropped a few drops of the medicine in my mouth which made me gag. He tried a shot of another ---cain, which was worse. I was crying this whole time, and he said we'd wait for ten minutes to see if I got numb.
Ten minutes later, I got up out of the dentist chair and told him that he needed to prescribe me antibiotics, because there was no way I could let him touch my mouth with the pain I was in, and that I'd come back in when it didn't hurt anymore. He then tried to tell me that this pain is still normal, that I'll probably be in this much pain for another 3-5 days, but after that the antibiotics will kick in.
I stumbled my way out to the car, drove to my mom's house, held on to the car door and tried not to throw up, got myself inside, took vicodin and 4 ibuprofen, and watched How I Met Your Mother til my mom got home with jamba juice a few hours later. I took another vicodin around 11pm, and went to sleep around 2am. The vicodin helped a lot with the pain, but I could tell that after round 2 I was getting hostile, the way I usually get when I take it. The dogs chewing was making me angry, for example. I didn't think I was that affected by the vicodin in any other way, but my sister told me I was slurring my words all night. I knit a whole beanie last night. I'll call it the Vicodin Hat. It's brown and chunky with sparkly yarn along the brim. I was very focused on that for muc of the night. The TV was going and everything away from my hands and knitting needles was kind of shiny and blurry.
This morning my left side of my face is very puffy, but Adam said that last night both sides of my face were puffy. He can stop calling me his "little chipmunk" any day now. I haven't had to talk much yet, and I don't want to. My eyelid and my earlobe even hurt. I can't smile, which makes me feel like I don't *want* to smile, which puts me in a worse mood. Eating sucks. I'm hungry. My body hates me.
the end.