I have travelled to the world of pain, and am uncertain when I may return.
My use of a non-fluoridated toothpaste for two pregnancies and some bad genes have collided and said collision destroyed some of my teeth. If I had taken care of it before now, it might not be so bad, but I didn't, and it is.
On Thursday (yes, I realize today is not Thursday, but since it happened on Thursday, I figured I could go ahead and use that icon) I went to the dentist and had three teeth out, on the upper right side of my mouth. It was actually over pretty fast (less than an hour), and the pain has been manageable (I have an unfilled prescription for Tylenol-3), but it hasn't stopped yet. I apparently heal fairly quickly, and have a high tolerance for pain (discovered after those two pregnancies when my c-section incisions healed . . . fairly quickly, and I didn't ask for drugs nearly as often as the nurses thought I should), but that doesn't mean that I like pain that doesn't seem to quite stop.
It was bad enough when I woke up this morning that I was seriously worried I was developing dry socket and would be screaming in pain by the end of the day. I'm not. I'm just really looking forward to a time when I can go a whole 24 hours without saying "Ow!" after I swallow, and when I can eat something that requires at least a little bit of chewing.
Seeing as how I go back on Tuesday to get another quadrant of my mouth excavated . . . and then the Tuesday after that . . . and the Tuesday after that . . . and then two Thursdays after that he's going to fix some damage to one of my front teeth (which are mostly still in quite good shape, thankfully) . . . I really don't know when that might be.
I do have a really good reason to buy ice cream right now, though, since it is one of the few things I can eat!
(I have this horrible fear that I'm actually lying in a meth-induced coma somewhere, with my teeth rotting from the drug use, and I've dreamt up the pregnancy/toothpaste/bad genes scenario to make myself feel better.)
On Thursday (yes, I realize today is not Thursday, but since it happened on Thursday, I figured I could go ahead and use that icon) I went to the dentist and had three teeth out, on the upper right side of my mouth. It was actually over pretty fast (less than an hour), and the pain has been manageable (I have an unfilled prescription for Tylenol-3), but it hasn't stopped yet. I apparently heal fairly quickly, and have a high tolerance for pain (discovered after those two pregnancies when my c-section incisions healed . . . fairly quickly, and I didn't ask for drugs nearly as often as the nurses thought I should), but that doesn't mean that I like pain that doesn't seem to quite stop.
It was bad enough when I woke up this morning that I was seriously worried I was developing dry socket and would be screaming in pain by the end of the day. I'm not. I'm just really looking forward to a time when I can go a whole 24 hours without saying "Ow!" after I swallow, and when I can eat something that requires at least a little bit of chewing.
Seeing as how I go back on Tuesday to get another quadrant of my mouth excavated . . . and then the Tuesday after that . . . and the Tuesday after that . . . and then two Thursdays after that he's going to fix some damage to one of my front teeth (which are mostly still in quite good shape, thankfully) . . . I really don't know when that might be.
I do have a really good reason to buy ice cream right now, though, since it is one of the few things I can eat!
(I have this horrible fear that I'm actually lying in a meth-induced coma somewhere, with my teeth rotting from the drug use, and I've dreamt up the pregnancy/toothpaste/bad genes scenario to make myself feel better.)