Down but not out

So, I went to bed last Thursday with a slight discomfort in my jaw, nothing serious, almost as if I had bitten something hard and caused the tooth to throb a little. A couple of Advil and bam, pain gone, problem solved.

Not so much.

Friday was ok, had a wedding Friday and on the way back from it I started to get that throbbing again. Oh oh... got home took some pills and it went away. That night the real fun started. A throbbing nearly constant pain, alleviated somewhat by meds, but not totally. Water swishing in the mouth seemed to help best, but try doing that in bed. I almost drowned several times falling asleep with water in my mouth. Sleep was sporadic at best, a half hour here and there with no prolonged periods. I was convinced that I was dealing with an infection. Tried to treat it myself as best I could, since I couldn't see a dentist till Monday, using anti-biotics on hand etc. Nothing really helped for any amount of time. I was miserable, like gun to the head miserable.

Needless to say I didn't get any walking in. Nor did I get much eating in either.

Finally got to the dentist on Monday, figured an exam with some prescription for antibiotics and perhaps ( YAY ) painkillers. Nope....

Dentist entered the room, pulled up my x-rays on the puter screen pointed at the offending tooth and said " See that shadowy mass on the root? That's the bane of your existence and the tooth has to come out now."

Shiver.... an abscessed tooth.... HEAVILY abscessed tooth.... and he was going to pull it then and there...

YIKES!!!!

He did promise me a couple of things before he started though...

1- It would be a difficult extraction.... joy...
2- It would likely take a while
3- It wouldn't hurt, he was going to make sure it was well deadened
4- I would sleep that night

He delivered on all!

1- Difficult yes, the tooth exploded when he put the clamp on there. You have to know, this tooth, it looked flawless from the outside, there was NO indication visually that there was anything wrong with it, but there it was, dead on the inside, abscessed at the root. So, crown gone, nothing to hold on to to extract. Drilling holes into the exposed area to get a grip to loosen, tooth kept breaking. Finally had to cut the gum, drill into root and rock back and forth until loosened , then he cranked the chair up, stood up, braced feet and pulled and pulled and pulled until finally pop, the remains were extracted. He laughed, I love my dentist by the way, and said, " Man, there's NO way anyone would knock your teeth out that's for sure!!" Three stitches and done

2- See above

3- He was bang on, with the exception of the pressure exerted and having all those instruments etc. crammed into my jaws, there was no pain at all, I was thrilled.

4- I slept for almost 12 hours straight.... sigh.... it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice.

As I was leaving he made me another promise. I wouldn't have a lot of pain from the procedure and shouldn't require any prescription pain killers, BUT, I would know he had gone to work on my jaw.

Again, he kept that promise.

Woke up this morning feeling as though I was kicked in the side of my jaw, but NO pain at all from the socket.

Now that's behind me, I can't wait to get out for my first walk in a while tonight.

Scale shows MAJOR downward trends.... that's always nice!

More to come on that front!