Yes... I hate my teeth... Three of them speicifically... All my life, my teeth have been good... They've behaved... Oh, sure there was the rebel uprising when I was twelve, but those teeth were all sacrificed to the Tooth Fairy anyway... She could have them... No, this time, they mean war...
A month to a month-and-a-half ago, my right lower jaw started aching... Then the upper jaw started in on it too... Sensodyne and Anbesol were my only friends... My dentist took some X-Rays and we set an appointment for early next month to fill the three caveties that had developed... I thought I would be fine until May... It was only a mild ache...
Until it wasn't...
Last night it didn't matter what I did, I just could not deal with the pain... I had tried so many things: swishing vanilla, swishing rum, massive amounts of ibuprofen, tylenol of varying strengths, Anbesol, brushing obsessively with Sensodyne, Xylocaine viscous gel (and that last one is truly disgusting, by the way)... After two hours of rolling around in my bed with tears trailing down my cheeks, pretending I could find a way to sleep with my jaw throbing, I drove to the midnight pharmacy looking for something else, some magical cure... I had expected to walk away with some 222's, a codiene/aspirin mix that is legal to sell over the counter... Instead, I was turned away by the pharmacist with nothing...
I need to thank that man someday...
Weird to thank him? Not so much... When I detailed everything I had tried, he said I needed to see a doctor because massive OTC-untreatable tooth pain usually meant an infection...
And this makes sense... The pain had been getting worse... The amounts of Anbesol I had been using had increased... One bottle lasted me three weeks, and then I used up another half of a bottle in 5 days... And then there was the headache... This fucking tension in my head that no amount of anything was touching... It was a cloud in my brain that seemed almost hopeless to be gotten rid of...
I had been totally in denial, thinking that I could survive without some kind of professional assistance...
So, at 12:30 last night, I visited the local ER... I waited an hour in a waiting room, then another 45 minutes in a clinic room before being seen by the doctor (who was fantastic!!!)... By 3AM I was home with a high dosage Clindamycin prescription and a bottle of prescription painkillers... I downed my antibiotics as directed and one tablet of painkiller, surfed the internet for about half an hour, and then went to bed...
It was the best sleep I've had in a long time...
I know the antibiotics can't possibly be fully working yet, but my teeth feel better today... There's very little pain... It's almost only a discomfort again... And the headache, while not totally gone, is somewhat receeded... Today I felt like I was having a normal life again...
I am so glad that pharmacist told me to see a doctor...
Moral of Story: See a doctor for pain before it becomes unbearable...
Note: I am not advocating that narcotics are the awesomest things ever... Once I have my caveties filled in May, the bottle and remaining tablets are going in the waste disposal at my work... I am hoping there are many tablets left to go in that bucket...
