This morning I had the remains of two teeth pulled, a lasting reminder of the damage I suffered as a result of the wreck I had back in 2001. The teeth broke off beneath the gumline but didn’t fall out for at least a couple of years, leaving the roots behind. The exposed roots eventually became an avenue for infection that blew up into the mess that was my mouth last weekend and this week. after a massive amount of local anesthetic was pumped into my jaw I eventually got numb “enough” to extract the remaining roots. All I can say is it’s a good thing I have a high tolerance for pain 😦 Seriously, I have done things that should have caused me to pass out from the pain with just an “Ow, that hurt!” and carry on. I’m just kinda running on a stream-of-semi-consciousness here, because more than 3 hours after I got them, the local anesthetics are just now starting to wear off and feeling is coming back to my face and mouth. The first thing I felt was that some time during the extraction either I bit the side of my tongue or the dentist pinched it with the extraction tools. Either way my tongue seriously hurts now, but in a survivable way.
And now I’m starting to feel… hungry?!? WTF!?! I can’t eat anything right now, I still don’t have good swallow control over my tongue yet. At least I have managed to stop drooling, but this shirt will still need a trip through the laundry shortly. But seriously, I’m hungry now.
Also, I’m starting to feel the empty space where I used to have a tooth. And that empty space is filled with discomfort, bordering on pain, but because I’m hungry it just feels weird. And the hole is still draining so there is this really nasty taste in my mouth from the infection. Fortunately I anticipated this development, and bought bland, pleasant-tasting foods so that I would be not-hungry and also not have a nasty taste in my mouth. So, get me my cherry-vanilla yogurt! Where’s that.. oh that’s right, in this universe I don’t have minions/servants/sex slaves, I have to get my own yogurt by myself. Eating yogurt means I will have to change gauze packs again, but I have ample amounts of gauze to change with.
Since my mind wandered in the direction of food, I should probably use this spot to inform y’all that I lost 12 pounds since the previous Friday. A lot of that is mild dehydration, but I burned enough actual fat off to make it a concern about appearance. I wouldn’t want to look too good at this clothing-optional camping trip I’m about to go on… I already have enough problems there just being a cyclist in halfway decent condition. If my abs start to show at my age, there could be trouble.
OK mail just ran, and so did my attention. I haven’t finished eating yet. man, you should like try these drugs, man… And another sharp pull back to this reality as my mouth decided to send another pain-gram, this one via my right eye socket. Hard to see when that happens. The yogurt is gone now, I must be finished eating?
The good part is this is better than I felt on Sunday evening and Monday morning. The bad part is this is much worse than I felt yesterday afternoon or this morning. And the feeling goofy part is something I do to control the level of pain I feel. There is the pain that I’m actually generating, and then there’s the pain I actually feel, and seldom do I ever allow those two to approach equal, some of that pain energy has to go somewhere, so I make it goofy energy. Much better feeling goofy than to feel pain. Because pain, like hurts really bad…
And I think I need to take a nap, so while I np you guys go find something else to read for a while, shoo!
PSA, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 