Let me just tell you.  Losing a tooth is far more fun as a child.

• Minimal to no pain
• Cheers and excitement from mom, dad and family
• And then to top it off?!  The freaking tooth fairy brings you money!

 

Losing a tooth as an adult looks quite different.

• Pain.  God, the pain.
• No excitement what-so-ever
• The tooth fairy just up and disappears apparently when you turn whatever age it is when your big kid teeth come in
• And what is up with this bill?  I have to pay for this?

 

 

After last week, I NEVER want work done on my teeth again.  Not something I can avoid, but you can bet I am going to do just that for a short period of time.

 

I had been having some pain in my lower right jaw and teeth since April.   Sometimes I would swell and not be able to eat anything because my back right teeth would be pushed up so far that biting down caused excruciating pain.

And thus begins a 4 month fiasco.

 

April – It was determined that I had an infection in my tooth.   Solution– antibiotics to get rid of infection and to avoid a root canal.

May– Swelling and pain came back.   Solution– another round of antibiotics.  I’ll be honest and say I didn’t take this round.  I popped a few Aleve over the course of a few days, the swelling went away, and life was back to normal.

June– Pain came back in the worst possible way.  Back teeth and gums were so swollen no solid foods were being eaten.   Solution– antibiotics and a scheduled root canal.

 

And this is where it all starts going down hill fast.

Tuesday, June 24th-   Root Canal.   Went smoothly, no issues, started feeling relief as the infection had a quick way to escape.

Tuesday, July 1st –  Back to dentist to permanently fill the tiny whole made from root canal.  Still a little swollen and sore, but feeling a lot better.  Was able to really enjoy the 4th of July.

Saturday, July 5th- Swelling back, a dull ache starting to happen, solid foods difficult.

Monday, July 7th– Prescription pain pills given to me during root canal made their first appearance in my system.   Pain becoming too much.

Tuesday, July 8th– Pain was excruciating.  Pills were barely touching the amount of pain I was feeling.  By noon I had to leave work as ringing in my ears and a headache had become side effects.

The swelling on the inside started showing on the outside, too:

 

~

Called my dentist.

I was told to ride it out.

Nope, not kidding.

Let the antibiotics do their job, he said.

Naturally, I called my mom.  Isn’t that what all grown-ups do?   I knew she couldn’t fix it.  I just needed to cry and complain.

Well, Mama-Bear came out to play and within 30 minutes she had an appointment scheduled for me with her Endodontist on Wednesday morning at 6:30am sharp.  She’s a magician, that lady!

Sadly, I ended up having to cancel the appointment nearly as soon as it was set.

They confirmed the worst- my insurance wasn’t accepted at their office.

Wednesday, July 9th- I woke up to unbearable pain at 3:30am.  Took two pain pills and still had NO relief.  A visit to the ER was not far from my mind, even though I knew there was nothing they could have done.  A shot of morphine and sleeping pills?   I’ll admit that the tears were flowing heavily at this point.  I knew that there was NO way this was right.  The pain I was feeling was 100 times worse then when I had surgery 10 years ago that resulted in a 5 inch incision line on my belly.  THAT is how much pain I was in.

The swelling was getting good.  You can tell by the bags under my eyes how miserable I was at this point:

8am- Called my dentist, again.   I told them “Look, I know you think I am being dramatic, but this shit isn’t right.  I am in pain that I can barely handle, Hydrocodone’s aren’t even touching it and the ringing in my right ear is definitely a result of whatever the hell is going on.  Please, see me”.

10am– Walk into the Dentist’s office in so much pain I couldn’t control the tears.  I HATE crying in public.  Who does?  But, there was just no controlling this.   I felt awful.

11am– After X-rays, multiple looks in my mouth and a thorough look through all my charts from previous appointments, my dentist set me up to see an endodontist at 12:30.   It was determined that I had a cracked tooth that was causing all of this and the only solution at this point was to pull the tooth.  PS- the cracked tooth?  Not the one I just had a root canal on.  It was the one right behind it.  I’ll let your wheels starting turning now.

Anyway, my dentist wasn’t able to provide the quality Xray needed to be 100% certain, so this is where the endodontist came into play.

12:15pm– Walked into the Endodontist’s office.   You will never believe what happened next.  The secretary looked at me sweetly and said:

“Honey, we are the same place your mom scheduled an appointment with yesterday.  We don’t accept your insurance.  I am so sorry.  I wish we could help you.”

Cue the water works.

I walked out, sat in my Jeep and sobbed.   And then I called none other then my mom, of course.   She was full on Mama-Bear at this point.  Bless her heart. 🙂

(Love you, mom)

12:30pm– Tried calling my dentist’s office.  Voicemail- out to lunch!

12:45pm– Filled new (4th) Antibiotic and Steroid at Pharmacy

1:00pm– Called dentist.  Filled him in.   He cleared his schedule Thursday morning for a tooth extraction – 10AM sharp.

1:15pm– Conversation with Dentist again.   New prescription was being sent to pharmacy for pick-up.  These magic little pills would put me to sleep prior to extraction.  Due to level of infection, numbing would be near impossible.

Oh, joy.

Rest of the day?  Complete blur.  Pain, pain meds, sleeping aids, ice packs… I have no idea.   Complete, 100%, blur.

Thursday, July 10th – 8am.  Feeling pretty good, no thanks to the steroid, antibiotics, two pain pills and the idea of getting this damn thing removed.

The swelling on the other hand?  Goodness.

Oh hey there, pores and discolored skin!

9am– Four pills and I am beginning to fill relaxed.  Tyree picked me up and dropped me off for my 10am procedure.

10:15am– More pills and laughing gas.  And then I asked the million dollar question: “Was the root canal two weeks ago even necessary and if all of this was actually caused by the cracked tooth”?  The last thing I remember at that point was him saying yes, it was necessary.  X-rays would show that.   But, I would not be getting charged for this extraction.

Hmm…

I’ll let you be the judge.

Soon after came sleepy time.

And then?

SCREAMING

I woke up during the extraction.  The pain was terrible.  I remember hearing the dentist say something and then I drifted a little, to only be woken up a short time later to more pain.  At that point all I could do was cry.

And cry…

My friend, Heidi picked me up and brought me home.  I don’t remember much of the drive, nor the next 8 hours as I drifted in and out of sleep.   Apparently I woke up to text people sometime during the day.  Luckily, looking back, the texts actually made sense.  🙂

Friday, July 11th – Felt good.  Took a shower.  Went to work.   Swelling was going down!

But, soon the meds got the best of me and my stomach, so 11am, I checked out, went home and went to bed.

I rallied for Willie later. No way I was missing that!

I am still super sore today.  Swelling is still there and I can taste the infection still seeping out.   Gross, I know.  Try living it!

Fingers crossed that by end of week I will be back to normal.

Now, where is that dang Tooth Fairy??  I deserve a million bucks after all that.

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Cheap Bastard.