Annoying Teeth

It's been one of those weeks, unfortunately.

It's turned into a short work week, which is one good thing.

The bad thing is the reason it was short.

Sure, we had a holiday on Monday. Happy belated Labour Day, everybody!

But Wednesday morning, I woke up to some pain in the top-right part of my mouth. Let's just say it was throbbing for most of the day on Wednesday. I was able to get through work and get home, but it was very hard to get any work done with that constant distraction.

So why didn't I call the dentist immediately?

There was some question of whether I would be going to our current dentist or find somebody new. I figured it wasn't that bad, that I could get through the day, talk it over with the wife, and go the next day. If I had to leave work early on Thursday for an appointment, I would.

Unfortunately, Wednesday night, the pain just got worse. I was beginning to think that I should just stay home on Thursday and immediately call the dentist.

This plan was confirmed when I woke up at 1:30 am and found that my cheek had swelled to gargantuan proportions.

I had a lot of trouble sleeping that night, and when I finally got up around 7:15, I called in sick and prepared myself for a day of pain. I was going to stick with my current dentist, which is around a 15-minute walk from home, but who knew if they could get me in? I called right at 8am when they opened, and they said they had an 11:00 appointment for me. That's better than nothing, and would save me calling around, so I took it.

With all of that swelling, the pain had actually lessened, so I wasn't in too much discomfort. I watched some TV before heading out around 10:30. I wasn't sure how long the walk would be and whether I could find their new location easily, but I ended up having no problems and got there 20 minutes early. I no sooner had sat down to wait until 11:00 when the dentist's assistant came out and called my name. I was getting in early!

The dentist felt around my puffed-up cheek, leaned me back and asked which tooth I thought it might be, and tapped the three around it (the one I knew it was hurt like hell and the other two had nothing), then took an x-ray to confirm that, yes, I had an infected tooth. It's going to need a root canal, but we have to get rid of the infection first.

So he bundled me off across the street to Shopper's to get my prescription filled. Ten days' worth of antibiotics and some pain pills. The antibiotics needed to be taken with food, so I had to be able to get something down before taking them, no matter how much it might hurt.

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching old recorded CSI episodes and wishing the antibiotics would kick in RIGHT NOW. (So if you called me at work and was wondering why I wasn't there, that's why).

Funnily enough, my face bloomed up even more Thursday night, sort of as a precursor to having the infection taken care of, I guess? I honestly looked like I had been in a fight. My right eye could barely open (the dentist had said that if I couldn't close my eye or if I had problems swallowing, I should go to the hospital...closing was not a problem. Opening it was).

Needless to say, I was not going to work like that on Friday. So a 2-day work week and a 4-day weekend. Yay?

I'm gradually getting better. The swelling is still slightly there, but it's not really noticeable unless you feel my face. There's a small portion of it right underneath my eye that's still a bit hard. The gum still feels a little swollen too. I'll be fine to go to work tomorrow, I think (barring any sudden relapse). Have to complete the meds even if it appears the infection's gone. My tenth day will be next Sunday, which is also the day of my root canal.

It was weird being legitimately outside walking downtown on Thursday, but also weird wondering what people were thinking as they saw this guy walking around with one side of his face swollen. If it had been as bad then as it was Thursday night, I might have been too embarrassed to do it (though I would have had to suck it up).

So I'm doing fine. I'm happy that it's almost over. The infection's on its way out, the tooth will be taken care of next week.

And folks? If you are experiencing any tooth pain, you might want to get it looked at as soon as you can.

To prevent something like this from happening to you.

You would think a 2-day work week would be wonderful.

But not when it's like this.