HEY TOTA, WHAT'S HAPPENING LATELY? (MY ACHING TOOTH, PART I)

The last 2 weeks, there were some exciting activities in my otherwise boring life. I will try to recap what has happened from that day when “all hell broke loose”.

It started on Thursday, September 9th, late afternoon. The pains continued on Friday. I thought it was probably a minor toothache. (I don’t remember the last time I had a toothache.) I just had a 6-month check-up and Doc DW told me everything was fine. I thought perhaps I was a bit rough when I tried to give the back teeth a good flossing. By Saturday afternoon, the aching has gotten worse. I avoided chewing on the left (the aching side) and tried to chew slowly on the other side. The regular over-the-counter pills helped and I was able to go to the Run to Remember 5K Race (top photo) on Saturday morning. We went to the 36th Annual Polish Festival (below photo) in the afternoon. Of course the pains started again late Saturday evening.

On Sunday, I continued to tolerate the increasingly painful tooth. We went to the Classic Cars Show in Hermann, Missouri (photo below). My husband suggested that I should call DW for an emergency appointment. I thought a toothache was not life-threatening and I should not bother the good doctor on Sunday. The pains kept me up all night and I was never so happy seeing the sun came up on Monday morning.

I drove to DW office and walked right in when the door was opened at 9:30 a.m. DW reviewed the X-ray and informed me that I needed a root canal procedure. I was referred to an endodontic for a 10:45 appointment. After what seemed to be an “eternal hell” of the drilling, smell of flesh burning and the grinding noise while the good doctor removing the inflamed pulp tissue and “irrigating” the inside of tooth #18, the procedure was completed at 12:45 p.m. (At one point, I was panicked when I thought someone nearby was saying, "Is it safe?" - haa haa) I felt an instant relief, thanks in part to the good doses of local anesthesia. However when my cell phone rang, with half of my face frozen, I was not able to tell my husband that I was on my way to the drug store to fill the “prescriptions” or to pick up the “medication”. I used the word “pills” instead!

I got home around 1:40, completely exhausted after a sleepless night and the whole morning sitting in one dental chair to another, after taking the medication, I went straight to bed. I woke up at 4:30 p.m. when the cell phone rang. My husband asked if I felt good enough to go to a Cardinals v. Cubs game. His boss just gave him two tickets behind the home plate. Just to be sure, I took another pain pill and off we went to the baseball game. It sure was an exciting day :)