Wisdom Teeth. Those two words make me cringe in fear. Since I was 16 and the top left wisdom tooth had began to break through I've feared the inevitable: Having them removed. I'm naive enough to say I'm proud I lasted this long, hahahaha! But in all seriousness, it's really foolish of me to have waited until THIS point to have them taken out. What point is that you ask? Oh well the point where the two left wisdom teeth have such large cavities that I can feel them and have to take special care to clean them, that pieces of said teeth have broken off randomly, but in my absurd denial I pushed it from my mind. I IGNORED the PAINFULLY OBVIOUS: my teeth were in danger! Outside of the pain of them "coming in" which they'd occasionally do (gums would swell and be tender much like a teething babe and I'd be unable to open my mouth very far, eat, speak, sleep etc...) I could succesfully pretend that there was nothing wrong (mind you the right two have come in as well, but show no signs of decay thus far)
SO Tuesday we're out running errands and my tooth begins to throb, it's a slight pain at first and I try to ignore it (oh how lame am I?) but with in a half hour I'm in so much pain I'm mute, I'm stoic, I'm withering within. John notices my silence. "What's wrong?" I shake my head. "Kat, why are you so quiet, what's wrong?" Again I shake my head...I'm literally scared that if I open my mouth I might start screaming and never be able to stop. All the while images of horrific things such as pulling my tooth out with pliers, knocking my head against a wall etc are running through my head. I feel as if I'll go mad with pain...or maybe I'm already there? So I actually TEXT John what's wrong with him. *I'm in pain* he reads it from the dash and then replies "your tooth?" see he knows me, *yes, I can't talk it hurts so bad* he asks "do you want to go see Wendy?" Wendy is the most amazing dentist on the face of the planet! STILL I'M IN MY DENIAL SHELL (more so then normal people due to a VERY bad experience with a VERY bad dentist as a child) I shake my head NO people, I'd rather drive my head through the windshield then go to a dentist, and not a bad dentist, not an okay dentist, but a GREAT AMAZING CALM PATIENT KIND DENTIST. A few miles down the road I have tears rolling down my face, my fists are clenched around my jeans and my face is as red as a tomato and I finally choke out "yes...call Wendy"
Whew okay so John does every thing with in his legal power to get us home ASAP (we were in Brockport and live in Farmington...that's about an hour-ish) I took Motrin the second my tooth started hurting, and not one, not two, NOT three, but FOUR motrin. The F'ing things don't kick in! So John calls and sets up an appointment for me with Wendy at 6pm (it's 2) in my head I'm thinking there is NO WAY I'LL SURVIVE UNTIL THEN! Minutes are oozing by at an alarmingly slow pace but we finally pull into the driveway. I grab George and race upstairs, swallow 3 extra strength tylenol and curl up into a ball on the bed. With in 15 minutes I feel the pain start to retreat it's ugly rage against me and sanity returns. The motrin FINALLY started working! John, my saint, my hero, watches the kids and even comes and gets George for me while I rest for the next 3 hours then drives me to my appt.
X-ray's are taken, and a plan is laid in place. I will be sedated and have all four wisdom teeth removed December 21. The pain? A small abscess had formed under my bottom left tooth, I'm on abx for that and the pain is G-O-N-E! Mary wrote a script for vicodin for the pain and I was like "well I'm nursing (which I marked on my chart) can I still take this?" she laughs and she folds it in half then rips it and she's like "well I guess you won't be getting this" haha, it was funny (not to mention I have to pump and save for the day of my surgery AND pump and dump during the day because George can't have the sedation drugs, obviously). But really the motrin worked fine and if you know me, I'm really not into pain meds, I mean I have to be HURTING to even take the motrin, so yeah it all worked out.
Well, to the tune of $2001 (thank goodness for Care Credit!). Yay for Christmas time emergencies...sigh, but at least it'll all be taken care of. I kick myself, for had I taken the time and the RESPONSIBILITY to have them taken out years ago it would have been easier and less financially stressful...not to mention far less painful!
