You should Listen to Dr. Types? Who knew?
Thought that I would write down this tale of pain caused by stupidity in hopes that someone could benefit from it or maybe even just I will take the obvious moral of the story to heart. Well, I guess 15-20 years ago I caused some serious trauma to one of my lower teeth. Speculation amongst the younger dentists that work for my father ranged from a bike crash to a bar fight. Really not sure how it happened. Regardless, the tooth was super dead and needed a root canal. Luck has it that one of the aforementioned dentists that work for my father has a husband who is an endodontist. As an aside, I like hanging out with all these people doing things like skiing, playing golf and drinking beer fat better than when they mess with my teeth.
So anyhow, last Thursday [two days before I race the half in Tupper Lake] I have the root canal done. Goes swimmingly, not even very painful or uncomfortable as the tooth is totally dead and has been for years. Other than taking a little ribbing when I can't respond no problem at all. Bob writes me a scrip for an antibiotic as when you do that you stir up a lot of bacteria and you do not want to have a problem in a few days.
So I forget to get the scrip for a day. Then start taking it and have beers on Friday night [have to prepare for the race], right. About 10 miles into the bike ride I ate a cliff shot block and bit down on the right side somehow way too hard [had been told to avoid that as it might be "sore"] and felt a blinding pain. Thought I might be done for the day and freaked out for a little bit but it went away in a few minutes so no big deal. Well I guess that I popped open a nice big pocket of nasty bacteria or something as badness followed hard a day or so later. Hurt a little after the race but as I was having some beers that night I did not really notice. Of course the beer was apparently having the effect of rendering that particular antibiotic pretty much useless. Remember hearing something about that but paying little attention. Come on? Whats the worst that could happen?
So by Sunday night I have a BIG PROBLEM. Hurts so bad from the inside of my jay that I want to cry. Did not really sleep at all that night. It was terrible. Worst part was that I knew it was only from my own stupidity. Monday it got opened backed up to make sure I did not fracture the root. Didn't thank goodness. Started on the Diesel antibiotics which started to work after another day and a half of searing pain and another mostly sleepless night. Like codene didn't really help kinda pain. Finally, the third night I was able to sleep and the thing is back to feeling sore like it is supposed to be rather than like something is trying to jackhammer out of my jaw.
Anyhow, the moral of the story is that sometimes when Dr type people tell you to do things maybe they should get the benefit of the doubt.
Comments
As I continue on the road to fully reconstructing the inside of my mouth as a result of the damage that it sustained when I fell on and broke part of my face last year, I recently had the joyful experience of tissue grafting. The perio who did the work didn't dress the donor site very well and it wasn't protected. So it flared. I was in so much flipping pain that just swallowing that little bit of saliva in my mouth was impossible; talking at work was a serious undertaking; sleeping was impossible. I originally thought it had become infected, because some of the areas were so inflamed. Once I went back in for more of the dressing to cover the scraped off areas, and got some tips on using benzocaine lozenges to numb the area I felt a little more human. But crap!
I swear so much dentistry just seems more barbaric than it needs to be. OK, I will give you that my perception is probably warped since I've been through (and still have) so darned much of it lately...heck even a cleaning is now enough to cause my heart to race and for me to start seeing chirpy yellow birdies.
Here's to full recovery.... [insert beer quaffing smiley from 3.0]
Glad it didn't stop you from kicking ass at Tupper Lake!
Olivia,
That stinks that you are still dealing with all that. I did some much more minor damage to my face a bunch of years ago when[again cause I was stupid and did not check the quick release] I watched the front wheel of my mountain bike fall off about half a second before I split the forks and then bent the handle bars with my face. Wishing you the best and the least amount of time in a dental chair.
I hate going to the dentist of any sort. Pretty much grew up in a dental office. Made me really want to go to law shcool or any type of school that did not involve messing with people's teeth.