Why do so many unpleasant things happen at 3 a.m.? The child throwing up all over the bed, the dog that suddenly and urgently demands to go out right now! or it will be too late, Hilary Clinton calling President Obama...in my case it was a throbbing, pounding tooth ache. Everything is worse at that time of the night and this was no exception. It felt like tiny little bongo drum players were hiding in my gum pounding out a rhythm that was guaranteed to keep me awake. Some Tylenol brought the pain down enough that I finally went to sleep about 4:45. My alarm went off at 5. The dentist managed to squeeze me in at the end of his day so I pedaled over to his office from the train station - smack into the middle of a tea party protest! These were enthusiastic protesters, waving flags and signs and getting lots of honks from the passing motorists. I fought my way through the crowd and to the dentist's office. The good news was that the tooth was not infected. The dentist decided the best course of action was to scrape smooth the base of the tooth below the gums in order to relieve the inflammation. Let me just say that if I knew any secrets I would have divulged them about half way through that procedure. Then I was done and sent on my way. Surprisingly enough the treatment seems to have dramatically reduced the swelling and the pain. As I said to the dentist before he started "sometimes you have to take the pain to get the gain". I made that up on the spot.
Just for those who may be interested, I will qualify for the senior menu at Denny's once I celebrate this birthday.
Tomorrow (Thursday) I have the sad duty of attending the funeral of Sergeant Major Paul Shirley who had been assigned to my unit in the CSMR. SGM Shirley was a long service Air Force NCO who served in Vietnam and the Gulf War. He lost a year long battle with cancer and passed away last month. He will be missed.
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Oh, I feel your pain (really!) about the tooth. I have one tooth with a filling that still bothers me sometimes. The throbbing pain that radiates up to my eye...it's some of the most incapacitating pain I've ever felt (aside from labor, of course!) I wish I still had Dr. Kirst to take care of me. My current dentist is horrible. The filling is a refilling of one he did about 2 years ago, and now he's saying maybe it needs a root canal. Wish that had been done 2 years ago!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about SGM Shirley. That is very sad.