Okay, actually, it's kind of a gross story. I just e-mailed my mother with the gory details, so I'm probably going to paste that e-mail here because a lot of people have been so caring and supportive of my recovery from the concussion that I feel an obligation to keep y'all updated.
Also, it just gets more and more surreal and reminds me how lucky I am to be able to laugh at life since, as I've been saying a lot for the past week and a half, "Why does this sort of thing always happen to me?"
I've had a fair amount of pain medicine, so this might not be coherent, but here's the bottom line.
I went back to work on Monday. I was soooooooooooo glad to see my students and my friends at work and stuff. I was exhausted and headachy by the end of the day (and there was the barfing incident during third period), but I'd made a goal to make it through all of my classes, and I did it. I went home fully expecting to get my grades caught up and go to bed and have all be right with the world.
Yeah, not so much.
As yesterday afternoon and evening went along, I got a ridiculous headache that sort of joined with some tooth pain I'd been having for a few days. I've been pretty sure for a few days that I had an abscessed tooth, but I was going to wait until vacation (next week) to deal with. I mean, in the great scheme of things health-wise, it seemed pretty small.
Yeah, that headache plus toothache kept me up virtually all night. The pain was so awful that I was pacing the house and crying and going on Facebook to complain about not being able to sleep and ... yeah. BAD night.
Needless to say, I didn't think going to work today was a good idea. My original plan was to take painkillers until I fell asleep (stupid, I know, but lack of sleep is a huge problem for me under the best of circumstances, and ...) so I could actually get some rest.
Instead, I called the dentist.
To make a long story short, I had two serious problems.
First, when I fell in the shower and landed first on my face, I severely bruised most of my front upper teeth. This would explain much of my continued pain. Nerves are a funny thing, and who knew that tooth bruising would make your head hurt? She was shocked that I hadn't felt pain in my teeth more directly as, over a week after the fall, the bruising was still pretty intense and showed up very clearly on the x-rays (dental x-rays are very cool, and so is my dentist ... she gave me a crash course in reading them today, and it was fascinating).
Secondly, and more significantly, the fall made whatever infection was going on in one of my back upper molars run completely amok. Amok to the point where it had to be extracted. Like, immediately. Well, that's not exactly true--my dentist's office got me an appointment for an hour and a half after I left their office, which is pretty cool considering that, while I was at the oral surgeon's, people were calling to make appointments for extractions and they were booking into mid-March.
Yup, I was a bona-fide emergency. How exciting ... (God, do I want my boring old life back when playing with my kids and hanging with Henry was how I spent my time!!!!)
So I had a tooth extracted today, fortunately a way-back molar that hopefully no one will notice until I get an implant. The crazy part? I think the pressure and nasty fluids swelling the now-gone tooth played a huge role in why I've been struggling with headaches and pain for this long.
I'm starting to zone out from the pain meds, plus the story's about to get a bit more graphic and disgusting, so I'm going to cop out and paste the e-mail I sent to my momma so you can get the details if you want.
Thank you for the thoughts, prayers, and love that people have sent my way ... I'm a lucky woman.
Hi Mommy,
Also, it just gets more and more surreal and reminds me how lucky I am to be able to laugh at life since, as I've been saying a lot for the past week and a half, "Why does this sort of thing always happen to me?"
I've had a fair amount of pain medicine, so this might not be coherent, but here's the bottom line.
I went back to work on Monday. I was soooooooooooo glad to see my students and my friends at work and stuff. I was exhausted and headachy by the end of the day (and there was the barfing incident during third period), but I'd made a goal to make it through all of my classes, and I did it. I went home fully expecting to get my grades caught up and go to bed and have all be right with the world.
Yeah, not so much.
As yesterday afternoon and evening went along, I got a ridiculous headache that sort of joined with some tooth pain I'd been having for a few days. I've been pretty sure for a few days that I had an abscessed tooth, but I was going to wait until vacation (next week) to deal with. I mean, in the great scheme of things health-wise, it seemed pretty small.
Yeah, that headache plus toothache kept me up virtually all night. The pain was so awful that I was pacing the house and crying and going on Facebook to complain about not being able to sleep and ... yeah. BAD night.
Needless to say, I didn't think going to work today was a good idea. My original plan was to take painkillers until I fell asleep (stupid, I know, but lack of sleep is a huge problem for me under the best of circumstances, and ...) so I could actually get some rest.
Instead, I called the dentist.
To make a long story short, I had two serious problems.
First, when I fell in the shower and landed first on my face, I severely bruised most of my front upper teeth. This would explain much of my continued pain. Nerves are a funny thing, and who knew that tooth bruising would make your head hurt? She was shocked that I hadn't felt pain in my teeth more directly as, over a week after the fall, the bruising was still pretty intense and showed up very clearly on the x-rays (dental x-rays are very cool, and so is my dentist ... she gave me a crash course in reading them today, and it was fascinating).
Secondly, and more significantly, the fall made whatever infection was going on in one of my back upper molars run completely amok. Amok to the point where it had to be extracted. Like, immediately. Well, that's not exactly true--my dentist's office got me an appointment for an hour and a half after I left their office, which is pretty cool considering that, while I was at the oral surgeon's, people were calling to make appointments for extractions and they were booking into mid-March.
Yup, I was a bona-fide emergency. How exciting ... (God, do I want my boring old life back when playing with my kids and hanging with Henry was how I spent my time!!!!)
So I had a tooth extracted today, fortunately a way-back molar that hopefully no one will notice until I get an implant. The crazy part? I think the pressure and nasty fluids swelling the now-gone tooth played a huge role in why I've been struggling with headaches and pain for this long.
I'm starting to zone out from the pain meds, plus the story's about to get a bit more graphic and disgusting, so I'm going to cop out and paste the e-mail I sent to my momma so you can get the details if you want.
Thank you for the thoughts, prayers, and love that people have sent my way ... I'm a lucky woman.
Hi Mommy,
It was horrible :-( The doctor was really, really nice (like, if anyone had to have a tooth extracted, I would recommend him in a second), but it hurt so much! The thing is, I don't know if you remember, but this is the first tooth I had a root canal done on and they had a really hard time getting it numb...I can still remember that from all those years ago, and let me just say that it's still not an area that is conducive to Novocaine, which I had to have in the roof of my mouth several times today. Oh my God, Mommy, it was horrible. Anyway, he'd get started, and then it would hurt, so he'd put more Novocaine in, then he'd do a little more, then it would hurt, and it was a horrible cycle. He and the dental assistant/nurse person were really nice and patient, but ... owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. He said a lot of it was probably because it was so infected, but ... yeah, owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. And I took out the gauze when I got home to change it, and I can't get another piece of gauze in to fit comfortably, and ... did I mention owwwwwwwwwwwww? I took two Vicodins that Dr. Myregulardenstis gave me, so hopefully they'll kick in soon because this freaking kills.
On a positive note, I'm almost positive that it's what was causing the horrible headache. It hurts a lot where the tooth was (I think I mentioned that already ;-)), but there was a ton of pus and drainage and other lovely stuff, so hopefully I will be feeling better. Ironically, other than the acute pain (I have to say it one more time ... owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww), there's almost like a huge relief of pressure in my whole head area. In fact, I feel more like myself at this moment (on two Vicodins lol) than I have since I fell in the stupid shower in the first place.
I don't need anything at the moment (other than to figure out how to get the stupid gauze to fit, but that's something I'm just going to have to figure out for myself :-)), but I do have to get a prescription filled (more Vicodin, muahaha) and something to eat for the next couple of days. Yeah, today we're talking liquid and that's it, tomorrow I can move on to yogurt and mashed potatoes for a couple of days, and then play it by ear from there. Oh, and no straws :-( Well, you and I WERE talking Weight Watchers, and it'll be hard to snarf down Big Macs and Girl Scout cookies in this state. Every cloud has a silver lining, right?
I know you'll be home late, but do you know how late? I am hoping to avoid the grocery story as I look like I got punched in the face and the bloody gauze hanging out is very attractive ... I'll drop off the prescription when I go to get the Fairy.
I think that's about it ... sorry this is so long. Oh, also, I hid in the bathroom when the dog walking lady came. Please don't judge ... I'm scared of her. The funny thing is, Sonja and Mollie didn't want to go with her ... they were pretty much scratching at the bathroom door to be with me. It should have been on YouTube, seriously ...
Love you,
:-) K
--- On Tue, 2/21/12, KLo's Mommy wrote:
--- On Tue, 2/21/12, KLo's Mommy wrote:
From: KLo's Mommy
Subject: tooth
To: KLo
Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 6:15 PMHi,Glad you made it home…was it very painful to have it out? Can you feel the difference now that the pressure is out of there?Sorry for so many questions, I am just trying to make sure you are ok. Do you need anything? I am so sorry that you are going through this.
Love, Mom
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Was just about to ask how you were doing, so glad to see the update. Not quite so glad for the Marathon Man-like aspects you've endured, ut hopefully this means sleep and an quicker end to the headaches! Take care. :)
ReplyDeleteThat is terrible. Worst of all, I know how it feels.
ReplyDeleteI had an abcess years ago that the dentist missed before I went on holiday (I said I felt one was developing when I saw her). On holiday it flared up and no matter how many injections he put into my gums it wouldn't numb the gum so he had operate without.
I empathise completely.
Now it's all done it WILL get better and quickly.
As for the sleeping, when I get bad nights I sleep on the sofa and put a quiet DVD on, usually a nature program like 'The Blue planet or Planet Earth. Would that help you? Alternatively, get 'the man' top give you a 'reflexology' foot rub before bedtime. Works wonders.
You've definitely had your share of problems lately. Hope you feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteHope the Vicodin works, it didn't do much for me. (The night before extraction I had NO painkillers in house and was afraid to drive because of pain- I ended up holding straight vodka in my mouth for 5 minutes at a time, which gave me relief for 15-20 minutes.) Long night!(No I didn't swallow it!) I had left bottom molar extracted (emergency) and since it was the rearmost, I opted to not have an implant. So far so good, I don't miss it at all and it's not noticeable. I feel for you, girl, and I hope you continue to heal up and that the pain dies down soon! Hugs.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they were able to fit you in so easily, here's hoping that now you've gotten rid of the evil tooth things will calm down and you can recover easier.
ReplyDeleteHope the recovery goes well.
ReplyDeleteLet me ask you this: whenever I went through serious injuries, my creativity ran wild. Do you get this as well?
This was especially true when I didn't take my pain medication (I prefer to save it for a rainy day, like the day after doing yard work when I'm just sore).
Oh ick. Something about being an "emergency" though should make all the suffering worth it :) Isn't it great to be able to say "Hi Mommy" when everything is so aweful. I'm glad you have such a supportive mother. And a great dentist.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're feeling better this weekend. My thoughts will be with you for a speedy recovery.
......dhole
What a tough week! I hope by now you are feeling a little better. I've tagged you for a simple little Q and A session.
ReplyDeleteI love the email to your mom!
http://www.peacefulreader.com/2012/02/tag-your-it.html
ReplyDeleteoops-here's the link.
I hope you feel better!
ReplyDeleteDang it, you have been through quite an ordeal. Hugs.
ReplyDelete