My Winter Travel Diary: Now, A Word from The Dentist...

I apologize in advance if this particular blog post makes little sense, but currently I am taking vicodin for pain and I feel a bit floaty.

Why, you ask, am I taking the medication made famous by Dr. House?

Because the day after we arrived here in Plympton, my teeth began to hurt.  I assumed that I clenched my teeth too much, so I spent most of Monday trying to relax against the rising tide of pain.  But by Tuesday morning, with the left side of my face swollen up, I admitted defeat and went to the local dentist office (name gained courtesy of my wonderful in-laws).  I learned that I had an abcess in one of my teeth - a fairly large and painful abcess that required a root canal.  So, the dentist drained stuff from the bad tooth, packed it with antibiotic paste, gave me a massive amount of amoxicillan, and two prescription - one for more amoxicillan and one for vicodin. 

Last night was a nightmare.  I alternated vicodin and Advil, but when time ran out of either medication my face ached.  When I went back to the dentist this morning, he reopened the tooth and basically drained out as much today as he did yesterday.  Argh!  So, he sent me to a specialist  - a dentist who only does root canals.  He also gave me a new antibioti to take, because the amoxicillian clearly was not cutting it.

The new dentist saw me this afternoon.  He tested my teeth to ensure that only one was infected, then he innocently asked me if I wanted him to lance an area of my gums that was swollen.  I agreed, and he numbed my mouth.  Then he went in with a scapel, made a little incision, and exclaimed, "My!  That was more exuberant that I expected!"

It turns out that I had a *huge* pocket of nastiness in my mouth that was causing a significant part of the pain.  Once the doctor removed the nastiness and relieved the pressure, I felt about one hundred times better.  My tooth is still open, so I have one more appointment up here to close up the hole in the tooth.  But I think I'll be able to sleep tonight without waking up to pain.

And maybe tomorrow I'll be able to walk around with floating on vicodin.