Rant #1,731: Pain Management

I am in pain.

I think that after 59 years, my body has caught up with me.

Not really my entire body, but my mouth, and really, my teeth.

As I have told you, my teeth have been nothing but a misery to me this year, and the situation is not getting better.

My teeth were kind of settling into some type of normalcy, but during a cleaning a few weeks ago, it was discovered that on a tooth on the right side, all the way in the back, I needed a crown.

This would be at least the third crown I needed this year. Honestly, I have lost count, but not lost count of the money that each one of these things cost.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I went in the other day for a crown, and instead, I came out with a root canal.

The crown is now scheduled to be put on my teeth on Tuesday afternoon, if I can last that long.

Which right now is questionable.

I never experienced as much pain as I did when the root canal was being performed.

It seems that the nerve that they worked on was right on the tooth, so the dentist had to dig deep, and he did, and it hurt like heck.

There were a couple of times that I thought I was going to pass out, even with novocaine.

But I got through it, was told to take aspirin if it hurt, and that was that.

Well, it hurt like heck yesterday night.

I was in tremendous discomfort. I barely got through dinner, basically chewing as little as I could and swallowing things before they were truly mashed up in my mouth,

Complicating matters is that the left side of my mouth, through all of the work I have had done on that side, isn't too good either.

And further complicating matters is that I have a sore on my right side on the inner cheek--which came from a combination of the tooth needed a crown forming a jagged edge in my mouth, tearing at my inside cheek, as well as the dentist's handiwork--which makes chewing on the left side difficult, because when I bite down using the left side of my mouth, the sore often gets chomped on by the right side, and further makes it worse in my mouth.

Yes, woe is me.

After dinner last night, I knew I wasn't right, took Advil, and sitting there watching TV, I was in constant pain, even though I wasn't eating anymore.

It was affecting the other teeth on my right side, too, and I wonder if I need more crowns--or even some type of radical dental surgery--to eradicate that.

Right now, I am in something of a holding pattern. The pain was so great yesterday that I went to sleep pretty early, and it seemed to take away the pain, at least temporarily.

I still feel it, but it isn't as bad. I have breakfast, eating exclusively on the left side, and it was OK, although that sore in my mouth still got in the way.

Can I last until Tuesday? I honestly don't know. I even brought my bankroll with me that I would have spent on the crown the other day, just in case.

I have taken care of my teeth throughout my life. My teeth were a horror show as a kid, growing in every which way. At one point--and today, they would not do it this way--I had at least eight teeth pulled in one sitting.

I was a nervous patient, needed sweet air as a kid, and I had those railroad track braces that were popular then, which at my estimation, I wore for way too long, at least three or four years if I remember correctly.

I regularly went to the dentist, I brushed my teeth, the whole nine yards, and for a few decades, I would have a cavity here and there, but nothing else.

Then during the past 10 years or so, my teeth started to bother me--a few cavities here, cracked teeth, swollen gums, the works.

The past two years have been the worst, and every time I go in for one thing, I come out with more problems.

When will it end? I don't know, but I was one of those people who really believed that he would keep his original teeth forever.

Now, I am not so sure.

All that I know is that this has been a nightmare, and I am scared about it.

I mean, other than this, I am fine, in pretty good shape for a 59 year old.

My mouth is killing me, and I just don't know what the next step is.

Let me get through the next few days, get the crown and see how things work out.

If I make it that long.