tooth be gone...

Flawless extraction enhanced with nitrous oxide.

The Problem of Pain

We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. 

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, 

but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. 

C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

In praying for relief of pain, the Lord will certainly help but expects one 

to take some of the responsibility.  

He did not provide sudden/magic relief,  

but He cleared the paths I reckoned upon. 

Psalm 138:8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: 

thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever:  

forsake not the works of thine own hands

Maxillary Sinuses

I'm beginning to think I may just live through the weekend and make it to Monday for my extraction.  Woke up this morning with lighter than usual pain.  Took a pain pill for breakfast and went for my morning walk.  Had a cup of coffee and my antibiotic pill then laid back down for a spell.  Caution - this is gross: Suddenly I felt a pop in my sinus along with a god awful smell of death.  Got up an blew my nose really hard then hawked up some loogies from hell.  Suddenly all the pressure was gone there.  My maxillary sinuses are exceptionally large and that is the "root of the problem".  The dentist assured me to expect the once daily azithromycin to take at least 72 hours to kick in - and apparently that was right on the money.  Made it through the day without another pain med.  I might actually get a good night's sleep tonight...but it is still gonna be a very long weekend.  83,85,68,0,B

pain management...

85,94,73,0,B

bum tooth

It all started last Wednesday...a dull ache in my right cheek.  It got progressively worse with the pain coming and going and peaked last night.  Nothing like trying to sleep with a bad toothache.  Aspirin and Extra Strength Tylenol barely made a dent.  Called a new dentist in Alpine first thing this morning and luckily they had an opening at 10AM.  The folks that got stuck out here Saturday finally got out by noon on Sunday...leaving plenty of ruts in the road for me to follow while I shot out of here to make my appointment.

Just as I suspected, an old root canal and crown had finally gone bad.  Got a nice little abscess causing all the pain.  Have to wait a few days for the infection to calm down so I am on 6 days of antibiotics and some Tylenol 3 to make the wait bearable.  I am due to go back Monday for the extraction.  Funny thing is it has been 15 years since I have been to a dentist and that last trip was for the root canal and crown that finally failed...bought me 15 good years of biting with that tooth.  Also, I couldn't help but notice the x-ray technology improvements since my last trip.  No more biting down on a little clump of plastic and cardboard with real film inside and a target ring attached to aim the laser gun at.  This time I just put my chin on a shelf and got an instant digital panorama via a chopper cat scan of sorts.  77,88,69,0,B