Sick as a Dog Plus a Tooth Abscess = Invalid Julie

I am horrifically sick, like teary-eyed, body aches, nose running and sinus inflamed gross sick. Lovely use of English grammar there I know but you’ll have to forgive me as I’m typing through a haze. This haze isn’t one from pain killers, no-no…although that would be a relief this alcoholic won’t take any kind of addictive medication.

This all started with a gentle sniffle a few days ago and overnight progressed into a cold that knocked me to my knees. One would think that’s enough but nope, add to it some pain in my jaw and you’ve got my current situation. On the morning when my sniffles had turned to the Monster cold I began feeling tooth pain in one of my molars. I put it down to a popcorn kernel, flossed and said a prayer it wasn’t a major sinus issue.

Off to the Dentist

Later that day I was immobilized by the pain in my upper left jaw, I couldn’t even talk anymore. I’d been taking Ibuprofen and Tylenol cold remedies and although my sniffles were in check the jaw pain was not. My husband had enough of my whining and insisted on driving me to our dentist’s office before they closed. Note: I have a serious anxiety issue with the dentist, I wouldn’t go there unless it was a DIRE situation….and this was.

I sucked it up and went in, thankfully they squeezed my aching self in for an Xray.

As I sat there one part of me was hoping the Dentist would put it down to my sinus pushing on the nerves because of the cold, another part hoped it would be tooth-related. I had no idea what was wrong but I needed relief from this awful pain.

The Dentist’s Verdict

In the end the X-ray showed that I had a filling which was too close to the nerve. This means that the nerve becomes irritated over time and forms an abscess at the root which sits against the nerve line. Voila = wicked pain and a root canal in my future. (Sorry to the dental professionals of the world for my horrible explanation.)

The Dentist was in a quandary when it came to helping me with pain-relief. I cannot take codeine and won’t take a narcotic so in the end I’ll have to make do with Tylenol and Ibuprofen based meds. Thankfully she prescribed a strong antibiotic which seems to have begun working I was getting slap-happy from not sleeping. Funny how a lack of sleep can diminish functionality so quickly.

As someone who lives with chronic pain on a daily basis I thought I was pretty hardened to discomfort and pain. Nope, this pain created the perfect storm in my body to over-whelm me. Suddenly all the chronic pain flared up, a wicked migraine came along and I was in the depths of something I can’t properly describe.

I’ve missed a bunch of plans we had a as a family this weekend, lost sleep and am left so tired and weak. But through this there was a lesson….the obvious one is to go to the dentist more regularly because they could have caught this….but the other one is how fortunate I am.

I’ve been too ill to care for my kids or myself and my family jumped in and filled that gap. My husband readily gave me cold cloths, made me cream of potato bacon soup and loved me in every way he could. My Mum (who lives here with us) made sure the girls were loved and was there if we needed anything. Our wagons circled during this time and once again I’m grateful.

Ok now I’ve learned a lesson me thinks it’s time for this freaking cold to move along…..