The truth is, this week was worse than last week. On Tuesday, my discomfort was the most it had been, only to be eclipsed by today. And my post-treatment feeling after Tuesday was the worst yet. And yet, it was all okay.
Tuesday’s treatment had discomfort—not pain, exactly, but it wasn’t nice. At one point I thought to myself that some people might endure the discomfort because they thought they “deserved” the pain for having led to the situation. Yeah, well, I’m not one of those people, and I thought it was bloody annoying.
The next day, I felt some discomfort—chiefly throbbing—in the treated teeth. That had happened every time before. But then it reappeared in the next day, which was unusual. In fact, I felt kinda bad for the rest of the week—not sick, exactly, but also not 100%.
Today’s treatment was the worst of the four. I was asked if my lip was numb, so I asked if it was supposed to be (it was). Another shot and they got under way, little time lost. Teeth sorted, I was out (and paying more that a couple grand more), and on to schedule a hygienist appointment six weeks later and a re-check six weeks after that (more or less). Both of which cost big money—let’s be honest here.
The second dose of Novocaine (or similar) was intense: My lip didn't stop being numb until around 3pm or so, which meant I hadn’t had any food for over six hours. I was REALLY hungry by then—and thirsty, because I wasn’t able to drink, either. I was also—FINALLY!—able to take some pain relief, because my jaws were hurting by then.
The truth is, the overall process was far less traumatic or painful than I thought it would be. This week, uncomfortable as it was, was still far less painful than any cavity I’ve had fixed. That’s pretty remarkable when you consider the health risks I faced until I took care of this.
Bottom line: Yes, it was an ordeal of sorts, yes it was uncomfortable and inconvenient, BUT—and this is important—it may very well have prolonged my life. How can I complains about THAT!?
The image above is a reproduction from the 20th US edition of Gray's Anatomy, and is in the public domain. It is available from Wikimedia Commons.
No comments:
Post a Comment