Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Can you feel anything when I do this? (2)

Apologies to both my readers, I have been off air for a few days 'cos my brain has been all of a jangle with toothache.

Last Monday I went to Raj as a follow up visit to a new crown and an extraction a couple of weeks ago. One tooth on the other side was giving me some grief and it can be hard to tell exactly which one. The nerves run close together and may cause a different tooth to appear to be the origin. So he sent me round to the endodontist for a second opinion and he pinpointed the lower right 8 (back molar).

Wednesday the endodontist did a full root canal job and sent me home. In his letter to Raj he wrote, "Healing is expected to be uneventful." Hah! If you consider "writhing on the living room carpet at two in the morning in a foetal ball in excruciating pain chanting over and over the mantra 'f*** that hurts, f*** that hurts, f*** that hurts'" as uneventful then yes it was.

I do not *ever* want to feel pain like that again.

Even the extra painkillers from the doctors could not mask the pain so Saturday night (well actually Sunday morning as it was half past midnight) I cracked and phoned Raj. He did a mercy dash to his surgery in Harley Street and I fell out of a taxi a few minutes later. He did some magic scraping with a steel implement and said that should do it. He was off to Sri Lanka on Sunday so he gave me a copy of my X-Rays in case I needed to go to A&E.

I am glad to say the pain and the swelling is slowly subsiding, the antibiotics and my immune system are slowly repairing that damage; soup for breakfast and lunch was getting tedious. I still cannot open my mouth more than half an inch, I have to post food in horizontally in thin slices, but that too will pass.

And then of course I can have the thing crowned! But I think I will wait a while until the memory fades.

PS
Deep gratitude is owed not only to Raj but also to his daughter, a doctor, who lives nearby and who he dragged along. Apparently I was slurring my words and he was concerned so wanted some medical backup.

3 comments:

Rosa said...

I have to agree with you Mark, there is nothing worse than a bad toothache. I have been there my friend. I had a cracked tooth (from eating ice--duh). It took two whole days before I was scheduled for a root canal and it was the worst two days of my life. Not even childbirth compared. The painkillers made me sick to my stomache and I just about died (or thought I was anyway) in those two days waiting. Like you said, the painkillers were barely helpful. Glad to hear Raj and daughter took care of the problem. I've been fortunate (knock wood) so far and have had no more probs. Hope yours is the same!

Rosa said...

Thanks Mark for your male perspective on the mammogram post. We women folk sometimes forget about that side of the story. I hope all the men take note! Yes, I now remember Tara's post. How scary that was. So glad your toof' is better. You can be human again!!

Ballpoint Wren said...

I'm so sorry you had to go through that! When I was a kid I had some serious dental problems and I remember several sleepless night because my teeth hurt so much they kept me up.

Thank goodness for modern dentistry! Can you imagine going through all that during the middle ages? No wonder people had shorter lifespans!