Meantime, I have endured two weeks of agony, which is ongoing. Hint for anyone who doesn't know me very well - I have a very high pain threshold. I can take pain that would make others crumble, without so much as a whimper. Needles into the spine? Been there done that, been back for more. Migraines? Puh-leese. I also have very little fear of medical professionals and fixerupperers in general. I don't enjoy going to the doctor, for sure, but that has more to do with the fact that I always manage to choose assholes. There is however, one large and glaring exception to both of these rules. Dentists and dental pain. I have a morbid and pathological fear of dentists, and I cannot handle dental pain AT ALL. So for two weeks now I have sufferred, loudly, with intermittent tooth pain that slowly grew stronger and stronger, until it was no longer possible for me to tell even myself that a dentists trip was not required. I booked in. Dosed up on gas, I cried, I screamed, and I whimpered, while they extracted not one, but two rear teeth. The pain will be over soon, I told myself. I will feel better after this and life can go back to normal, I told myself. M held my hand all the way through, and repeated these things to me - you'll feel better once they are out and the abcess is fixed he said.
We were both horribly wrong.
Apparently, dry socket, is a condition that only occurs in about 5% of cases after a tooth extraction. We all know how much I love to beat the odds though eh? And I am here to tell you - Dry socket is, without a single doubt, the most unbelievably painful thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. And nothing touches the pain. Not antibiotics, not painkillers, not moaning, not rubbing, not anything. So, two days after the extraction, after many fantasies of throwing myself under a bus, to the dentist I returned to have the dry socket fixed. Five minutes, no worries they said. Fix it straight away they said. What they neglected to mention was this - dry socket is actually caused by the failure of the gum to close over the extraction site, or the dislodgement of the blood clot that normally forms there, exposing the jaw bone which is raw from having a tooth pulled out of it. The bone is exposed to air, food, drink and whatever else you suck in through your mouth and so is very very sensitive. The only way in which they can fix it, is indeed, five minutes work - which involves scraping and sucking out any infection in the gum cavity, with the use of air, water, and a hook. They then re pack the extraction site with something that smells like cloves, and looks exactly like wet chewing tobacco. All that, with no anasthetic.
So that happenned yesterday, and today it looks like I will have to go back and have the procedure repeated because I am still in more pain than I, by rights, should be. Cheers. Thrilled about that. I just want the pain to end, because I have had enough of being in agony all the time. I'd like to go back to normal now, thankyou very much. I've been in agony now for two weeks, non stop, first with broken teeth and an abcess the size of a walnut underneath them, then with having said teeth removed, leaving me with a gaping bleeding hole in my mouth, followed by some bizzarre condition which leaves bone exposed for gods sake. I feel like I have been to hell and back AND I've paid about 400 bucks for the priveledge. Can I just say at this point, WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THAT?
Also, in other news, spidermonkey must now be growing out rather than up - judging by the rib pain I have woken up with twice now, there is no further room for it to go up, and it now must go out, apparently taking my rib bones with it. I am watching all the changes going on in my body with interest, and it seems to be one big adventure to me, truly it does. I like to read up on things, not so I can be prepared per se, but because I find it all so interesting. But I can't say I saw that rib pain coming. I knew rib pain could happen, but for some reason I didn't see any cause for it until about 36 weeks. But, I was wrong. After an hour of ouchies this morning, it seems to have moved a little further down again and relieved the pressure somewhat which is a good'un. I'm pretty sure there will soon be nowhere else to go though, but thats ok. It's all part of growing :) I am thoroughly amazed to find myself at 30 weeks. Eeeek!
And on that note, I shall be off to forage for food, or basically anything that can be sucked through a straw.
30 weeks and 1 day
