I skipped blogging yesterday, and as everything in life is a choice, I guess I chose to skip. Last Thursday, tooth of my teeth started to ache — one top and one bottom on the right hand side of my mouth. They were directly above each other, and I thought maybe I had just bit into something wrong and didn’t remember scratching or burning myself. It was a little tender Friday and Saturday, by Sunday I knew that wasn’t the problem. My dentist is closed Monday so I reached out today. With limited capacity during COVID, he can look at it next WEDNESDAY and maybe do something in December. I would say on a scale of 1-10, where 10 has me pulling out my own teeth with a pair of pliers or a string on a doorknob, I probably went to 7 last night. Sunday night was a crapfest for sleeping, but by the time I fell asleep last night, I was so tired, I slept fine until this morning. I was worried about a 3-hour meeting I was running this morning, and an event I have scheduled for Thursday, but when I called their office today, I was initially only about a 4 on the pain meter.

For those who have had tooth pain before, you know why in movies they always go for the teeth in torture scenes. It’s raw, it’s visceral, there is no way to block the pain receptors from firing in your head, they’re already IN your head. You can’t even clench your teeth to get through it, it only makes it worse. On a scale of 1-10, experts online suggest that while it feels like the dial goes to 20, the reality is that it probably only gets to 6 or 7. Last night, I was in the 7 range by perception, and it wiped me out. So much so, I never even thought about blogging my daily choice.

Tonight I have antibiotics and hoping they plus Advil will reduce the inflammation but when I started dinner tonight, it was a sh** show. I tore a piece of bread crust and tried eating a piece that would starve a bird, and my mouth lit up like it was on fire. I was starving and didn’t see a way to eat other than shakes, and I really wanted the texture sensation. I realized I wasn’t setting a very good example for Jacob sitting there, the pain was overwhelming me, but I managed to suck it up for the first 10 pangs or so and by the time that I hit the 10 spot about the 10th time, it started to numb enough to get through dinner. By the time I finished, I actually felt okay. WTF?

Anyway, downstairs to nap my way through the night, and I did okay for a few hours. Then at 11:00 p.m., I must have nudged the sore tooth in my dozed state as I suddenly was WIDE-AWAKE and in pain. I have some calls to make in the morning for potential emergency dental work in the city, I don’t really see an alternative. I know the antibiotic is supposed to reduce everything, and maybe by the morning it will get there, but right now, I’m hitting an 8. Every little while I hit 9 and I have tears streaming down my face.

I confess I haven’t experienced this kind of dental pain before, it’s definitely not normal. I also now know why it is so all-encompassing, it is the pain-that-can’t-be-ignored. Overall, as they say, I’d rather be in Buffalo.

Today I choose to give into pain. I don’t know that I feel like I have a choice, but I’m not finding a way around it either. I still managed to blog but that’s about it.

What choices are you making?