Ouch

So, I had my oral surgery done yesterday. The office near us didn't have any openings, so I had to go to the one in Worthington about 20 minutes from here. J took a half day off work to take me because I was having severe anxiety and nausea at the thought of going. It's not that I'm afraid of pain so much. I mean, I had two children without any pain medication, so I feel that I have a pretty high tolerance. And as a former drug addict (that's a story for another time) I have absolutely no fear of needles. It's having people's hands in my mouth that bothers me. I have severe asthma and have trouble breathing normally, so when someone's hand, along with a drill, and a saliva sucker are all in my mouth at once I feel as though I am suffocating and tend to start hyperventilating.

When I got to the office it as just a huge brick building without any signs or indication fro the outside that I was at the right place. So, I went inside and suddenly found myself in a Parisian street scene, complete with a cobblestone street, antique lamp posts, windows with shutters and vines growing up the walls, and park benches. I LOVE when places are decorated inside to look as though you are outside. It makes me strangely happy. I was kicking myself for not having my camera with me. But then, I came back to my senses and remembered what I was there for. So, after filling out a bunch of paperwork they took me back to the surgery room where I nervously told the dental assistant that I am 7'8 feet tall after asking for my height and weight. I have no idea why I said that number.. I just blurted it out and she looked at me all funny, so I had to pull myself together and correct my answer. Finally the surgeon came in and stuck a needle in my gums 3 times and then later one more.. for good measure, I guess. After that i was doing pretty good until he brought out the drill. The sound combined with the vibrations makes me want to scream and I found myself starting to breath rapidly, so I tried to calm myself by thinking about things like..

"I wonder how much money he makes? I wonder how big his house his? I wonder who lives in the house across the street with the Vineyard sign in their yard? Worthington is really pretty, I wonder how much it would cost to rent a house here? Maybe I should learn to paint murals of street scenes. How could I train real vines to grow up indoor walls? Maybe we need to move into a loft with brick interior walls, they might cling easier that way. Worthington seems as though it should have cobblestone streets and horse drawn carriages. I miss living in Granville. I'm sad that Amy Butler and I never became best friends. I wonder if they still have that Amy Butler Easter gift basket at Michael's I hinted to J about buying me. We haven't done any Easter activities this week. When are we going to find time to decoupage eggs? I need to clean the house before my mom comes to visit. Is cleaning considered exercise?" And then the next thing I know he is stitching up my gums and doing it so quickly and effortlessly as though he's just tying his shoe. Then it was over. Wow, that was not so bad.

J had to go pick up A from school before coming back to get me, so I had a bit of a wait ahead of me. I wanted to go explore Worthington on foot and enjoy the sunshine, but I was told specifically to rest for the entire day and not do any exercise. So, instead I sat on one of the Parisian park benches and dreamed that I was on vacation somewhere. I have been reading this amazing memoir recently called, "Eat, pray, love". I'm sure you have heard of it, it is a New York Time's bestseller. I don't usually read those Oprah bookclub-ish type books and I am usually pretty out of the loop when it comes to new releases.. but I stumbled across this one the other day at the library and thought it sounded interesting.. and then when I saw that my favorite author, Anne Lamott praised it, I knew it had to be good. Wow, though! I can not stop reading it! What's neat too is that not long ago I was telling J that I wanted to learn Italian. Not for any real reason except that it is such a beautiful language and I one day hope to visit Reggio Emilia. So, the first section of the book is about her time spent in Rome, learning to speak Italian, and now I am even more inspired! Anyway.. where in the world was I anyhow..

So, I'm all good and numb. But I am a bit worried about the numbness beginning to wear off. I am allergic to all of the pain medicine the surgeon tried to prescribe me and had to settle for 800 mg of Motrin. By the time J came to pick me up the kids were starving and wanted to go directly home. I wanted to stop and get my prescription first, but they were dramatically dying of starvation in the backseat, so we waited. And then the pain began to hit me. I'm talking grit your teeth, it hurts too bad to cry, curl up in a ball in the bathtub kind of pain (that's exactly what I was doing) and J still had not even put my prescription in, let alone went to get it. I've had a lot of dental work done in my life. I've had many root canals and went through the pain of braces for years (and eventually need to have my re-straightened again). But, I have NEVER experience tooth pain like this.. so I decided to use the distraction technique again. Now I'm in the bathtub with a bag of frozen corn pressed to my face and am texting and reading all at once. Finally J came back with my prescription and eventually the medicine started sucking the pain away and I began to feel as though I were floating.. or flying. I spent most of the evening and bed, but then later that night the pain came back along with nausea and dizziness. My tooth had been bleeding for about 12 hours straight and didn't seem to be letting up, and I became incredibly light headed and queasy as a result. Finally after a fitful sleepless night of pain I fell asleep sometime this morning and J went into work a little late to let me rest for a few hours. This morning I had coffee for the first time in several months and am feeling a bit cracked out now (if you can't tell from this super long rant). I have so much I needed to get done today before my mom comes to visit tomorrow, but at this point I'll be lucky if I stay awake until noon. I do have to get E to his hair appointment soon though at least.. God forbid my mom let him go to Easter service with a mullet. :)

Anyway.. I am hoping to write the original blog I had planned for today this evening on Easter Boxes! It will hopefully be a much more uplifting and inspiration post than this one. Please forgive me in advance though if I end up crashing before then.