On my last blog post about the tutu I wore at the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll half marathon, Caanan @ No Vacation Required left a comment saying I'm brave.
Well, some days, I don't feel very brave. In fact, for the past 2+ months, I've felt more like a big coward.
I'll try to spare you the super long story, but the not-so-long story is that about 3 months ago, I started experiencing tooth pain. I'm a pretty healthy person and have, historically, never really had any major issues (teeth or otherwise).
As it turns out, I got an infection (in my mouth!) because I have what the dentist calls a "deep pocket." About 6 dental x-rays and a visit to a periodontist later, it turns out the infection was mostly caused because of an impacted wisdom tooth. (For those who've never had one of those, it basically means 1 tooth is growing into another tooth.) The dentist recommended that the impacted wisdom tooth be removed and that bone grafting may even be necessary to "fill the gap" (to help with the deep pocket issue).
Anyway due to a scheduling issue, I wasn't able to actually get an appointment for the "extraction" any time soon. So I had to wait. 2+ months.
But I used those 2 months wisely! (haha) By spending nearly every waking moment worrying about the appointment and going back and forth on whether I should cancel it. (After all, who's to say if it would ever get infected again and if it did, how soon? At least that's how I rationalized it to myself.)
My appointment was yesterday, and all of my thoughts this entire week were pretty consumed by even more intense worries about the procedure. It's pretty safe to say that the whole thing caused me a lot of anxiety and that I did not feel brave -- at all. In fact, some might say I acted like a big baby.
But I didn't let myself cancel the appointment! (even though I wanted to like a million times)
All in all everything went smoothly. It did take a couple of hours, but to be honest, I didn't really notice how much time had passed (thank you, nitrous). After everything was over, the dentist showed me the extracted tooth which I guess was no different from any other tooth I'd pulled out when I was a young child...just maybe a little bigger.
And now I'm just taking it easy. Soft foods are my best friends. So far, I haven't experienced too much pain (which is great), and my understanding is that the pain should start to subside after a couple of days.
My biggest problem at this point is that I can't get out and run (or do any exercise for that matter), so my race training is on hold for at least the next 1 week (if not longer).
Incidentally, one of my regular readers keeps asking for more photos in my blog posts. As much as I'd like to accommodate that request, I kind of felt like this particular blog post just wasn't the right opportunity. So...for those of you who like pictures, I hope this goofy little tooth is good enough.
Well, some days, I don't feel very brave. In fact, for the past 2+ months, I've felt more like a big coward.
I'll try to spare you the super long story, but the not-so-long story is that about 3 months ago, I started experiencing tooth pain. I'm a pretty healthy person and have, historically, never really had any major issues (teeth or otherwise).
 |
| Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Anyway due to a scheduling issue, I wasn't able to actually get an appointment for the "extraction" any time soon. So I had to wait. 2+ months.
But I used those 2 months wisely! (haha) By spending nearly every waking moment worrying about the appointment and going back and forth on whether I should cancel it. (After all, who's to say if it would ever get infected again and if it did, how soon? At least that's how I rationalized it to myself.)
My appointment was yesterday, and all of my thoughts this entire week were pretty consumed by even more intense worries about the procedure. It's pretty safe to say that the whole thing caused me a lot of anxiety and that I did not feel brave -- at all. In fact, some might say I acted like a big baby.
But I didn't let myself cancel the appointment! (even though I wanted to like a million times)
All in all everything went smoothly. It did take a couple of hours, but to be honest, I didn't really notice how much time had passed (thank you, nitrous). After everything was over, the dentist showed me the extracted tooth which I guess was no different from any other tooth I'd pulled out when I was a young child...just maybe a little bigger.
And now I'm just taking it easy. Soft foods are my best friends. So far, I haven't experienced too much pain (which is great), and my understanding is that the pain should start to subside after a couple of days.
My biggest problem at this point is that I can't get out and run (or do any exercise for that matter), so my race training is on hold for at least the next 1 week (if not longer).
Incidentally, one of my regular readers keeps asking for more photos in my blog posts. As much as I'd like to accommodate that request, I kind of felt like this particular blog post just wasn't the right opportunity. So...for those of you who like pictures, I hope this goofy little tooth is good enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment