TTK Ciar's Journal: Happy Fucking HOLIDAY OF PAIN

ARRRRRRRRGH

About two months ago I had my wisdom teeth extracted. A month later, my right jawbone emerged from my gums. Apparently this happens sometimes, when the gums shrink faster than the healing jawbone. It was painful, but I got through it.

Three days ago, the same thing started happening on the left side. "Oh, I know what this is, I'll get through it" I said to myself, and took ibupofen to control the pain, like last time. Yesterday the jawbone emerged, and the pain became too intense for ibuprofen to suppress, and I moved up to ibuprofen and anbesol (a benzocaine product, targetted at OTC topical oral anasthetic application), which was sufficient (if barely). This morning, I woke up to excruciating, unending pain. About half an inch of jaw emerged, and the pain became so intense as to be unbearable, despite everything I tried -- salt/listerine washes, icing, anbesol, ibuprofen, whatever. It wasn't just the emerging jawbone, it was also the entire socket just forward of the socket where the wisdom tooth had been removed. On a scale of one to ten, with "ten" being the worst pain I've experienced, this was a "nine". Around 1997, I had a really bad ear/nose/throat bacterial infection, and one of the medicines they gave me was codeine. I had a bad reaction to the codeine, resulting in intense waves of pain wracking my entire body, leaving me screaming and writhing on the floor for about an hour. That was "ten". This morning wasn't quite that bad, but it left me casting about in a borderline panic, wondering what I could do to fix it. (cutting a slit over the bone? finding the nerve and severing it? searing the entire area with a soldering iron? yanking the tooth with pliers?)

Normally, one fioracet is enough to leave me with no pain, suspended in a dreamy haze for about an hour, before dropping me into blissful unconsciousness. They're what cobalt takes for her migraines. Well, four fioracet later the morning's pain was reduced to tolerable levels. Cobalt chased down the chain of dentists and oral surgeons, who kept referring to each other (of all the reasons to loathe the christmas season, all of the nation's professionals taking their vacations all at once ranks way up there) and finally got ahold of Dr. Louie, the guy who extracted my wisdom teeth in the first place. He could squeeze me in tomorrow, to remove the emerging bone (and maybe give me a topical, oh please oh please). In the meantime, he said, fioracet was a good idea (he called in a subscription for me, which is nice because cobalt doesn't have many). So I'm drugged to the gills on fioracet ("blue pills") until then.

Thanks for putting up with my bitching. I really needed a way to vent my frustration. I took another four fioracet a little while ago, and my eyes are having trouble focussing, so I'll stop here. I will say that cobalt has been remarkably understanding and caring. She's been really good to me, and I'm grateful.

Merry @#$%^* Christmas. This season sucked for many reasons, which I'll address in another journal entry, but this topped the cake. I hope the rest of y'all had a better one.

-- TTK